The Church recently celebrated the Solemnity of Pentecost, commemorating the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the Apostles, the foundation of the Church and the beginning of her mission to all nations and peoples.
The mystery of Pentecost urges us to pray and commit to the mission. The Holy Spirit inspires faith, hope and charity in the hearts of the faithful and ennobles the numerous and varied ways of transmitting the Christian message according to the culture and customs of all times and places. While giving us access to communion with God in prayer, the Holy Spirit also prompts us toward service of our neighbor by encountering him, reconciliation, witness, desire for justice and peace, renewal of outlook, social progress and missionary commitment.
We launched the All Things New strategic pastoral planning process almost two years ago. We prayed to the Holy Spirit for guidance and committed ourselves to this archdiocese’s faithful. An extensive listening process was undertaken in all parishes. I then consulted the archdiocesan Council of Priests regarding every parish under consideration. I then spent time in further prayer, study and discernment. I have reached the following decisions about the archdiocese.
Moving forward, the Archdiocese of St. Louis will be reshaped from 178 individual parishes into 135 parishes. These parishes will be overseen about 90 diocesan pastors and 17 religious order pastors; many will serve more than one parish.
These modifications include 35 parishes being subsumed into neighboring parishes and 15 parishes being merged to create five new parishes. There will be a new personal parish for the Spanish-speaking community in St. Charles County.
Our communities should reevaluate their current pastoral care, social outreach and evangelization efforts to see how they can be refined or reinvented, even those parishes where there is no change to the pastor or parish structure.
Our new vicariate model, with parishes grouped by geographic region, will reinforce this by helping streamline parish support and administration. I am also establishing a new Office of Parish Mission and Vitality to help me oversee these efforts.
Over the next several months, our priests will discern with their people what the best use of our facilities should be. Priority will be given to providing the sacraments and necessary pastoral care to all who live within their boundaries and reimagining what a vibrant, evangelizing parish should look like.
As we pray through these changes, we are all called to work together toward one common mission: to make all things new for the glory of our Risen Lord.
Many parishioners are taking on more responsibility for their faith and service to others. In the past several months, 2,000 parishioners across the archdiocese have participated in our Evangelization 101 series, empowering them to ignite a new spark of evangelization in their parishes.
In St. Louis, we are called today to start a new chapter in our 200-year history. May a new Pentecost set us each ablaze for the Gospel of Christ. I pray that we will work together to forge new pathways and ensure that the treasure of our faith continues to bring healing and hope to a broken world.
May the Holy Spirit guide us.
