SHREWSBURY — A Vatican court has rejected an appeal to keep a Catholic parish open in Franklin County, leaders from the Archdiocese of ºüÀêÊÓƵ said Tuesday.
The Dicastery for the Clergy upheld Archbishop Mitchell Rozanski's decision to close St. Paul parish in Berger last year. The parish was absorbed by Assumption parish in New Haven under the "All Things New" reorganization which closed or merged 50 of 178 parishes in the archdiocese.
Members of more than a dozen of the affected parishes filed appeals with the Vatican court, which has been gradually releasing its decisions.
The court previously upheld Rozanski’s decrees to close the parishes Blessed Teresa of Calcutta in Ferguson; St. Barnabas in O'Fallon, Missouri; St. Catherine of Alexandria in Ste. Genevieve County; St. Francis of Assisi in Franklin County and St. Roch in ºüÀêÊÓƵ.
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The court overturned the closures of parishes St. Angela Merici near Florissant, St. Martin of Tours in Lemay and St. Richard in Creve Coeur, allowing them to remain open.
The decision on St. Paul leaves five other parishes with appeals pending at the Vatican, including Our Lady of Sorrows and St. Matthew the Apostle in ºüÀêÊÓƵ; St. Bernadette in ºüÀêÊÓƵ County; and St. Agnes and St. Lawrence in Ste. Genevieve County.