The Archdiocese of St. Louis will be reshaped from 178 parishes into 135, Archbishop Mitchell T. Rozanski announced on Pentecost weekend, May 27.

Thirty-five parishes will be subsumed, or merged, into neighboring parishes and 15 parishes will be merged to create five new parishes. A new personal parish for the Spanish-speaking community in St. Charles County, named St. Juan Diego, also will be established. These parishes will be overseen by nearly 90 diocesan pastors and 17 pastors from religious orders.

Since the announcement, Archbishop Rozanski has received nearly 800 letters representing 44 parishes with feedback related to parish changes. The archbishop and the staff of the archdiocesan Metropolitan Tribunal have reviewed the letters and sent responses to that feedback in July.

“People have told me how much their parish means to them and parish life means to them,” he said. “Others have written to say they are looking forward to more vibrant parishes within our archdiocese and the ability to be able to live their faith more fully,” including within the liturgy, social outreach and presence in the community.

The archbishop acknowledged those who expressed concerns about the changes, saying that “it’s very hard to change. As I came in and heard the feedback of our priests and our parish leaders, we had to do something to reinvigorate parish life. My hope is these changes will unite our efforts and produce still greater things for God’s glory.”

Individual parishioners who claim to have been aggrieved by a decree regarding a parish had the right to seek the decree’s revocation or emendation. (A decree is a singular administrative act issued by a diocesan bishop and is required to alter a parish or take other actions as prescribed by canon law.) Those requests were to have been made in writing and postmarked to the archbishop by June 12.

Per canon law, the following conditions must be fulfilled for a parish to appeal its case to the Vatican:

• The petitioner must have sent a letter to the archbishop in which the revocation or emendation of the decree is being sought and within the peremptory period of 10 useful days (canon 1734).

• The archbishop has sent a response to the petitioner within the peremptory time period, or has not responded to the petitioner within 30 days (canon 1735).

• The petition for hierarchical recourse (appeal) must be postmarked within 15 business days of the petitioner’s receipt of the archbishop’s response.

• The person making the petition must be a member of the parish in question, indicated by being a registered member of the personal parish or living within the territory of the territorial parish.

• The petition cannot be manifestly frivolous and must address a substantive matter regarding the merging or suppression of the parish in question. (It cannot be based on the archdiocese closing or selling the parish church, for example, since the decrees did neither.)

Visit stlreview.com/428A1ts to see the parish changes, grouped by vicariate.