Tribe said that the decision reaffirms the fundamental American view that "churches cannot be given governmental power, coercive power, power to make decisions about lives of people other than their own members."
Susan Kuelzer said that when she first applied for a liquor license, "we saw everybody else getting them [and] we thought we would too.
"So, when we applied and were turned down, we said, O.K. that's not fair."
Between 1971 when Grendel's Den opened and 1976 at least 10 other restaurants near the Holy Cross Church applied for licenses without intervention by church officials, Susan Kuelzer said.
The church spokesman, Rev. Peter V. Conley of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston, said yesterday that the veto issue "has never been a priority item for the Archdiocese of Boston. It has been a matter of one parish addressing its own local problems."
The Kuelzers said they plan to build a bar in the basement portion of the restaurant, an addition which they expect to increase business.