The Vatican’s Dicastery for the Clergy has rejected an appeal from St. Lawrence Parish in Lawrenceton, upholding Archbishop Mitchell T. Rozanski’s decree in which St. Lawrence was subsumed by St. Agnes Parish in Bloomsdale on Aug. 1, 2023. Father Ryan Weber serves as pastor of St. Agnes. The court also earlier rejected an appeal from St. Agnes parishioners to stop St. Lawrence Parish from being subsumed.
It is the last appeal to be decided by the dicastery as part of the All Things New strategic planning initiative announced in May 2023. As part of the plan, the Archdiocese of St. Louis has been reshaped from 178 parishes into 139. Thirty-one parishes have been subsumed into neighboring parishes. Additionally, 12 parishes have been merged to create four new parishes. A new personal parish for the Spanish-speaking community in St. Charles County, named St. Juan Diego, also was established.
Parishioners from 17 parishes appealed their decrees to the Vatican dicastery, which upheld the archbishop’s decision on 14 parishes: Blessed Teresa of Calcutta in Ferguson, Our Lady of Sorrows in St. Louis, St. Agnes in Bloomsdale, St. Barnabas in O’Fallon, St. Bernadette in Lemay, St. Catherine of Alexandria in Coffman, St. Elizabeth Mother of John the Baptist in St. Louis, St. Francis of Assisi in Luebbering, St. John Paul II in Affton, St. Lawrence in Lawrenceton, St. Matthew the Apostle in St. Louis, St. Paul in Berger, St. Roch in St. Louis and Sts. Philip and James in River aux Vases.
Archbishop Rozanski’s decision to merge three parishes was overturned by the Vatican: St. Angela Merici in Florissant, St. Martin of Tours in Lemay and St. Richard in Creve Coeur. Those three will remain as separate parishes.
