SHREWSBURY — After hearing pleas from Catholics to save their churches, the Archdiocese of ѿý has proposed new maps showing a consolidation of half of the 178 parishes across the region.
New draft models from 15 geographic planning areas in the “All Things New” reorganization show 88 “pastorates” — groups of one or more parishes that will be served by a single pastor.
The maps show the greatest consolidation of parishes in ѿý city and much of ѿý County while most parishes in Webster Groves, Kirkwood, Valley Park and Eureka would remain intact on their own.
There are three possible structures for each pastorate: a single parish with a resident priest, two or more parishes with independent finances that share a priest or two or more parishes that are merged into one.
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Archdiocese and parish leaders will be charged with deciding how each pastorate with more than one parish is structured, including where and when Sunday Mass will be held. Some of those decisions are expected to be announced on Pentecost Sunday, May 28, when ѿý Archbishop Mitchell Rozanski releases the final plan.
“There are still a lot of question marks,” said Jason Bolte of Save Rome of the West, a group fighting to keep churches open. “It does baffle me if you look at areas like St. Charles and parts of Franklin County where there’s a lot of growth, they’re being hit pretty hard. And then areas that are stagnating growth are being left alone.”
Even parishes that appear untouched on the maps could be affected by losing a priest or combining with other parishes’ ministries including schools, said Father Chris Martin, the archdiocese’s vicar for strategic planning.
The pastorates were created from “the fruit of the feedback we received from the people” on factors like traffic patterns and existing collaborations among parishes, Martin said Wednesday.
“The balance really is about what is the most prudent pastoral care, priest availability and long-term parish viability,” Martin said.
Archbishop Mitchell Rozanski, right, talks with people outside the Cathedral Basilica of Saint Louis after celebrating the "White Mass," an annual mass honoring health care workers, on Sunday, Oct. 16, 2022. Rozanki has served as the archbishop of the Archdiocese of ѿý since 2020.
The first question to be settled is whether the latest parish groupings are the best fit. Then archdiocese leaders will make recommendations for primary worship sites within each pastorate, but the decisions will likely fall with individual priests and their parishioners, Martin said.
Priests have also been told to “expect a significant reassignment in the coming months,” Martin said.
Typically, about 20% of pastors are reassigned annually, Martin said. He did not estimate a percentage of priests that will be moved in the coming months.
Catholics got their first look at possible parish mergers at listening sessions in November. After surveys and feedback from the sessions, the various options were reworked into one draft for each area.
Save Rome of the West after they were leaked by a church leader.
Archdiocesan leaders have said the downsizing is necessary as both the number of Catholic faithful and the priests to serve them have dwindled in recent decades. Projections show there will be 130 priests in 15 years, according to the archdiocese.
Ken Battis, president of Save Our ѿý Parishes, anticipates a “Catholic hunger games” scenario where parishes in each pastorate battle for survival.
“I can’t imagine a more disruptive plan than ‘We’re gonna lock the three of you parishes in the room and whoever comes out standing wins,’” Battis said. “That doesn’t seem Christian to me let alone Catholic or pastoral.”
The latest drafts show a Hispanic parish being established at St. Barnabas in O’Fallon instead of St. Gianna in Wentzville, where parishioners mounted a vigorous opposition to the plan.
Jessie Eisenmann, right, teaches catechesis, a religious instruction class, as her daughter Maggie, second from right, listens along with, from left, Annie Sodemann, Kim Maschek, and her daughter Mary at a home-school co-op at St. Gianna Catholic Church in Wentzville on Friday, Nov. 18, 2022.
Several historic churches near downtown ѿý, including St. Mary of Victories, St. John Nepomuk and Sts. Peter and Paul, will be spared closure.
St. Cecilia with its popular Mexican fish fries in the Carondelet neighborhood of ѿý will not be moved to another church as originally proposed but will remain a Hispanic parish without geographic boundaries.
The 18 parishes in north ѿý County will be combined into six groups and the eight parishes in north ѿý city will go down to three pastorates, with only St. Alphonsus Liguori “the Rock” on north Grand Boulevard standing alone.
Close to 3,000 Catholics from 120 parishes have signed a “procurator mandate” in protest of large-scale parish mergers while preparing for possibilities including civil lawsuits and appeals to Vatican courts through canon, or church law.
Archdiocese leaders said “All Things New” follows canon law and churches will not be closed without “just cause,” which does not include a shortage of priests.
Bolte said Save Rome of the West would continue its work to fight the closure of any church.
“This is God’s sacred holy ground ... you don’t just shut it down,” Bolte said.
Originally posted at 2 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 8.
The ѿý Archdiocese says it must close churches in the area in order to meet the needs of a changing congregation of Roman Catholics.
