A senior Vatican official has criticised Bishop Brian Noble of Shrewsbury over his closure of a well-attended church. Archbishop Mauro Piacenzo, the secretary of the Congregation for Clergy, said the closure of Ss Peter and Paul church in New Brighton, on the Wirral coast, did not fulfil the Code of Canon Law requirement that "the good of souls would not be harmed".
His statement was part of an official ruling after parishioners lodged an appeal with the Congregation for Clergy last year.
Ss Peter and Paul church, known as the "Dome of Home" because it could be seen by sailors out at sea, was closed last August despite protests from parishioners.
The parish was moved to a nearby Anglican church under a temporary church-sharing arrangement.
Archbishop Piacenzo said in his ruling that the diocese had followed correct procedure in closing the church by consulting the parish.
But solicitors who made the complaint on behalf of parishioners said their appeal was upheld by the congregation and therefore the closure was "null and void".
Anthony McKeever, a partner at the law firm BBH, said: "In canon law the decree of closure is inadequate. There isn't any other [outcome] apart from the reopening of the church."
Mr McKeever did not want to disclose the exact wording of the ruling until an agreement about the future of the church had been reached with the diocese.
A spokesman for the diocese, however, refused to comment on whether the church might be re-opened.
Instead he said the ruling confirmed that "the procedures for closing the church of Ss Peter and Paul, New Brighton, were carried out correctly".
He said: "In addition [the diocese] also notes that the primary concern, which it shares, is that the Catholic community should have a permanent place of worship. Everything will be done to achieve this objective."
The Diocese of Shrewsbury can appeal against the Vatican ruling and, if that fails, it can take the case to the Apostolic Signatura, the Church's highest judicial body apart from the Pope.
But according to Mr McKeever the diocese's lawyers, Hague and Lambert, said last year that "our clients reiterate that they will be bound by the decision of the congregation in Rome".
Mr McKeever has asked the diocese, through its lawyers, to clarify whether it will abide by the Vatican ruling and re-open the church.
It is not the first time that the Congregation for Clergy has criticised Bishop Noble over his handling of Ss Peter and Paul parish.
Shortly before the church closed last year Mgr Giovanni Carru, the under-secretary of the congregation, told parishioners in a letter that Bishop Noble had made clear "there are no plans to close the church".
Mgr Carru also said the idea of moving Masses to an Anglican church was "a novel plan" that would "naturally be of concern to this congregation".
The Diocese of Shrewsbury said when it closed Ss Peter and Paul's church that it was too expensive to run and would need more than £800,000 worth of repairs.
The church can seat 650 people but less than half that number attended Sunday Mass in the months before it was closed. It had a congregation of 400 until Mass was moved to the awkward time of 8.30am.
Parishioners have been fiercely opposed to the closure of the church ever since it was first announced in 2007.
In a letter Bishop Noble said diocesan trustees had "taken the decision to close the church in two years' time".
A campaign group was set up called SOUL (Save Our Unique Landmark) which organised a petition with more than 1,000 signatures and sent letters to the bishop, the Vatican and the Prince of Wales.
The group organised its own structural assessment of the church, conducted by Brian Morton, former engineer to Canterbury Cathedral, which concluded that the diocese's projections for repair works were "gross over-estimates".
Mr Morton said in a letter to the bishop: "Had regular maintenance been carried out, even within the confines of parish finances, the building would today be in good condition."
In spring last year the diocesan spokesman said that, in fact, no decision had been made and that Ss Peter and Paul might be kept open after all. Three months later, in August, the church was closed.
A Grade II-listed building, the church was built in the 1930s with money raised by Fr Tom Mullins, known at the time as "the Pope of the Wirral".
Architectural historians have praised its "volume lightness", "lofty interior", and "superb altar, reredos and transept chapels".
One parishioner, Tom Tolond, was present at its first Mass in 1935 as an altar server and at one of its last Masses.
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