Parishioners Given Time to Dispute Church Closing

Parishioners occupying a Massachusetts church for over a decade have been granted time to appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.

A Norfolk Superior Court judge on Monday gave parishioners at St. Frances X. Cabrini until March 3 to file a petition to the nation's highest court, according to Mary Elizabeth Carmody, the group's lawyer.

The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston has agreed to let the parishioners remain in the Scituate church until the Supreme Court decides one way or the other. Protesters have agreed to vacate the church within 14 days if the court declines to take the case, Carmody says.

The group wants the Supreme Court to review the case after a state judge declared the parishioners trespassers for occupying the church since the archdiocese closed it in 2004.