Closed Church Can Challenge Lifting of Property Tax Exemption

In Boston, a Suffolk Superior Court judge refused to dismiss completely a challenge by the Boston Catholic archdiocese in a property tax case. Today's Quincy (MA) Patriot Ledger reports that assessors removed the tax exemption for St. Frances X. Cabrini Church in Scituate in 2005 because it had been closed (and is occupied by protesters trying to reopen it). The archdiocese argues that it still owns the church, so under canon law it is an exempt "a sacred place designated for divine worship." The court held that the archdiocese could move ahead with its First Amendment challenge as to 2007 taxes, but that it missed the filing deadline to challenge 2006 taxes.