Catholic parishioners of Massachusetts are up in arms against their own church leadership—the Archdiocese of Boston—backed by the state's supreme court as they vowed to defy a court ruling asking them to end their 11-year occupation of the St. Frances Xavier Cabrini Church in Scituate.
Massachusetts' Supreme Judicial Court on Wednesday ruled that parishioners who have staged a 24 hours-a-day, seven days-a-week 11-year-long vigil aimed at stopping the closure of their Roman Catholic church are trespassing in violation of state laws, according to the Gospel Herald.
St. Frances Xavier Cabrini Church is the last of six Boston-area churches that parishioners occupied in protest against a 2004 decision by the Archdiocese of Boston to close some 70 churches. The Boston archdiocese was compelled to order the closure as church finances started falling reportedly as a result of the clergy sex abuse scandal that turned off many parishioners and drove them out of their churches.
A group of parishioners has been occupying the 30-acre property in waterfront Scituate, south of Boston, since the church was ordered closed over a decade ago.
Massachusetts top court upheld ruling by a state judge last June that found the parishioners were violating state laws.
"While we acknowledge the defendants' heartfelt beliefs that they are entitled to remain on the premises as an exercise of their freedom of religion, the judge's conclusion that the defendants are trespassers is supported by the evidence," the Supreme Judicial Court ruling said.
The parishioners had argued that they should be considered as the owners of the property since their financial contributions helped build church in the 1960s and maintain it throughout the years when it was open.
"We were told this was our church," Jon Rogers, a leader of the parishioners, said in July when the court heard arguments on the case.
However, the judges found that the parishioners had no right to occupy the property.
Wednesday's decision by Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court was met with anger by the parishioners, according to Reuters.
"We're disappointed," said Jon Rogers, a leader of the vigil."There's a lot of anger in this room." He was joined by about a dozen fellow parishioners mostly in their 60s and 70s.
The Archdiocese of Boston renewed its appeal to the parishioners to abide by the court's ruling and end their occupation.
A liberal-leaning Catholic group sided with the court in denying the parishioners' right to occupy the property. "[The] parishioners don't own the church," said Nick Ingala, a spokesman for Voice of the Faithful, a group formed to promote parishioners' voices after the abuse scandal.
"These people in Scituate have certainly made their voice heard," Ingala said. "It may not have had much of an effect but they have delayed the closure."
Mary Elizabeth Carmody, a lawyer representing the parishioners, said they may appeal the state supreme court's decisions, adding that an appeal has already been filed at the Vatican.
