New decrees will pause some aspects of changes while the recourse process is considered in the Vatican
Seven parishes that have appealed to the Vatican their suppression or merger as part of All Things New will receive a new decree suspending the effects of the original decrees announced in May.
Those parishes are St. Angela Merici in Florissant, St. Catherine of Alexandria in Coffman, St. Francis of Assisi Parish in Luebbering, St. Martin of Tours in Lemay, St. Matthew the Apostle in St. Louis, St. Richard in Creve Coeur and St. Roch in St. Louis.
The new decrees instruct the pastor, lay leaders and archdiocesan support team to halt any decision that might be difficult to reverse if the Vatican’s Dicastery for Clergy decides against the merging or suppression of a parish.
“As a bishop, I am called to uphold canon law, and in this I am upholding the canonical process that we made very clear was available to people,” Archbishop Mitchell T. Rozanski said. “It’s to respect the process of appeal of my decisions and the canonical process and recourse to Rome.”
During a suspension of effects, the finances of the appealing parish, including bank accounts and finance council, will remain unchanged. Other elements, such as merging parishioner registrations and transferring parish records and archives, also will be put on hold. The decree also prohibits a priest from being installed as the new pastor until the appeal process has concluded.
A parish’s ministry-related activities will continue, including any current or interim Mass schedules; and combining pastoral councils and ministries such as RCIA and youth ministry.
As part of the restructuring of parishes in the Archdiocese of St. Louis, parishes that have undergone some change received a decree noting the changes. Individual parishioners who claim to have been aggrieved by a decree regarding a parish had the right to seek the decree’s revocation or emendation. (A decree is a singular administrative act issued by a diocesan bishop and is required to alter a parish or take other actions as prescribed by canon law.) Those requests were to have been made in writing and postmarked to the archbishop by June 12.
If an individual parishioner receives a response from Archbishop Rozanski with which they disagree, they were invited to pursue recourse in writing within 15 business days from receipt of the letter the archbishop sent to them. Those letters will be forwarded to the Dicastery for the Clergy.
The Archdiocese of St. Louis will be reshaped from 178 parishes into 135, the archbishop announced May 27. Thirty-five parishes will be subsumed, or merged, into neighboring parishes. Additionally, 15 parishes will be merged to create five new parishes. A new personal parish for the Spanish-speaking community in St. Charles County will also be established, named St. Juan Diego. These parishes will be overseen by nearly 90 diocesan pastors and 17 pastors from religious orders.
The new structure was implemented for most parishes beginning Aug. 1.
Learn more
To see the new decrees and a Q&A about the suspension of decrees, pastoral care in the Archdiocese of St. Louis and the practical implications for parishes, visit https://allthingsnew.archstl.org/Decrees-and-Letters and scroll down the page to see the decrees published July 31.
