St Agatha Church to be spared....

Archdiocese considers revised plan for parishes

One historic Catholic church would be spared and another landmark suddenly faced closing in a reworking of the sweeping plans to close about 30 parishes in south St. Louis and north St. Louis County.

St. Francis de Sales, known as the "Cathedral of the South Side" for its towering 300-foot steeple on Gravois Avenue, would close, largely because of the cost of needed repairs. The original plan was to preserve it as the new home of Latin Masses for the greater St. Louis area.

St. Agatha, now home to Latin Masses, and St. Pius V would be spared. Those two South Side parishes had been on the closing list. St. Agatha's is next to the Anheuser-Busch brewery.

I was unable to attend St. Agatha's Sunday to hear Msgr. Schmitz, the Vicar General of the Institute of Christ the King, who was to give the homily and address the faithful. The Institute will be a great asset to the Archdiocese of St. Louis as will the Canons Regular of the New Jerusalem.

It's sad to see that St. Francis de Sales would close. In fact, it's sad to see any church close because of lack of attendance or other factors. If only it were possible to move those great, architecturally beautiful churches like St Francis de Sales to St Charles county to replace some of the new "worship space" warehouses...what a blessing it would be!

Full story here.