An opinion in a case decided last August by the Common Pleas Court in Philadelphia has just been made available. In re The Greek Orthodox Kathedrikos of Saint George (Aug. 22, 2005) involved a claim that eight members of the St George Parish Council were improperly removed as council members and officers of the church. The court found that the selection of the Parish Council is inextricably enmeshed with the issues of the composition of the church hierarchy, and as such may not be reviewed by a civil court where, as here, the highest judicatory authority of that church has ruled on it.
Yesterday's New York Times reports on a decision this week by a New York trial judge permitting the Catholic archdiocese of New York to tear down Manhattan's St. Brigid's church and build residential apartments on the site. Dismissing a challenge brought by a group of former parishioners and the Committee to Save St. Brigid's, Justice Barbara R. Kapnick wrote, "This court finds that it would be an 'impermissible intrusion into Cardinal Egan's ecclesiastical authority to mandate that he use those funds to reopen the building as a church and/or to require him to operate a parish therein."
