ST. JOHN'S — A judge has ordered parishioners in southeastern Newfoundland to hand over their church so it can be sold to pay survivors of sexual abuse.
In a decision dated Wednesday, provincial Supreme Court Justice Garrett Handrigan says the parishioners essentially took the law into their own hands when they seized control of the Holy Rosary Church in Portugal Cove South, N.L., last year.
His written decision grants a permanent injunction against the residents of the town, ordering them to return control of the building to the Roman Catholic archdiocese in St. John's, “and to allow some normalcy to prevail.”
“Changing the locks on the doors and warning people to stay away are not merely acts of defiance or elements of civil disobedience, they are breaches of the peace,” Handrigan wrote.
The archdiocese — referred to in court documents as the Roman Catholic Episcopal Corporation of St. John's — has been selling off its assets across eastern Newfoundland as part of bankruptcy proceedings to compensate survivors of abuse at the former Mount Cashel orphanage, which was run by the Christian Brothers, a lay order of the Roman Catholic Church.
A Supreme Court of Canada decision in 2021 cemented the archdiocese's liability for physical and sexual abuse at the orphanage between the 1940s and the 1960s.
More than 300 people have come forward to file claims, and settlements are expected to total about $150 million.
In a court hearing earlier this month, a lawyer for the group of parishioners — called the Portugal Cove South Historical Corporation — argued the organization reasonably believed it owned the church. The group had taken on its repairs about a decade ago.
But Handrigan's decision declared that the archdiocese owns the church and has a right to sell it. A potential buyer had been found last year, but the judge said it was "fair to say" the historical corporation's actions caused the sale to fall through.
"I accept that the residents are disappointed at how events have evolved in the archdiocese in the last few years," Handrigan wrote. "The (archdiocese) is not acting of its own volition but is simply following the directions of this court, which require it to generate as much money as possible from all of its assets."
At a hearing earlier this month, Cynthia Power with the Portugal Cove South Historical Corporation told reporters the group would obey any order Handrigan made in the case.
"That's who we are as a people, of course we will abide by a court decision," she said.
Portugal Cove South is a fishing community about 100 kilometres southwest of St. John's, and it is home to about 85 people.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 22, 2025.
Sarah Smellie, The Canadian Press
