Judge Seeks Additional Information for Mater Dolorosa Ruling

By Ryan Trowbridge
WGGB
January 5, 2012

http://www.wggb.com/2012/01/05/judge-seeks-additional-information-for-mater-dolorosa-ruling/


SPRINGFIELD, Mass. (WGGB) — A Hampden County Superior Court judge has issued an order asking for more information before he rules on a request to remove protestors from a closed Holyoke church.

On Wednesday, the Diocese of Springfield asked Superior Court Judge Cornelius Moriarty to declare that a group of parishoners who have occupied the former Mater Dolorosa Church as trespassers and be ordered removed from the building.

Protestors have been occupying the Holyoke church since the Diocese ordered it closed July 1, 2011. As part of the Diocese's Pastoral Planning Commission, Mater Dolorosa Church merged with Holy Cross Church to create Our Lady of the Cross Parish, which currently worships in the former Holy Cross building.

In a two page order issued Thursday, Superior Court Judge Cornelius Moriarty has ordered the defendants in the case – the protestors – to file additional documentation to support their claim that they should be allowed to remain in the church

Once the protestors file their paperwork, Moriarty says the Diocese then has ten days to file its own set of documentation to support their claim.

Moriarty says that "Given the gravity of the matter before the court," through the additional filings, he would like to "rule on the merits of the matter rather than procedural technicalities."