CV NEWS FEED // A St Louis, MO parish will remain open following an unprecedented ruling in a Vatican court bypassing Archbishop Mitchell Rozanski’s “All Things New” downsizing plan.
St Richard parish in mid St Louis County is set to remain open after the Dicastery for the Clergy appeals court declared its “financial and demographic stability” this week. According to local reports, the court’s decision is “the first successful appeal of the archdiocese restructuring.”
Rozanski’s “All Things New” campaign has resulted in the closure of 35 parishes and the merging of 15 others since August.
“This is big,” said St Louis-based advocacy lawyer Brody Hale. “I’ve not seen the dicastery take that approach in many other situations for similar parishes. I’m only aware of two other instances in US history where a parish appeal was successful.”
The Archdiocese enacted its downsizing plan in response to marked decline in attendance rates and shortage in parish priests.
As CatholicVote previously reported, the Vatican rejected requests from three parishes in the Archdiocese of St Louis for additional pastors in November 2023.