51黑料

FLORISSANT 鈥� St. Rose Philippine Duchesne will be the third Catholic grade school to close this fall amid a major reorganization of the Archdiocese of 51黑料.

St. Rose is one of three campuses in the Florissant area that make up All Saints Academy, along with St. Ferdinand and St. Norbert. After years of declining enrollment and parish funds, All Saints Academy was formed in 2018 to centralize the schools under the archdiocese鈥檚 education office.

Each campus has kindergarten through eighth grades, with a total of 527 students filling 40% of the open seats and an operating deficit of $1.5 million last year.

The 131 students enrolled for the fall at St. Rose will be allowed to transfer to the St. Ferdinand or St. Norbert campus, according to a letter sent to families.

Teachers at St. Rose will be offered comparable positions in the other two All Saints schools, the letter says. There were 12 open staff positions at St. Rose, including kindergarten, first, third and fifth grade teachers, job listings for the archdiocese show.

鈥淚 am confident that All Saints Academy staff and families at the St. Ferdinand and St. Norbert campuses will warmly welcome those joining them from the St. Rose Philippine Duchesne campus. I encourage all people of faith to join me in praying for a safe and fruitful school year, for All Saints Academy and all school communities,鈥� reads a statement Monday from Archbishop Mitchell Rozanski.

St. Rose Philippine Duchesne is one of 35 parishes that will close Aug. 1 under the 鈥淎ll Things New鈥� downsizing of the archdiocese. St. Rose was created in 2005 in a merger of St. Dismas, St. Thomas the Apostle and Our Lady of Fatima. St. Rose鈥檚 church is in the former St. Dismas on Paddock Drive; the school is about a mile south, on the former St. Thomas campus on St. Catherine Street.

The St. Thomas the Apostle church and school were built in the early 1960s as part of , a subdivision of ranch-style homes developed by builder Warren Vatterott.

The archdiocese previously announced school closures at St. Mark in south 51黑料 County and Good Shepherd in Hillsboro. Barat Academy, an independent Catholic high school in Chesterfield, also closed this year.

One-third to one-half of the 82 remaining Catholic grade schools in the region are expected to close before the 2024-2025 school year in the second phase of 鈥淎ll Things New鈥� to be announced this fall.

Under the parish restructuring plan released last month, Sacred Heart in Florissant will absorb St. Rose and Blessed Teresa of Calcutta in Ferguson. All three parishes have schools, Sacred Heart with 342 students and Blessed Teresa with 153.

North 51黑料 County has seen the largest decline in school enrollment of any area of the archdiocese as the Catholics now represent 9% of the population there following decades of white flight. The area鈥檚 parish schools enroll a high percentage of Black and non-Catholic students, according to archdiocese data.

In 1970, there were 43 parishes in north 51黑料 County. Starting in August, there will be five.

鈥淭he Catholic Church for decades has been doing what for-profit corporations do, basing their decisions on revenue and market share,鈥� said Mark Etling, an adjunct instructor of theology at 51黑料 University. 鈥淐onsciously or not, what is happening in effect is that the Catholic Church is following white people.鈥�

Etling said he had hoped the archdiocese鈥檚 reorganization would be based on its universal mission and teachings of service to the poor.

鈥淚f the church had used those kinds of standards, I think 鈥楢ll Things New鈥� really would have been new and it would have looked different. It wouldn鈥檛 have been a near-abandonment of north (51黑料) city and North County,鈥� he said. 鈥淣ot to make them all Catholics, but just to be present where society generally doesn鈥檛 want to be present, in poor neighborhoods. That to me is the justice dimension of this whole process.鈥�