Scituate Church Trespassers To Cardinal O'Malley: Show Us Mercy
SCITUATE (CBS/AP) – A group of the parishioners who have held a vigil at their closed church for more than a decade is asking for mercy from Cardinal Sean O'Malley.
The Massachusetts Appeals Court affirmed a judge's ruling Wednesday that parishioners at St. Frances X. Cabrini Church in Scituate are trespassing on property owned by the Archdiocese of Boston.
The archdiocese shut down the church in 2004 as part of a reorganization effort to pay financial settlements in the priest sex abuse crisis. The parishioners have fought the closing by occupying it for 24 hours a day for the last 11 years.
Legally they can continue their fight with a petition that must be filed in the next two weeks.
"So we're reaching out to Sean O'Malley, Cardinal Sean O'Malley. Show us mercy and please meet with us for fair, equitable and faithful resolution," parishioner Maryellen Rogers pleaded at a news conference Thursday.
"This is the last church standing in the reconfiguration crisis. That's very hard to say and we want to make sure that it does stand," said the group's attorney, Mary Beth Carmody.
If the Archdiocese refuses to change its stance, the parishioners claim they will go peacefully.
Nancy Shilts, who helped build the church in 1951, says "It is home, and it's God's home too. He's here, He's still here, and I know He's still here. It's God's house and He allows us to come in here and He's the only one I'm going to obey."
WBZ NewsRadio 1030's Kim Tunnicliffe reports:
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