Fifth Sunday of Easter

ALL THINGS NEW  Steadfast in Faith * Forward in Hope

Realigning the Curia

Establishing Three Vicariates

        The Priests of the Archdiocese received an email this past Saturday afternoon, April 27th, from Archbishop Rozanski.  I reformatted his letter a bit, for the sake of illustration.  The Archbishop wrote:

Dear Brothers in Christ,

I remain grateful for all the feedback I received from so many of our dedicated priests through the All Things New process.  One of the strongest messages I received from many of you is your desire for putting pastoral services closer to the people and parishes they serve.

Therefore, I am realigning the Curia and establishing three vicariates in the Archdiocese of St. Louis.  A vicariate is a group of parishes within the Archdiocese that are defined by geographic region for the purpose of parish support and administration.  The vicariates are fairly equal in the number of Catholic households.  There is a Northern Vicariate, a Southern Vicariate and a Western Vicariate.

Each vicariate will have a priest serve full-time as the Episcopal Vicar in order:

  •  To foster a spirit of fraternity among the priests,

  •  To develop regional cooperation and

  •  To coordinate with the Vicar General and the various ministries in the Curia (Archdiocesan  employees). 

The priests I have appointed are:

  •  Fr. John Brockland, current pastor of Sts. Joachim and Ann in St. Charles, will serve as Episcopal     Vicar for the Western Vicariate.

  •  Fr. Scott Jones, current pastor of Sts. Teresa  and Bridget in North St. Louis City, will serve as Episcopal Vicar of the Northern Vicariate.

  •  Fr. Mike Lydon, current pastor of Sacred Heart in Troy, will serve as Episcopal Vicar of the Southern Vicariate.

  •  Fr. Carl Scheble, current pastor of St. Gertrude  parish in Krakow and St. Ann parish in Clover

     Bottom, will serve as Vicar General and Moderator of the Curia.

 

Each vicariate will have a vicariate team which will provide local pastoral and administrative support. 

The vicariate team could consist of:

  •  A vicariate coordinator and

  •  Coordinator of Hispanic Ministry,

  •  Coordinator of evangelization,

  •  Coordinator of faith formation,

  •  Coordinator of youth Ministry,

  •  Coordinator of social outreach, etc., depending on the need of the vicariate. 

The team will also include a:

  •  Liaison for Human Resources,

  •  Liaison for Catholic Education, and

  •  Liaison for Finances. 

My hope is that you will find the resources and support structures more accessible and helpful to your parish Ministry.  Implementation of this plan will take effect beginning in July 2023.  I am announcing this now so we have an opportunity to staff the vicariates and I wanted the Episcopal Vicars to play a part in that.

I am deeply grateful for the service Msgr. Dennis Stehly provided as Moderator of the Curia.  His steady leadership, kindness, humor and care of our employees in the context of our Catholic faith has been a blessing to them and to me.

I’m also grateful to Fr. Mike Boehm who served as the Vicar General.  His steadfast presence, servant leadership, and personal generosity has been invaluable to me.

Additional priest assignments will be made public Pentecost weekend.  Please join me in prayer as I continue to discern the future of our parishes in the Archdiocese of St. Louis.

 

Sincerely yours in Christ,

Most Reverend Mitchell T. Rozanski

Archbishop of St. Louis