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The Dicastery for the Clergy upheld Archbishop Mitchell Rozanski’s decision in May 2023 to close the parishes and merge them with others under the “All Things New� downsizing of the Archdiocese of St. Louis. The reorganization amid declining numbers of Catholics and priests resulted in the closures or mergers of 50 of 178 parishes in the archdiocese.

Members of more than a dozen of the affected parishes filed appeals with the dicastery, which has been gradually releasing its decisions.

St. Matthew the Apostle in north St. Louis will now merge into a single parish along with Our Lady of the Holy Cross, St. Augustine and St. Elizabeth, Mother of John the Baptist. A new name for the consolidated parish has not been decided.

Our Lady of Sorrows will merge with St. Mary Magdalen and St. Joan of Arc to create an unnamed consolidated parish.

The decisions leave three outstanding appeals of parish closures with the Vatican court — St. Bernadette in south St. Louis County and St. Agnes and St. Lawrence in Ste. Genevieve County.

The court previously upheld Rozanski’s decrees to close the six parishes Blessed Teresa of Calcutta in Ferguson; St. Barnabas in O’Fallon; St. Catherine of Alexandria in Ste. Genevieve County; St. Francis of Assisi and St. Paul in Franklin County and St. Roch in St. Louis.

The court overturned the closures of parishes St. Angela Merici near Florissant, St. Martin of Tours in Lemay and St. Richard in Creve Coeur, allowing them to remain open.

At least one closed parish, St. Roch, has appealed the dicastery’s decision to the Vatican supreme court.

The Archdiocese of St. Louis oversees about 440,000 Catholics in the city St. Louis and 10 surrounding counties in eastern Missouri.