|
 Massachusetts' Supreme Judicial Court on Wednesday upheld the
ruling of a lower court earlier this year that found that
parishioners of St. Frances Xavier Cabrini did not have the right to
continue to occupy the church and told them to end their vigil.
The Archdiocese of Boston asked the parishioners to abide by the
court's ruling and end their occupation of the church, the last of a
half-dozen parishes that were occupied after church officials in
2004 announced plans to close some 70 parishes as the clergy sex
abuse scandal began to take a heavy toll on church finances.
 A group of parishioners has occupied the 30-acre (12-hectare)
property in waterfront Scituate, south of Boston, continuously since
that time. Representatives for the group said on Wednesday they were
still evaluating their options, which they would discuss with
reporters on Thursday.
They had argued to the court that since parishioners' donations had
paid for the church's construction in the 1960s and maintained it
since, they shared an ownership interest in the property. The court
rejected that argument.
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"That's something people didn't realize until this latest round of
closures, that parishioners don't own the church," said Nick Ingala,
a spokesman for Voice of the Faithful, a liberal-leaning Catholic
group that was formed to promote parishioners' voices in the wake of
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."
(Reporting by Scott Malone; Editing by Eric Walsh)
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