A Prayer/Rosary Rally was held at St. Paul Church on Sunday, March 25, 2007 at 11:30 am. We enjoyed a sunny spring day with that beautiful view of the Gulf. The rally, our first, was well attended. A special thank you to Marjorie Schroeder for organizing the event! Thanks also to our gracious prayer leaders: Marie Peralta, Marie Niolet, Jenny Lohre, Shirley Schmidt, and Joanne Kinney.
The Rosary Rally is a weekly event held at St. Paul Church Sunday at 10:15 AM. Please come pray with us for our community & church. Bring a lawn chair and a friend. Catholics and non-Catholics are invited.
Memos from Mr. Eric Wooten
August 8, 2007
I am pleased to inform everyone that Judge Ziebert has ruled on our motion to Strike the Affidavit of Bishop Rodi. As previously reported, we asserted that the issues raised by Bishop Rodi were irrelevant to our lawsuit and that the Court should strike the affidavit because the statements therein were not supported by fact and were not probative. Alternatively, if the Court refused to strike the affidavit, we asked the Court to allow us discovery on allegations made by Bishop Rodi in his affidavit. I have emailed a copy of the Court's Order to the webmaster for posting. Hopefully, it will be posted sometime today. Upon review, you will note that the Court found that "not only is Bishop Rodi making conclusory allegations without providing supporting facts based upon personal knowledge, these allegations are not applicable to the issues before this Court." The Court also declared that "The opinions contained in the Affidavit have limited probative value to the issues before the Court." Although, the Court did not strike the affidavit as we requested, he did give us the alternative relief we requested and ordered Defendants to respond to certain specific discovery requests we submitted. Overall, I am pleased with the Order. We have a very attentive Judge, who has taken this matter seriously. He has commented on the emotional nature of our case and the need to reach a resolution as quickly as possible. Hopefully, the Defendants will not slow us down with appeals.
July 29, 2007
I have been asked to update everyone on the status of the lawsuit. Simultaneously with the filing of their Answer and Defenses to our Complaint, the Defendants filed a Motion to Dismiss alleging that the Chancery Court lacked jurisdiction to hear our case. They also attached the Affidavit of Bishop Rodi to their Motion, which makes several allegations. We have submitted discovery requests directed at Bishop Rodi's statements in his affidavit, and their attorneys have objected to responding until after the Court rules on their Motion to Dismiss. In the 17 years I have been practicing law, I have never been asked to accept the other sides testimony as fact, and have always been allowed to cross examine or conduct discovery to ascertain whether the statements at issue are in fact true. We have therefore filed a motion to strike the affidavit of Bishop Rodi and our motion will be heard this Friday at 11:00 a.m., in the Chancery Court in Gulfport. Everyone is welcome to attend, but attendance is not necessary. The date of the hearing of their Motion to Dismiss may change, but right now I believe it is tentatively scheduled for August 27th. Everyone's attendance IS requested for this hearing. I will update everyone on the time and date for the hearing.
*** Our next Rosary Rally will be held on Sunday, August 22, 2010. ***
