Diocese of Virginia, Episcopal Church, Other Faith Groups Oppose Attorney General Intervention

http://www.thediocese.net/News_services/pressroom/newsrelease47.html

[The Diocese of Virginia] 18 Jan 2008--Today, The Diocese of Virginia and The Episcopal Church filed their opposition to the motion by Virginia Attorney General Robert McDonnell to intervene in the consolidated church property cases currently being heard in Fairfax Circuit Court by the Hon. Randy I. Bellows.

In stating their opposition, the Diocese and the Church noted that the Commonwealth had failed to meet the requirements that govern intervention in such a dispute and that the state “lacks any right or interest in the subject matter,” namely the property unlawfully occupied by individuals in the CANA breakaway congregations. The Diocese and the Church raised no objections, however, to the Attorney General filing an amicus curiae or friend of the court brief on the matter of the constitutionality of section 57-9 of the Code of Virginia which is at issue at this stage in the case.