All Things New update
The Vatican’s Dicastery for the Clergy has rejected an appeal from St. Barnabas in O’Fallon, upholding Archbishop Mitchell T. Rozanski’s decree in which St. Barnabas was subsumed by Assumption Parish in O’Fallon on Aug. 1, 2023. Father Nicholas Kastenholz serves as pastor of Assumption.
As part of All Things New, Archbishop Rozanski also established a new personal parish for the Spanish-speaking community in St. Charles, Lincoln and Warren counties, named St. Juan Diego. That parish is based on the former St. Barnabas campus. Father Eric Olson serves as pastor.
The faithful of the following parishes appealed suppressions or mergers and are still awaiting a decision from the Vatican: Our Lady of Sorrows in St. Louis, St. Bernadette in Lemay, St. Agnes in Bloomsdale, St. Lawrence in Lawrenceton, St. Paul in Berger and St. Matthew the Apostle in St. Louis.
David Hosier executed
David Hosier was executed by the state of Missouri on June 11 at the Eastern Reception, Diagnostic and Correctional Center in Bonne Terre. He died by lethal injection at 6:11 p.m., according to the Associated Press. Hosier was convicted of first-degree murder for the 2009 killing of Angela Gilpin in Jefferson City.
The Missouri bishops, through the Missouri Catholic Conference, submitted a letter to Gov. Mike Parson requesting clemency for Hosier, but the governor denied it. According to the Catechism of the Catholic Church, “the Church teaches, in light of the Gospel, that ‘the death penalty is inadmissible because it is an attack on the inviolability and the dignity of the person,’ and she works with determination for its abolition worldwide” (CCC 2267).
Missouri has set an execution date of Sept. 24 for Marcellus Williams. Williams was sentenced to death for the 1998 killing Felicia Gayle. An execution date for Williams was set for 2017, but then-Gov. Eric Greitens stayed the execution after new DNA testing of the murder weapon, not available at the time of Williams’ trial, found a male DNA profile inconsistent with Williams. Gov. Greitens ordered further investigation by an inquiry board of five judges, but Gov. Mike Parson dissolved the board in June 2023 without it reaching any conclusion. St. Louis Prosecuting Attorney Wesley Bell in January filed a motion to vacate Williams’ murder conviction, based on a 2021 Missouri law that allows prosecuting attorneys to file a motion to vacate a conviction if they believe the inmate could be innocent or was otherwise wrongfully convicted. A hearing date on Bell’s motion has not been set.
Fiat Women’s Group
Kenrick-Glennon Seminary will host two sessions of the Fiat Women’s Group on Thursday, June 20, at the seminary, 5200 Glennon Drive in Shrewsbury. Father Jason Schumer, vice-rector of Cardinal Glennon College, will speak at 8:15 a.m. (a Rosary will be prayed at 8 a.m.) in the Chapel of St. Joseph. An additional “Twilight Fiat” will take place at 7 p.m. in the seminary courtyard. (Seating is limited; participants are asked to bring lawn chairs.) There will be time for community and refreshments following both sessions. For more information, email fiat@kenrick.edu.
St. Josemaria Escriva Mass
A Mass celebrating the feast of St. Josemaria Escriva will be celebrated at 5:30 p.m. Wednesday, June 26, at St. Mary Magdalen Church, 2618 S. Brentwood Blvd. in Brentwood. Confessions will be heard beginning at 5 p.m. St. Josemaria Escriva was a Spanish priest who founded Opus Dei, an organization of laypeople and priests dedicated to the teaching that everyone is called to holiness by God and that ordinary life can result in sanctity. His feast day is celebrated on June 26.
