No Jefferson County parishes will be closed under the recently announced St. Louis Archdiocese restructuring “All Things New” plan, but two Arnold churches are merging to form one parish, and most churches will see their pastors reassigned, with some providing services to two or more churches.
Archbishop Mitchell Rozanski announced the final version of the pastoral planning process May 27. Approximately 70,000 parishioners from across the Archdiocese took part in the process, which took about two years to complete, he said in a written statement.
The plan, which starts to take effect Aug. 1, calls for 178 parishes to be reshaped into 134 parishes. The plan also calls for the closure of 35 parishes and the merger of numerous parishes.
The Archdiocese said the restructuring was needed because of a smaller pool of priests over the past 10 years, a decline in the number of Catholics attending Mass, a shift in where Catholics live and a drop in donations.
The Archdiocese, which covers the city of St. Louis and 10 counties – Jefferson, Ste. Genevieve, St. Francois, Franklin, Lincoln, Perry, St. Charles, St. Louis, Warren and Washington – includes 483,911 Catholics among a general population of 2,259,000.
■ The Immaculate Conception and St. David parishes in Arnold will merge to form one parish, which will be named later. Decisions about how the parishes’ facilities will be used will come later.
■ While Sacred Heart Parish in Crystal City, Our Lady Parish in Festus and Good Shepherd Parish in Hillsboro will remain open, the three parishes will share one pastor.
That one pastor will be the Rev. Michael Boehm, formerly vicar general of the Archdiocese and pastor of St. Francis Borgia in Washington. The Rev. Stephen En Suan Lian, currently pursuing graduate studies, will be associate pastor for the three parishes.
The current pastors at those three churches will move on to new parish assignments.
Sacred Heart’s pastor, the Rev. Saji Mathew Cheruparambil, will become pastor of St. Joseph Parish in Manchester; Our Lady’s pastor, the Rev. Gregory Klump, will become pastor of Sacred Heart Parish in Valley Park; and Good Shepherd’s pastor, the Rev. Ryan Weber, will become pastor of both St. Agnes Parish in Bloomsdale and St. Joseph Parish in Zell.
■ St. Rose of Lima Parish in De Soto will remain a single parish, but it will share a pastor with St. Joseph Parish in Bonne Terre and the St. Anne mission church in French Village.
The current pastor, the Rev. Alexander Anderson, is retiring. He has been a priest for 48 years and has been at St. Rose of Lima since 2008.
He will be replaced by the Rev. Rodger P. Fleming, pastor of St. James Parish in Potosi.
“I have also appointed Reverend Vincent Nyman part-time senior associate pastor of your parish and St. Joseph parish, assisting the pastor with his responsibility for St. Anne mission,” Rozanski said. “Reverend Vincent Nyman is also appointed part-time senior associate for St. Joachim parish in Old Mines and St. James parish in Potosi.”
Rozanski asked parishioners to welcome the new pastors and recognize that Mass schedules and other aspects of parish life will need to be adjusted for the new pastor to fulfil all his responsibilities.
The Archdiocese has 190 diocesan priests in active parish ministry; 41 percent of diocesan priests are over the age of 70; 25 of the 190 priests are to retire this year.
The Archdiocese said the next step in the restructuring process, which will take about three years to fully implement, will be to look at how staff and social and evangelization outreach efforts can best support the parishes and their ministries. That includes judging the best use of church facilities.
Any parishioner who claims to have been aggrieved by the Archbishop’s decision has the right to appeal the decision. Per canon law, the request must be made in writing, postmarked no later than June 12 and addressed to the Archbishop at 20 Archbishop May Drive, St. Louis, 63119. The Archdiocese said it cannot accept emails or phone call requests for appeal.
Group fights Good Shepherd School closure
A group of Good Shepherd Catholic School parents and others who oppose the recent closure of the school have hired an attorney based in Yardley, Pa., to represent the group in its fight to keep the school open.
Rozanski announced in April that the Archdiocese planned to close the school, 701 Third St., in Hillsboro, at the end of the 2022-2023 school year, which was May 26, because of financial considerations tied to declining enrollment over the years.
“At this point, I’m representing people about the school,” said attorney Laura Morrisson May 26. “Our belief is that there are financial discrepancies with the books relative to the school.”
She said the group believes the school is in better financial shape than Good Shepherd officials had reported, and for that reason, the school should continue operating.
Morrison said she could not go into details about the alleged financial discrepancies.
She said the group fighting the closure will approach the archbishop about those concerns and are willing to reach out to Rome if they do not get satisfaction in St. Louis.
“Now, we go to (Rozanski) and explain our position,” Morrison said. “If there is no satisfaction, then we go to the Vatican.
“The end goal is to keep the school open and also to expose a lack of transparency about the finances.”
When contacted for comment, Archdiocese spokesperson Lisa Shea responded with a written statement the archbishop released on April 14 about the Good Shepherd School closure.
“After reviewing recent financial projections and consulting with parish leadership about the school’s viability, Pastor Rev. Ryan Weber has determined that continuing to fund the school is not sustainable,” Rozanski said. “For this reason, I have accepted Father Weber’s recommendation to close Good Shepherd School at the end of the 2022-2023 academic year.”