ST. LOUIS — The Archdiocese of St. Louis announced Monday that it would be suspending the mergers of several parishes that are appealing their closures to the Vatican.
The "All Things New" restructuring plan goes into effect Tuesday, Aug. 1 and consolidates 178 parishes into 134. The plan includes merging 35 parishes into neighboring parishes and merging 15 parishes to create five new parishes. It will also reassign 158 priests.
Those mergers are now being suspended for several parishes that are appealing their closures to the Vatican after Archbishop Michael Rozanski declined to reverse his decrees.
"Out of respect for each parishioner’s right to this recourse and in keeping with Archbishop Rozanski’s desire to maintain access to the sacraments, we will be suspending the effects of the following All Things New decrees until this process has been exhausted," the Archdiocese said in a statement.
The effects of decrees have been suspended for these parishes:
- St. Angela Merici (Florissant)
- St. Catherine of Alexandria Parish (Coffman)
- St. Francis of Assisi Parish (Luebbering)
- St. Martin of Tours Parish (Lemay)
- St. Matthew the Apostle Parish (St. Louis)
- St. Richard Parish (Creve Coeur)
- St. Roch Parish (St. Louis)
Priest reassignments will continue as planned.
"Because of this suspension, however, incoming pastors for parishes that have announced their intention to seek hierarchical recourse will be directed to do nothing which would prejudice the rights of the parish goods," the Archdiocese said. "In the meantime, the Archdiocese of St. Louis will be making provision for the pastoral care of each parish that is impacted. "
The decrees will be suspended for the listed parishes until the Dicastery for the Clergy makes a decision, which the Archdiocese said will likely take months.
According to the Archdiocese, this is what suspending effects means on a practical level for the parishes:
- Financial accounts should not be closed or merged.
- Finance Councils should not be dissolved or merged.
- Current or interim Mass schedules will not be affected.
- Parish Councils can work together.
- Upcoming school decisions will not be affected.
For many Catholics who have been fighting to keep their parish doors open, like Mike Stephens, this has been an emotional ride.
"We're just a vital component of what happens here in the city," he said.
St. Roch Catholic Church has sat in the Skinker-DeBaliviere neighborhood for more than 100 years.
Stephens said it's a parish that has a "great record of evangelization in the city."
"We have people from all different areas of St. Louis who come to our parish. We're a very integrated parish," he said.
It's the sanctuary, Stephens who is also the Parish Council President, raised his family in.
"We were very disappointed and felt sort of left out of the process," he said.
Stephens' disappointment comes from the Archdiocese's "All Things New" plan, which has his parish merging into Christ the King Parish in University City.
"Given that our parish has been here so long and we're such a dynamic and inclusive parish, we have a lot of people participating in the process," he said.
That process was an appeal. Even though it was denied by the Archbishop, Stephens said they aren't done.
"We have very legitimate and serious issues we've raised with the Vatican. We're a very dynamic and evangelical parish that's been a vital component of the St. Louis Catholic tradition in St Louis, so we think at some point during this process we will catch the attention of reasonable leaders who will see the value of St. Roch to the Catholic community," he said.
St. Roch Catholic Church was one of the many that took their plea to Rome to keep their parish doors open, according to Jason Bolte, Save Rome of the West founder.
"These were communities just like your own that, you know, are about to lose everything that they've known and loved," he said.
Bolte helped five parishes through the appeal process.
"We're trying to put those folks, as many of those folks, in the best position they can to truly save their church and keep it sacred space," he said.
It's even more personal to Bolte, whose own church is impacted by the restructuring.
"That's why I'm here. Took an extra 30 minutes to get here so that I can still go to daily Mass," he said.
While the fight isn't over, these Catholics are holding onto their faith.
"Kind of one of those bittersweet things that you just you have to do what you know is true and what you know you're being called to do and that's exactly what we did," he said.