Group heads to court in battle over closed Catholic church

DEDHAM, Mass. (AP) – Parishioners who’ve been occupying a Roman Catholic church since it closed 11 years ago are heading to court to ask a judge to put their battle with the Boston archdiocese on hold while they ask the U.S. Supreme Court to hear the case.

A Superior Court judge will hold a hearing Monday on a request by parishioners of St. Frances X. Cabrini to suspend a lower court ruling granting an injunction to the archdiocese. The lower court found the parishioners were trespassing.

The highest court in Massachusetts declined to intervene. Parishioners say they’ll ask the U.S. Supreme Court to review the case.

A group of parishioners has occupied the Scituate church since the archdiocese closed it in 2004 as part of a sweeping reorganization following the clergy sex-abuse scandal.