The Vatican has issued decisions for two more parishes regarding All Things New decrees.
The Dicastery for the Clergy did not find just cause for the extinctive union of St. Richard Parish in Creve Coeur, citing the parish’s financial and demographic stability. The dicastery overturned the decree that Archbishop Mitchell T. Rozanski issued on Pentecost stating that St. Richard Parish would be subsumed into St. Monica Parish in Creve Coeur. The Dicastery for the Clergy is a Vatican office that assists the pope with issues relating to priests and deacons of the diocesan clergy.
After one or more St. Richard parishioners appealed the decision to the Vatican, Archbishop Rozanski in August suspended the effects of the decree while the dicastery reviewed the appeal. Since then, Father Sebastian Mundackal, pastor of St. Monica Parish, has been serving as pastor of St. Richard and will continue to do so.
The dicastery supported the decision for St. Richard and St. Monica to share a pastor. It also rejected the suggestion that All Things New was a “preconceived plan to close or notably alter” parishes of the Archdiocese of St. Louis, according to the decree issued by the dicastery.
The decision does not affect the former St. John Bosco Parish, which was subsumed into St. Monica Parish after no appeals were made.
The Dicastery for the Clergy upheld Archbishop Rozanski’s decree regarding the extinctive union of Sts. Philip and James in River Aux Vases into Ste. Genevieve Parish in Ste. Genevieve.
The Dicastery for the Clergy also accepted for study petitions for recourse against decrees related to St. Paul in Berger and St. Barnabas in O’Fallon. In accepting those petitions, the Vatican does not reverse the archbishop’s decision, but it has agreed to review the decision at the request of the recurrent, or petitioner. The decision of the Holy See to study the acts of the case concerning the decree by which St. Barnabas Parish is to be subsumed by Assumption Parish in O'Fallon does not call into question the lawful existence of the personal parish of St. Juan Diego which was established by a separate decree.
Outstanding appeals also remain for these 11 parishes: St. Elizabeth Mother of John the Baptist, St. Roch, Our Lady of Sorrows and St. Matthew the Apostle in St. Louis; St. Bernadette and St. Martin of Tours in Lemay; St. Agnes in Bloomsdale; St. Lawrence in Lawrenceton; St. Catherine of Alexandria in Coffman; St. Francis of Assisi in Luebbering; and St. Angela Merici in Florissant.