Scituate Parishioners Eye Options after Losing Another Appeal to Stay
By Brian Dowling
Parishioners at St. Frances X. Cabrini Church in Scituate said they will decide tomorrow how to respond to losing their appeal to keep their vigil — considering every “peaceful” option from a hunger strike to an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court. “We are going to take the good ideas and take the bad ideas,” said Jon Rogers, a spokesman for the parishioners who have occupied the church for 11 years. “Everything peaceful and prayerful is on the table.” The parishioners have been asking Boston Cardinal Sean P. O’Malley to visit and understand their opposition to closing the church to replenish the Archdiocese of Boston’s coffers that were drained by the sex abuse scandal and the outflow of people from the pews. The state Supreme Judicial Court rejected the group’s appeal to stay in the church yesterday. “I’m a little angry,” Rogers said. “The archdiocese’s response has been to close the church and sell it off — in essence stealing the place of worship and selling it to the highest bidder.” He said he has heard some at the church talk of a hunger strike, with others thinking about splitting the church from the Roman Catholic Church. Rogers’ preference: “It would go all the way to the Supreme Court of the United States.” Terrence Donilon, spokesman for the archdiocese, said it has received notice of the court’s decision to not hear the appeal, and it urged the people at St. Frances to end their vigil “and join in the fullness of parish life” at another church. In May, a Norfolk County Superior Court sided with the archdiocese’s request to evict the parishioners. The group appealed that ruling and lost, then made another appeal and lost again. The case is also under appeal at the Vatican’s Pontifical Council for the Interpretation of Legislative Texts, according to the Friends of St. Frances X. Cabrini
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