Copyright buffalonews
State Supreme Court Justice John J. DelMonte on Friday dismissed two lawsuits brought by Catholic parishioners who wanted a court order blocking their parishes from contributing to a $150 million settlement with child sex abuse victims. DelMonte ruled that he doesn’t have jurisdiction to intervene in the internal workings of the Catholic Church, and he agreed with lawyers for the Buffalo Diocese who had argued that state court involvement in this case would have been an infringement on religious rights guaranteed under the First Amendment. "We are pleased that Judge Delmonte has concluded that the Bishop of the Diocese of Buffalo, indeed, maintains the authority for decisions that clearly involve matters specific to the operations of parishes and broader considerations that bear on the Catholic Church of Western New York," diocese spokesman Greg Tucker said in an emailed statement. DelMonte cited multiple previous court rulings, including a 1976 U.S. Supreme Court decision stating that the Constitution forbids court meddling into “controversies where the disagreement, at its core, is one of religious doctrine, practice and organization.” Seven parishioners from five churches sued the diocese in July, seeking to prevent the diocese from using parish funds toward a $150 million settlement with child sex abuse survivors. James I. Myers and John Flaherty, attorneys for the parishioners, asked DelMonte for a temporary restraining order and a preliminary injunction to prevent pastors of the five parishes from paying into the settlement until the Vatican ruled on whether the churches should stay open. Myers and Flaherty filed a second lawsuit less than two weeks later with five plaintiff parishioners from four other parishes, asking the court for similar relief. Diocese officials said they need $80 million from the unrestricted cash and savings accounts of its 160 parishes to help fulfill an agreement in principle with the Official Committee of Unsecured Creditors, which represents nearly 900 child sex abuse claimants. The deal, agreed to in April, is a major step toward the diocese’s efforts to exit Chapter 11 bankruptcy. DelMonte said the plaintiffs could resubmit their case if they find any new opinions from state Appellate Court that would “demonstrate a change in the law of the precedential authority cited herein.” Mary Pruski, a spokeswoman for Save Our Buffalo Churches, a grassroots movement of Catholics working to stave off parish mergers and church closures, said the group of parishioners who brought the two lawsuits will likely convene next week to consider their options, including a possible appeal. “We’re going to work together and decide, ‘Do we want to take it further?’” she said. The diocese’s lawyers had warned that a court order blocking parishes from contributing to the sex abuse settlement could imperil the $150 million deal and expose parishes to jury verdicts that would wipe them out. If the settlement agreement between the diocese and the creditors committee fell apart because of a lawsuit brought by a handful of Catholic parishioners, it would have a “devastating impact” on the entire Catholic Church in Western New York, attorney Charles Sullivan told DelMonte at a court hearing in August. Myers and Flaherty argued the parishioners needed the preliminary injunction simply to allow for more time for the Vatican to either confirm or overrule Bishop Michael W. Fisher’s decisions to merge their parishes. The parishioners were exercising their rights to appeal the bishop’s merger decrees, but by taking 80% of the merging parishes’ unrestricted savings for the settlement, the bishop was causing irreparable harm to those parishes before the Vatican had a chance to rule on the appeals, the lawyers said.
