Judge puts vacate order for Scituate church on hold

By Jessica Trufant
Wicked Local Scituate
May 24, 2015

http://scituate.wickedlocal.com/article/20150524/NEWS/150527775

SCITUATE – Parishioners who have occupied the closed St. Frances Xavier Cabrini Church in Scituate for more than 10 years will likely gather for at least one more Sunday service after a judge put on hold his order that they leave the church by May 29.

Late Friday afternoon, Judge Edward Leibensperger modified his ruling that the Friends of St. Frances must end their vigil and vacate the Hood Road church by May 29, and instead left the date as undetermined.

The effective date for the injunction barring the parishioners from entering the church will be determined once Leibensperger rules on their request that he suspend the order while they bring their case to the state Court of Appeals.

In order to enforce the May 29 date, Mary Elizabeth Carmody, a lawyer representing the parishioners, said Leibensperger would have to rule on their request before then.

“The judge needs more time, which is understandable,” she said Sunday. “I don’t want to speculate, but I’d assume that (the parishioners) would be able to be there next Sunday.”

If the judge denies the request for a stay Carmody said she will bring the request to the state’s appeals court.

St. Frances was among dozens of Boston-area churches pegged for closure in 2004 as part of a reconfiguration plan designed to shrink the archdiocese’s growing debt.

But the parishioners refused to leave their church, and in October they celebrated 10 years of holding a continuous vigil.

The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston filed a civil suit against the Friends of St. Frances in Norfolk County Superior Court after the parishioners failed to meet a March 9 deadline for leaving the church.

Leibensperger ruled on May 14 that the parishioners were trespassing after hearing arguments from both sides in a one-day bench trial nine days prior.

Carmody said she plans to argue on appeal that Leibensperger’s ruling directly contradicts a similar ruling out of Springfield Superior Court three years ago.

Leibensperger acknowledged that in his decision, but said he “respectfully” disagrees with the Springfield decision. In that case, a judge found that the court did not have the jurisdiction to determine whether parishioners were trespassing in a Holyoke church because the dispute over their right to be there was based on cannon law.

Carmody has said the case is not a “run-of-the-mill property dispute,” and many allegations in the archdiocese’s complaint are based on ecclesiastical and canonical matters.

But at a pretrial hearing in April, Leibensperger said he would not entertain arguments based on canon law because it is out of his jurisdiction. He did not take into consideration the special appeal the Friends say they have at the level of Pontifical council, a legislative arm of the Vatican. Carmody said the council accepted the appeal for review, which is ongoing.

While the archdiocese has considered the church a deconsecrated building since October 2004, parishioners have kept its doors open for nearly 4,000 days with someone inside at all times.

Since the vigil started, several longtime members have taken turns holding a service each Sunday. They use host that has been consecrated by a sympathetic priest whose identity is kept a secret.

Carmody said parishioners in Scituate fear the church would fall into disrepair if they’re forced to leave while the case works its way through the appeal process.

Jon Rogers, a spokesperson for the Friends, said in a statement Friday that the group’s goal has always been to resolve the dispute through “meaningful dialogue,” but the Archdiocese opted to involve the courts.

“The Friends remain open for constructive dialogue with Cardinal Sean O’Malley in effort to facilitate a solution in a Christian manner outside of the courts,” he said.