ST. LOUIS — As 50 Catholic parishes across the region prepare for their final Mass on Sunday, at least one plans to stay open with volunteer priests after the downsizing of the Archdiocese of ºüÀêÊÓƵ starts Aug. 1.
St. Roch parish in the Skinker-DeBaliviere neighborhood of ºüÀêÊÓƵ will close and be absorbed by Christ the King in University City under the “All Things New†reorganization announced in May by Archbishop Mitchell Rozanski. After Rozanski denied parishioners’ appeals of the closure, St. Roch leaders took their case to a Vatican council, which has yet to respond.
“While our appeals are pending, weekend Mass will still be celebrated at St. Roch, although we are responsible for providing priests. We reached out to the Clergy and received not only expressions of support, but several Archdiocesan and Jesuit priests are willing to help us out,†reads an update sent Tuesday by parish leaders.
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Volunteer priests have been celebrating Mass at St. Roch since early this year during the illness of longtime parish pastor Monsignor Sal Polizzi, 92, who died in April.
Under the reorganization of the archdiocese, All Saints in University City and St. Rita in Vinita Park will also be subsumed, or merged, with Christ the King and will not host regular Masses. Christ the King will share its pastor, Monsignor Mike Turek, with St. Joseph in Clayton starting in August.
Turek gave permission for Mass to continue at St. Roch with other priests, according to a spokesman for the archdiocese.
“As we’ve noted throughout this process, Mass can still be celebrated at archdiocesan Churches with the approval of the incoming pastor. We expect there will be many instances where Churches at subsumed parishes will still celebrate weekend Masses,†reads the statement Tuesday from Brecht Mulvihill.
St. Roch has about 300 households and an average combined attendance of 120 at its two weekend Masses, compared to the archdiocese average of 800 households per parish with 500 attending Mass. The parish territory includes mansions that face Forest Park on Lindell Boulevard but also has a 64% rate of renters including Washington University student housing and multi-family homes. The area is 9% Catholic, compared to the archdiocesan average of 18%.
“The religious diversity which enriches your neighborhood also means that your Parish territory has fewer Catholics who might increase your ranks by means of an invitation to return to church,†Rozanski wrote June 30 in his denial of St. Roch’s appeal.
The restructuring of the archdiocese was launched in early 2022 to address declining populations of Catholics and the priests to serve them. Most of the 50 parishes to be closed or merged under “All Things New†are clustered in north ºüÀêÊÓƵ and north ºüÀêÊÓƵ County along with the Lemay area of south ºüÀêÊÓƵ County.
“Wealthy white parishes in the affluent areas were largely unaffected, while the mostly urban parishes were closed,†said Michael Stephens, president of the St. Roch parish council, in his appeal to the Vatican. “Do we want our Church to be known in history as the American Church for the wealthy?â€
The appeal process after a parish closure can take more than a decade. There have been some successes, including a in the Midwest and East Coast, although none in Missouri.
But efforts by parishioners to overturn a bishop’s decision on closures have more often failed, including after years of protests at nine Boston churches. St. Frances X. Cabrini in Scituate, Massachusetts, was the last to fall in 2016 after a 12-year vigil by parishioners and a legal battle that ended when the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear the case.
St. Stanislaus Kostka Polish Catholic Church in north ºüÀêÊÓƵ holds one example of a pathway to survival independent of the archdiocese.
After a parish reorganization in 2003, St. Stanislaus refused to turn over its property to the archdiocese. The archbishop at the time, Raymond Burke, removed the congregation’s archdiocesan priests and declared the church in “schism.†The priest who came to St. Stanislaus from the Diocese of Springfield-Cape Girardeau was then excommunicated.