MASSACHUSETTS
ABC News
BOSTON — Jun 10, 2015
By PHILIP MARCELO Associated Press
Parishioners illegally occupying a long-closed Roman Catholic church were issued a reprieve Wednesday after a judge ruled they could continue their round-the-clock vigil while they appeal a lower court decision that ordered them to vacate.
Mary Elizabeth Carmody, the lawyer for the Friends of St. Frances X. Cabrini Church, said she was surprised how quick the decision was but added that the key test was still to come. A three-panel judge will next consider their bid to have the order declaring them trespassers thrown out altogether, she said. Arguments in that case will come at a later date.
“It’s a relief,” Carmody said late Wednesday. “But it doesn’t surprise me, based on the judge’s comments in court.”
Earlier Wednesday, Associate Justice Judd Carhart heard arguments in a brief hearing packed with protesters.
Carmody argued that a lower court judge had made “several, consistent” legal errors and “abused” his discretion when he considered the Archdiocese of Boston’s petition to remove the protesters from the property.
The protesters say the judge, among other things, wrongly denied their request for a jury trial and did not consider their primary arguments, which were largely focused on church law.
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