Proposed South City Deanery Closings

More anxiety for St. Louis Catholics as the first word on church and school closures in south St. Louis is due out Wednesday night during a meeting at St. Mary Magdalene Parish.

Leaders from several south city parishes will receive draft recommendations for shutting down churches and schools in south St. Louis. The south St. Louis deanery includes 35 parishes--18 of them have Catholic grade schools.

A strategic planning committee made up of pastors and church members has been working on a consolidation plan for more than a year and a half. Msgr. Dennis Doerhoff from St. Mary Magdalene said, "We have approximately the same number of parishes and schools in south St. Louis that we had in 1970, when the Catholic population was twice what it is now."

The monsignor stresses this is only a draft proposal for further study. He won't say which or how many churches and schools may shutdown. A similar process in North County has led to a recommendation to shut down or consolidate more than half of the churches and schools there.

From KTVI Fox 2 News.