The running battle between 14 parishioners and the archbishop of their Northwest Side church took a turn toward peace Wednesday in Cook County Circuit Court when a lawsuit against the dissidents was dropped.
The lawsuit was dismissed at the request of Donald Clark, an attorney for Rev. Theodore Rematt, archbishop of the North American Old Roman Catholic Church. It was a gesture of peace in a feud that began over control of church finances three years ago when Rematt became archbishop.
”The archbishop has hoped for a reconciliation and welcomes any and all who come to the church for that purpose,” Clark said.
The 14 parishioners, who include members of four generations of families, have been allowed to worship at the church even though Judge Francis Barth ruled on July 12 that Rematt had the authority to bar them from services, according to attorneys for the dissidents.
Sister Maria Bernadette, staunch foe of Rematt, and another nun have moved out of the convent next to the church at 4200 N. Kedvale Ave. and into an apartment, according to Daniel Starr, one of the dissidents` attorneys.
Rematt fired 66-year-old Sister Maria Bernadette as director of the church`s Little Sisters School for developmentally disabled children in December.
In January, he directed her to move to the Wheaton rectory. When she refused to leave, the archibishop had her served with an eviction notice in February. Sister Maria Bernadette had accused the archbishop of trying to take control of all the churches finances.
The church is not connected to the Roman Catholic Church.
