Judge Grants Parishioners 90 Days for Hail Mary Effort to Save Scituate Church

By Charlotte Wilder
Boston.com
December 21, 2015

http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/2015/12/21/judge-hear-hail-mary-attempt-save-frances-cabrini-church-keep-year-vigil-going/oa4l8xbQIH68grcHNTDFNM/story.html

TheSt. Frances X Cabrini Church in Scituate.

Judge Raymond Brassard of Norfolk Superior Court granted parishioners of St. Frances X Cabrini Church in Scituate a chance to file their case with the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday. The filing with the highest court in America will be the last battle in an 11-year fight to stop the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston from closing their church.

The church hasn’t been empty in over a decade. For 11 years, members of the approximately 100 people who make up the group known as the “Friends of St. Frances X. Cabrini” have kept a constant vigil inside their beloved building to keep it from closing.

The hearing Monday was to consider the parishioners’ emergency motion to suspend any of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston’s future orders to close the church while they work on an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court to save St. Frances.

At the hearing, the church’s lawyer, William Dailey, and the parishioners’ lawyer, Mary Beth Carmody, came to an agreement that will allow the parishioners the 90 days they need to file with the Supreme Court rather than having to leave the premises by January 8. However, if the Supreme Court decides not to hear the parishioners’ case or doesn’t find in their favor, they must give up the fight and vacate the premises within 14 days of the decision.

“I think it was a perfectly acceptable and remarkable, actually,” Carmody said after the hearing. “I think that what it does is it allows the Friends of St. Frances to have their day in court. The last opportunity that they have is with the U.S. Supreme Court. After 11 and a half years in vigil, they deserve that opportunity.”

Dailey said that the church is pleased the matter has been resolved and is acceptable to both parties.

The long fight to save the church began in 2004, when the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston decided to close the doors as a part of its reorganization plan. Archbishop Sean O’Malley said at the time that because of falling numbers of attendees, aging priests, and increasingly expensive maintenance costs, dozens of churches in Massachusetts would close and their congregations would merge with other parishes.

But parishioners don’t think that’s why the archdiocese is closing churches. John Rogers, spokesman for the Friends of St. Frances, said that he believes the church is short on money. He thinks it’s trying to “refill the coffers” after having to pay out settlements related to victims of the sex abuse scandal that broke in the early 2000s following The Boston Globe’s investigation.

In the intervening years since the initial decision to close the church, the parishioners of St. Frances have done everything they can to prevent that from happening, including filing several unsuccessful appeals.

In June 2014, the parishioners lost their appeal to the Apostolic Signatura, the Vatican’s highest court. In February 2015, the Archdiocese sued the group for trespassing when they refused to leave the church. A Norfolk Superior Court judge ordered the parishioners to leave in May, but the group appealed, and have continued their vigil.

In October, however, the state Appeals Court ruled that the Friends of St. Frances were indeed trespassing and ordered them to leave. The court also said that the archdiocese owned the building, giving the Catholic governing body the right to do whatever it wants with the church. The archdiocese then filed a motion requiring the parishioners to leave by January 8.

While the parishioners have one outstanding appeal with another court at the Vatican, they agreed that if they haven’t heard back by the time the Supreme Court makes a decision, they’ll withdraw the appeal in Rome.

Rogers, who says he’ll leave the Catholic church if St. Frances is closed, made it clear that this final shot to save St. Frances isn’t just about St. Frances.

“It’s about all the other Christians out there,” Rogers said, “who for their whole lives [were told] they owned these churches, but the archdiocese is saying, ‘You know what? You don’t own these churches, you pay and pray and obey and we’ll move these properties when we feel it’s right for us.’”