Court Hearing Pits Mater Dolorosa Parishioners against Catholic Diocese of Springfield

By Stephanie Barry
The Republican
January 4, 2012

http://www.masslive.com/news/index.ssf/2012/01/court_hearing_pits_mater_dolor.html

Lawyers Victor Anop, left, and Peter Stasz, two members of the Friends of Mater Dolorosa, a Holyoke church now occupied by parishioners protesting the closing of the church by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Springfield, appear in Hampden Superior Court on Wednesday in an ongoing dispute wi th the diocese.

January 4, 2012 - Springfield - Republican staff photo by Michael S. Gordon - Attorney John J. Egan, left, representing the Roman Catholic Diocese of Springfield in Hamdpen Superior Court Wednesday against a suit brought by the Friends of Mater Dolorsoa, a Catholic church in Holyoke. Victor Anop, center, and Peter Stasz, right, two members of the Friends of Mater Dolorosa, both lawyers, arguing the case for the protesters.

SPRINGFIELD – Opposing portrayals of protesters holding around-the-clock vigils at the closed Mater Dolorosa church in Holyoke continued in an ongoing court battle in Hampden Superior Court on Wednesday.

Lawyers for the Roman Catholic Diocese of Springfield argued the 100-plus protesters who packed a second-floor courtroom were comparable to "Occupy Boston" squatters recently ejected from Dewey Square, while protesters countered that they are simply exercising their constitutionally protected religious rights.

The Most. Rev. Timothy A. McDonnell, bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Springfield, filed a lawsuit against the protesters in October after they began holding 24/7 prayer vigils since the church closure on June 30.

The crux of the complaint boils down to diocesan officials attempting to enforce a no-trespass order on parishioners, who have refused to go quietly to Our Lady of the Cross, the new, merged parish about a mile from Mater Dolorosa.

Many of the protesters have been longtime members of the largely Polish parish, including the lead attorney for the defendants, Victor M. Anop.

I've belonged to this church for a lifetime. My wife has, too. My grandparents helped pour the foundation for the church," which opened in 1901.

The closure was part of a regional pastoral plan that brought the closures and mergers of dozens of churches since 2000 amid declining membership.

While Judge Cornelius J. Moriarty II suggested that the civil courts may have no place in the midst of a religious dispute, a lawyer for the diocese said the legal battle is no different than any other corporate dispute.

"To hold otherwise would indicate that religious corporations have less rights than other corporations," said Springfield lawyer John J. Egan.

Anop's co-counsel and fellow parishioner, attorney Peter Stasz, told Moriarty the dispute is more rooted in church law than civil law.

"Canon law has everything to do with this, and we have very little to do with Occupy Wall Street," protesters, Stasz told the judge.

The church originally tried to evict the protesters claiming that structural damage in the church posed a hazard, which another Hampden Superior Court judge rejected.

Tensions between the factions ramped up just before Christmas when protesters dusted off the nativity scene and set it up outside the church, prompting diocesan staff to snatch the figurines from the lawn and transport them to the new parish. This yielded a press release from Anop and the protesters that the bishop had absconded with the baby Jesus.

The diocese bristled at the suggestion.

Anop and Stasz also argued at Wednesday's hearing that McDonnell wasn't properly registered with the secretary of state as a successor bishop until mid-December and, as such, had no authority to bring the lawsuit or enforce a trespass order.

Moriarty took the matter under advisement, leaving the protesters free to continue to protest, for the moment, and the diocese to await a potential legal basis to evict them.