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Historical Summer 2024 article. Dates, prices, services and contacts describe the source period; current availability has not been established.
One year ago, Archbishop Mitchell Rozanski announced that St. Roch would be among 50 parishes to be closed or merged under the “All Things New” downsizing plan for the archdiocese. Members of more than a dozen closed parishes filed appeals with Rozanski, who denied them all, followed by secondary appeals to the Dicastery for the Clergy at the Vatican.
The court upheld the decision to close St. Roch parish.
In a separate decision due to declining enrollment, St. Roch school was permanently closed this month. “I’m disappointed that the Vatican has adopted the archbishop’s model which is to basically abandon large swaths of St. Louis and that a lot of the parishes that enjoyed significant diversity have been closed,” said Michael Stephens, president of the St. Roch parish council.
According to Rozanski’s closure decree, St. Roch parish had accrued an operating deficit of $1 million over the past five years. Parishioners appealed the decision to the Vatican in part by arguing St. Roch has no debt because donations and investments made up for the deficit each year. Those funds are expected to be “entirely depleted” this summer, according to the dicastery. Stephens said the parishioners have not fully reviewed the Vatican lower court decision or decided whether to file another appeal to the highest court in canon or Catholic church law, the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura. Jesuit priests from St. Louis University will continue to celebrate Mass on Sundays at St. Roch, Stephens said.
The volunteers have served St. Roch for more than a year in place of longtime pastor Monsignor Sal Polizzi, who died in April 2023 at the age of 92. Mass attendance on Sundays has tripled from the 121 members Rozanski cited in the closure decree, Stephens said. “There are a lot of new faces at Mass. It’s great to see. Our church is booming right now,” he said.
If the Vatican court’s decision stands, St. Roch will have to turn over its finances to Christ the King.
Originally published in The Times of Skinker-DeBaliviere, Summer 2024.
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