Under the St. Louis Archdiocese's All Things New realignment plan, 34 parishes will permanently close on Tuesday -- another 15 will be merged into five new parishes with different names -- and there will be 27 groups of two or more parishes that will share a pastor.
For many Catholics, this weekend will be the last time they will be able to celebrate Mass under their current parish structure. Some have farewell picnics planned.
But just because a parish is closing, doesn't mean the church building will be shuttered. Many of these churches will continue to celebrate Mass upon approval of their new priest -- it's just that the parish structure has changed and multi parishes will now be part of a bigger parish family in their geographic area.