The Lourdes Philharmonic Society of Paola have asked the Court not to allow the Paola parish priest to organise the locality's feast.

In a warrant of prohibitory injunction against parish priest Fr Christopher Galea, the society asked the court to keep Fr Galea from organising the external festivities of Our Lady of Lourdes.

These would include the band services, the morning march and the procession with the statue.

The society argued that it wanted to stop the feast because for the past three years it had been excluded from taking part in it as it had done for the past 30 years.

It accused the parish priest of breaching a contract signed in 2007 in which he had agreed to pay the society an agreed sum of money for its services.

The society said that this year, the parish priest had commissioned bands from outside the locality without consulting with the society as he was obliged to do by contract, seriously prejudicing the society’s rights.

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