ST. LOUIS — The Vatican sided with the Archdiocese of St. Louis in its decision to close St. Roch and merge the parish with another as part of the "All Things New" restructuring plan.
According to a news release from the archdiocese on Tuesday, the Vatican's Dicastery for the Clergy rejected the petition to keep the church open. The decision upholds the archdiocese's plan, which called for the church to be "subsumed by Christ the King parish." Christ the King is in University City and is about a 10-minute drive from St. Roch.
St. Roch was one of more than a dozen catholic churches that appealed Archbishop Rozanski's decision to reduce the number of parishes in St. Louis from 178 to 134.
“St. Roch has been such a pillar of the community for so many decades and important to so many people,” St. Roch Parish Council President Mike Stephens said.
However, St. Roch will soon cease existence as a parish as part of Archbishop Rozanski’s All Things New decree.
“I couldn’t believe they would actually lose a center of evangelization and a pillar of our city like St. Roch,” Stephens said.
There were four reasons listed for the closure:
- St. Roch Parish has 295 catholic households.
- In 2013, 261 members of the faithful were present for the celebration of the Most Holy Eucharist on Sunday, but now there are 121 members of the faithful present.
- The parish operated at a financial deficit in each of the past five years, with an aggregate deficit in excess of $1 million for those years, despite receiving grants from the Archdiocese of St. Louis.
- The parish has averaged eight infant baptisms and six funerals annually in the last five years.
“There’s been new energy and vigorous support of our community ever since this decision started to come down,” Stephens said.
Stephens had held out hope that the Vatican would support St. Roch’s petition for hierarchical recourse, which was upheld by the Dicastery of Clergy, in what he calls a shortsighted move.
"The appeal decision focused on numbers,” Stephens said. “How many people are coming to church and how much money we have. It really didn't focus on the community aspects: Our evangelization, diversity, and our role in the community. While we appealed those issues, and asked the Vatican to consider those, they didn't look at it at all.”
“We can remain doing what we’ve been doing,” Stephens said. “We’ve been getting our own priest for a while anyway and operating on our own. Monsignor Turek has said that will continue. That’s good news for us. Our community base will stay right here.”
The following parishes still have appeals active with the Vatican:
- St. Angela Merici
- Our Lady of Sorrows
- St. Bernadette
- St. Martin of Tours
- St. Agnes
- St. Lawrence
- St. Catherine of Alexandria
- St. Paul (Berger)
- St. Francis of Assisi (Luebbering)
- St. Barnabas
- St. Matthew the Apostle
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