Court Opinion

ID: 9707381
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 02:10:06.986068+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:22:31.968079
License: Public Domain

*284Kirk, J.
(dissenting) If the opinion did indeed “only interpret the by-laws of a Massachusetts corporation which constitute a contract between the members and the Diocese,” I would agree with it. But it does more. It orders the resigned secretary of the Diocese, an ordained clergyman, to comply with the court’s interpretation of the by-laws. The resigned secretary, it appears, feels duty bound under Canon Law to recognize Stephen Lasko as Bishop. The court’s order to the resigned secretary, it seems to me, (a) is an infringement of his right to be free from direction by civil authority as to how he should act on religious or ecclesiastical matters; and (b) constitutes interference in a controversy which is essentially ecclesiastical in nature. I think the court should stay away from it.