Vatican reverses St. Louis Archdiocese plan to merge 3 parishes

NEW YORK – Reversing decisions made by Archbishop Mitchell Rozanski almost a year ago, the Vatican ruled this week that it did not find just cause for the Archdiocese of St. Louis to merge three parishes and close one other as part of its restructuring plan.

The Archdiocese of St. Louis announced on May 14 that the Dicastery for the Clergy did not find just cause for the archdiocese to merge St. Angela Merici parish with St. Norbert and Holy Name of Jesus parishes, allowing all three to remain separate parish communities.

In the same announcement, the Archdiocese of St. Louis said that the Dicastery for the Clergy also did not find just cause for St. Martin of Tours parish to be subsumed by St. Mark parish, maintaining both as separate parish communities.

The news comes almost a year after the aforementioned parishes, and several others, appealed to the Vatican to prevent mergers and suppressions approved by Rozanski as part of the archdiocese’s major restructuring plan, known as “All Things New.” In all, Rozanski issued 83 decrees as part of the restructuring plan.

The above decisions, announced on May 14, were only two of the five the archdiocese announced this week. The Vatican sided with Rozanski in the other three.

Also on May 14, the archdiocese announced that in the case of Saint Roch parish the Dicastery for the Clergy rejected the petition for hierarchical recourse, which upholds Rozanski’s decree in which Saint Roch was subsumed by Christ the King parish, effective August 1, 2023.

On May 16, the archdiocese announced the Vatican had made two more decisions.

The archdiocese announced that in the case of St. Francis of Assisi parish the Dicastery for the Clergy rejected the petition for hierarchical recourse, which upholds Rozanski’s decree in which St. Francis of Assisi parish was subsumed by St. Clare parish, effective August 1, 2023.

Similarly, the archdiocese announced that in the case of St. Catherine of Alexandria parish, the Dicastery for the Clergy rejected the petition for hierarchical recourse, which upholds Rozanski’s decree in which St. Catherine of Alexandria parish was subsumed by St. Joseph parish, effective August 1, 2023.

There are now seven parishes with outstanding appeals.

Father Peter Faimega, who leads St. Angela Merici, St. Norbert and Holy Name of Jesus parishes did not respond to a Crux request for comment on the Vatican’s decision to allow all three parishes to remain separate. Later on May 16, Crux received an email from an archdiocesan spokesperson explaining that pastors will not be available for interviews on the appeal decisions.

“Our pastors are focusing on communicating with and attending to their parishioners at this time and are not available for interviews,” the spokesperson said.

Rozanski also declined a Crux request for comment. Back in October, when the Vatican agreed to accept multiple of the appeals and review Rozanski’s decisions he said in a statement that “this is an anticipated part of the ‘All Things New’ pastoral planning process.”

As for “All Things New” in totality, the plan was originally set to close 35 churches by merging them with neighboring parishes, and also merge together 15 other parishes to create five new parishes. It changes, as originally presented, would have left the archdiocese with 44 fewer parishes – from 178 to 134. Even with the appeals and May 14 Vatican decision, the original plan is largely intact.

It will be completed in 2026.

When Rozanski announced the plan last spring, he highlighted that fewer people are attending Mass, and that the parish lines don’t reflect the fact that many Catholics have moved out of the city into the surrounding counties. He said “All Things New” looks to create a sustainable future for the archdiocese.

“As your archbishop, I have the duty to provide for the pastoral care of all people in the archdiocese,” Rozanski said in a video message last spring. “‘All Things New’ has called us to ask ourselves what our parishes, ministries, and institutions need to look like in order to effectively share the faith that is sustainable for our children and generations to come.”

Follow John Lavenburg on X: @johnlavenburg