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As I said the other day, the Vatican’s Apostolic Signatura has agreed to hear the appeal of the closing of seven parishes in the Archdiocese of Boston. Some of these parishes have had and continue to have ongoing sit-ins. Unfortunately, some of these people continue to show that they’re not quite up on canon law, by claiming that this means Cardinal Sean O’Malley should reinstate them as parishes. It doesn’t.

Meanwhile, the leader of this effort, Peter Borre of the Council of Parishes, says that the canon law case hinges on trusteeship.

Borre said the legal case hinges on the fact that O’Malley is the trustee, not the owner, of the parishes.

``Under trusteeship law, you cannot act against the interests of the beneficiaries of the trust,” Borre said. ``Parishioners are saying the one thing [O’Malley] cannot do is to act against our interest as parishioners, and by selling off the property of a vibrant, viable parish, you have destroyed us as Catholics.”

If that’s the case, then the appeals are in big trouble, because canon law does not see the relation between a bishop and a parish as one of trusteeship.

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