WORCESTER (MA)
CBS News
(CBS/AP) BOSTON – A gay couple from Massachusetts is claiming that Roman Catholic Diocese of Worcester refused to sell them a former Catholic retreat center because church officials were concerned they would host gay weddings at the mansion.
James Fairbanks, 59, and Alain Beret, 57, filed suit in Worcester Superior Court for loss of civil rights and dignity and for emotional distress on Monday.
The married couple from Sutton planned to buy Oakhurst, a former Catholic retreat center in Northbridge, and restore it as a place they could live and host a special events business. Oakhurst was also previously used as a “House of Affirmation,” a treatment center for priests with psychological problems, CBS station WBZ-TV in Boston reported.
But the Roman Catholic Diocese of Worcester ended negotiations in June, and the couple alleged they learned why in an email they inadvertently received in which diocesan Chancellor Thomas Sullivan cited concern “about the potentiality of gay marriages there.”
“If you want from your pulpit to tell your congregants that you are against gay marriage, you have that right. But you don’t have the right to chase me down the street with that,” Beret told CBS radio station WBZ 1030 in Boston. …
But James G. Reardon Jr., an attorney for the diocese, said the diocese stopped negotiations over concerns about whether the buyers could finance the purchase. The email refers only to the possibility of gay weddings being held at the site, not the couple’s sexual orientation, which Reardon said never came up during negotiations.
“It wasn’t a case of discriminating against gay people. We didn’t even know they were gay,” Reardon said.
Reardon said the buyers’ initial financing fell through, and they proposed carving out a 5-acre portion of the property for purchase. But that “made no economic sense to us,” Reardon said, citing various associated costs, including surveying and plot-planning.
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