Thursday, 4:30 PM
Ousted parishioners appeal to higher power
By Charles A. Radin, GLOBE STAFF
Attorneys for parishioners of St. James the Great Church in Wellesley appealed Thursday to the Supreme Judicial Court to allow a jury to decide whether the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston is entitled to keep the property and other parish assets following Cardinal Sean P. O’Malley’s decision to close the church.
The parishioners suing the archbishop are members of the family of James Maffei, in whose memory they gave money and sold land to the archdiocese below cost, contributions that enabled the archdiocese to construct the church.
They assert that the priest who encouraged them in those church-building efforts promised the church would continue on the site in perpetuity. That constituted a trust arrangement, the Maffeis argue, and O’Malley therefore does not have the right to claim the closed church’s assets for the archdiocese or disperse those assets to other parishes.
The case was thrown out by a Suffolk Superior Court judge in March 2006. Questions and comments raised by the high court justices Thursday suggested that they may not be inclined to overturn that lower court ruling.
"It’s like a buyer and seller" rather than a trust, Justice Judith A. Cowin said of the deal for the land on which the case centers.
Justice John M. Greaney said that even if there were a trust arrangement, "that gets into the relationship between church and parishioners, and courts just don’t get into that."
The proceedings were closely watched by dissident parishioners from other churches the archdiocese is closing, many of who have pending suits arguing that they, not the archdiocese, own the assets of their parishes.
