St. Louis Archdiocese releases 3rd draft for 'All Things New' restructuring plan
The Archbishop of St. Louis will study a set of proposals and announce a final decision by May 28.
The Archdiocese of St. Louis has released the third draft of changes that will be made to the church under its "All Things New", restructuring plan.
The latest draft models have been published online on April 28.
Archdiocese says that most of the parish configurations proposed in the new models are unchanged from the second draft released in February. In this document, the archdiocese proposed a model which would consolidate the 178 parishes to 88 pastorates. The archdiocese defined the pastorates in terms of a community that is overseen by a single pastor and his pastoral team.
The new draft includes several changes in multiparish configurations, and some parishes are now located in different planning areas. The archdiocese has informed the pastors of parishes affected by this plan.
The Rev. said, "We're grateful to all parishioners who provided feedback, collected, reviewed and synthesized information, who volunteered in various ways, and who most importantly continue to pray for All Things New." In a statement released on Friday, Chris Martin, vicar of strategic planning, spoke about the update.
Martin stated that after consulting with the Presbyteral Council Archbishop Mitchell Rozanski would study the proposals, and announce his final decision on May 28.
The draft maps included in the announcement showed that some parishes were merged into one and other parishes remained unchanged. According to the announcement, parishes which appear unchanged on maps could still undergo changes because of priest availability.
More than 3,000 parishioners rallied against proposed changes to the "All Things New Plan" earlier this month by signing a "procurator's mandate" addressed to Rozanski.
The archdiocese stated in February that the decision on how existing parishes will merge into one pastorate would be made case-by-case. It added that, if any parish property were to ever be sold, "the money from the sale would follow the people into their next parish", and the archdiocese could not and wouldn't obtain any funds under canon laws.
The plan does NOT state how Catholic schools would be affected. The archdiocese announced last year that the school year 2024-25 would be the final year.