SHREWSBURY — The Archbishop of St. Louis will close 35 parishes and reassign 155 priests in the most sweeping reorganization of the Catholic church in St. Louis history.

After 18 months of waiting, Catholics learned on Saturday the fate of their priests and parishes in the downsizing of the archdiocese called “All Things New.”

The changes, which will reshape the archdiocese from 178 individual parishes into 134, were announced Saturday by Archbishop Mitchell Rozanski in a press conference and in a letter read by priests during vigil Mass.

“I wish these changes were not necessary, but it is what we are called to do at this moment,” Rozanski said Saturday.

The archbishop maintained that the plan affects the entire region, although nearly half of the closures are in north St. Louis and north St. Louis County and only one, St. John Bosco in Maryland Heights, is west of Interstate 270 in St. Louis County.

“This is something that we need to do to ensure that our faith will be here for future generations,” Rozanski said.

In addition to the parish closures, another 15 parishes will be merged to form five new parishes and a Spanish-speaking parish is being added in St. Charles County.

The parish closings and mergers do not necessarily mean that the church buildings associated with those parishes will also close; those decisions will be made later.

More details are expected in early June, including new Mass times and worship sites for merged parishes. Decisions on Catholic parish school closures or consolidations are expected this fall.

Parishioners have until June 12 to appeal the decisions to Rozanski through canon or church law.

“Many parishes including ours are anxious and fearful about decisions about the future of our parishes and where we will be going to church and worshiping God in the months ahead,” said the Rev. Robert Reiker, pastor of St. Bernadette in south St. Louis County, during his homily Saturday.

At the end of the Mass, Reiker announced his retirement and said St. Bernadette parish will close and be “subsumed” by St. Mark parish, 3 miles away near Lemay. St. Mark will also absorb St. Andrew, St. Martin of Tours and St. Matthias in south St. Louis County.

“I felt at home here. It’s very small and down-to-earth,” said Kathy Starns of Lemay, a parishioner at St. Bernadette for more than 15 years. “I feel like I’ve lost another home. I’m sad but I understand.”

At St. Martin de Porres in Hazelwood, the Rev. Lijo Kallarackal read announcements before turning to Rozanski’s letter.

“The next thing is what we’re all waiting for,” Kallarackal said, prefacing the reading with the warning: “There’s good news and bad news.”

The bad news: St. Martin de Porres and St. Sabina of Florissant will both be absorbed by St. Ferdinand of Florissant, effective Aug. 1. The good news: Kallarackal will become the new pastor of St. Ferdinand.

“Unfortunately for you, they left me here as a pastor,” he said with a broad smile, as parishioners applauded.  

Close to 90 diocesan priests will serve as lead pastors who will serve one parish or several merged parishes, the archdiocese announced.

Some reassignments came as disappointments. Msgr. Mark Ullrich, longtime pastor of Sacred Heart in Florissant, told parishioners Saturday the decision was “very sad news for me.”

“I really planned on staying longer, having a lot of fun at it…. I had every intention of continuing as long as I could,” he said.

The Rev. William Kempf of St. Justin Martyr in Sunset Hills will succeed Ullrich as pastor; Ullrich will go to St. Francis Assisi in Oakville as senior associate pastor. Ullrich said blending Florissant’s St. Rose Duchesne and Ferguson’s Blessed Teresa into a single parish would prove a challenge for his successor. All three parishes have schools.

Congregants at Epiphany of Our Lord in the Lindenwood Park neighborhood of south St. Louis found out that they will remain at their location and share a new pastor with St. James the Greater in Dogtown.

A previous plan for the two parishes to also unite with St. Ambrose in the Hill neighborhood was dropped. Still, it will be a change.

“I feel like I understand,” said Amy Tighe, walking out of Saturday evening Mass at Epiphany. “There aren’t enough priests, and we’ve got to share them. It’s going to be different, but I hope it works.”

Maggie O’Fallon felt a sense of relief.

“I am just happy that the church is staying here,” said O’Fallon. “You’d hate to see something you’ve been going to all your life close.”

Apart from growing up there, she and her husband, Jeff, were married at the church, raised two boys who attended the school before it closed.

“I am relieved that it’s over with, that the announcement has come after two years of surveys and talking,” said Jeff O’Fallon. “They’ve made their decision.”

A little further south, in the St. Louis Hills neighborhood, parishioners at St. Gabriel the Archangel and St. Raphael the Archangel were told that they, too, would share the same pastor, which was expected.

There are four additional priests that serve the two parishes, which both have schools. That number of supporting priests will drop by one.

“We heard that because we are still financially solid we are able to maintain right now,” said Suzy Ferrenbach, who lives across the street from St. Raphael and attends Mass there every day.

Congregants at St. Raphael were told to expect some possible changes to Mass times and that the big question about their school, which is smaller than St. Gabriel, wouldn’t be addressed until fall.

“The whole process for families with kids in the schools will be more challenging,” said Dick Feld, coming out of Saturday evening Mass at St. Raphael. “A single person like myself, it’s an easier adjustment.”

Other cities undergoing similar reorganizations offer keys to the future of parishes in St. Louis, including several dioceses that used the same consulting firm, Catholic Leadership Institute.

• The “Beacons of Light” plan in Cincinnati last year combined 208 parishes into 57 families of parishes along with 78 priest reassignments. The number of Sunday masses in the archdiocese dropped to 512 from 588. Mass attendance increased by 6% from 2021 to 2022, although still down 19% overall from 2019.

• The Pittsburgh diocese combined 188 parishes into 57 groups in 2018 as part of its “On Mission for the Church Alive“ strategic plan. In the five years since, most of the groups have merged to form 62 single parishes under new names “as part of the ongoing effort designed to help parishes mobilize their resources to prioritize mission over maintenance,” according to the Pittsburgh diocese.

• The “Renew My Church” downsizing in Chicago started in 2016 and has since seen 344 parishes consolidate into around 200.

“All Things New” started in St. Louis in January 2022, when Rozanski announced the 18-month process that would bring “the most sweeping changes” in the 200-year history of the Catholic church in St. Louis amid declining numbers of Catholics attending Mass and priests to serve them.

The Catholic population in the region has fallen below 500,000 in 2021 for the first time in half a century. Pews are only about one-quarter full on Sundays.

Five men were ordained Saturday to the priesthood for the Archdiocese of St. Louis, down from an average of 18 ordinations a year in the 1960s. One of the new priests, the Rev. Jacob Wessel, was assigned as associate pastor at Ste. Genevieve parish in Ste. Genevieve County.

Some priests and parishioners have started looking ahead to their new relationships. Parishioners from Our Lady of Lourdes in University City will gather on Monday for the annual “Mass on the Grass” Memorial Day service at St. Luke the Evangelist in Richmond Heights, which is being absorbed by the University City parish.

The Rev. Linus Dolce, parochial administrator for St. Barnabas in O’Fallon, Missouri, wrote to his parishioners that he expects to “bounce back to my monastery” after St. Barnabas becomes a personal Hispanic parish called St. Juan Diego.

The last traditional Latin Mass at St. Barnabas will be held July 30, Dolce wrote in the May 21 bulletin. Parishioners are making arrangements to carpool starting in August to the closest Latin Mass, 32 miles away in Richmond Heights at the Oratory of Sts. Gregory and Augustine.

Outside the press conference Saturday, Jason Bolte of opposition group Save Rome of the West, read through the long list of decisions and priest reassignments.

“This is so sad,” he said.

He also lamented the plan to convert his home parish, St. Barnabas, to a Hispanic parish, which he saw as an attack on the traditional Latin Mass and wasn’t sure his group could challenge.

“I have to allow God to say that this is where he needs me right now,” he said. “You have to trust that God’s got it and we’ll survive.”

At least one parish that remains unchanged is making plans for major renovations including a new parish hall that were put on hold during the “All Things New” process.

“Our challenge is not about needing to merge with another parish but to accommodate our prosperity and to address the limitations of our facilities,” reads a letter sent earlier this month to parishioners from the Rev. Matthew O’Toole of St. Peter in Kirkwood.

Former state Sen. Bob Onder, R-Lake Saint Louis, has led an archdiocesan-wide protest as procurator, or representative, of the laity under church canon law. Onder sent petitions signed by more than 3,100 Catholics from at least 120 parishes to the Vatican earlier this month.

Onder’s parish, St. Gianna in Wentzville, will remain unchanged after an outcry from parishioners over earlier proposals involving mergers.

Some parishioners say they are optimistic about the prospect of fuller pews and stronger ministries.

“It doesn’t matter what building you’re in, what matters is your faith and growing in that desire to be closer to God and the Mass can help you do that,” said Jennifer Crutchley, a 20-year member of St. John the Beloved Disciple in Imperial, which will share a pastor with St. Joseph in Imperial.

“The real work begins after Pentecost Sunday,” Crutchley said. “It needs to be the entire community pulling together. I’m hopeful that when the dust settles we can all come out stronger on the other end.”

Jesse Bogan, Austin Huguelet, Josh Renaud and Colleen Schrappen contributed to this report.