MASSACHUSETTS
Boston Herald
Parishioners who last week were ordered to leave a closed Scituate Catholic church, where they’ve been holding vigil, by May 29 have won a temporary reprieve as a Norfolk Superior Court judge scratched that date late yesterday, according to the protesters’ attorney.
Mary Beth Carmody, who is representing the Friends of St. Frances Xavier Cabrini Church, said she was notified Judge Edward P. Leibensperger will not determine a new date for the parishioners to leave until he hears a motion to suspend his May 14 decision that Carmody filed Thursday.
“It’s short-term relief, I would call it, for the parishioners,” Carmody said. “They were concerned that this Sunday would be their last Sunday to worship at the church. It looks like this won’t be their last Sunday, though we don’t know how many more Sundays.”
Carmody also filed an appeal of the judge’s decision on Thursday to the state appeals court.
In his May 14 ruling, Leibensperger declared the parishioners were trespassing and had to leave the premises by May 29.
Maryellen Rogers, president of the Friends of St. Frances Xavier Cabrini Church, who have been holding vigil there since it was closed in a parish consolidation in 2004, said they had no choice but to appeal.
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