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SHREWSBURY — Roman Catholics from throughout the ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ region are reluctant to cross highways and rivers to worship God in different places than they are accustomed to.

That was one piece of feedback from a group of about 220 priests recently gathered to see dozens of potential ways to restructure parishes in the Archdiocese of ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½.

“It was a great first round of conversation,� the Rev. Christopher Martin, who is helping oversee the “All Things New� initiative, told the Post-Dispatch on Thursday about the five-hour meeting.

For months, Catholic officials have been gathering and analyzing data on the archdiocese, which claims 400,000 members spread across 10 Missouri counties. They say a historic adjustment to the network of churches, schools and ministries is coming to unite a smaller flock that for generations has been moving west from the city of ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ toward St. Charles County.

A path of costly buildings with fewer people in the pews have been left behind, some just blocks apart. Today, St. Joseph in Cottleville is the largest church in the archdiocese, with 18,000 congregants served by three full-time priests. That’s three times the number of registered Catholics in all of north ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½, according to the archdiocese.

“We are competing against each other instead of collaborating,� Martin said of the need to restructure.

Amid ongoing migration and fragmentation, the number of full-time archdiocesan priests is expected to drop from 220 to 130 over the next 15 years, with an average of one priest left to serve 3,000 people. There are currently 178 parishes. Each can include anywhere from one to multiple churches within its geographic footprint. After restructuring, the number of parishes is expected to be cut to about 100, with the average number of families in each parish increasing from 800 to 1,800.

Martin said the archdiocese doesn’t want priests to be circuit riders that serve multiple churches. Some churches will need to close, but Martin assured there isn’t a working master plan. First the reformation of the existing parish networks is needed, he said, which requires feedback.

“There is nothing secretive happening,� he said.

Martin said the 220 priests gathered Aug. 19 were shown 42 options for reconfiguring parishes. He said the archdiocese is split into . Each planning area has anywhere from two to four models for realigning parishes. Martin said the priests in attendance voiced their opinions, submitted 30 pages of written comments and continue to provide feedback that overall has been positive.

Asked for a sampling of their responses, he told the Post-Dispatch:

• There are boundaries that Catholic faith communities historically resisted crossing, like the line between the city of ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ and ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ County; Manchester Road; and the Missouri River between Washington, Missouri, in Franklin County, and smaller communities in St. Charles and Warren counties.

• Concern for taking care of the growing Latino community.

• Consider designating some of the archdiocese “mission territory.�

He said all of their feedback will be used to potentially change or add more parish models to the mix of 42 before showing them to 1,000 lay parish representatives from throughout the archdiocese, starting Sept. 20. After that round of feedback, models will be discussed with the masses during a crush of nightly parish meetings held between Oct. 8 and Nov. 17. The final restructure plan will be announced May 28, on Pentecost, and is expected to take three years to implement.

Asked by the Post-Dispatch about recruiting missionary priests from Africa and other Catholic growth areas of the world, Martin said: “A vibrant Catholic community fosters their own vocations.�

Asked about parish names, Martin said it’s undecided if some existing parishes will retain their names or be changed all together.

“If you are going to make things new it ought to have a new name because that avoids winners and losers, so to speak, in the process,� he said. “The other perspective is, for the sake of stability, you would maintain the current names of some of the parishes.�

Martin said while the “most emotional part of this process� is figuring out school and church structure, it should also be the easiest. He said it’s more difficult to address how to evangelize “entire generations that are walking away from the faith.�

“The church does not exist to run schools, to run hospitals,� he said. “These are all good things that flow from discipleship. If we aren’t making disciples, these institutions will crumble.�

Originally published Aug. 25 evening; in print on Aug. 26.