Missouri Senator Steps in to Take on 'All Things New' in St. Louis
Senator Robert Onder has agreed to be the procurator for lay Catholics in St. Louis and will petition the Archdiocese over 'All Things New,' seeking to close churches and schools.
St. Louis Catholics announced this week that Senator Robert Onder, a lifelong Missourian, lawyer, medical doctor, and senator representing the 2nd District in St. Charles County, has agreed to be the procurator for "Save Our St. Louis Parishes.”
According to its website, Save Our St. Louis Parishes is an “Archdiocesan-wide core group, which will represent all the lay faithful across the Archdiocese of St. Louis who want to be heard on the initiative of "All Things New" as presented by the Catholic Leadership Institute (CLI) and Archdiocesan leadership in 42 different "models" for consideration.”
The Catholic Church follows Canon law, which is ecclesiastical law laid down by papal pronouncements. Since the St. Louis Archdiocese adheres to canon law, a canonist (a special lawyer) and a “procurator” are needed to represent the laity when petitioning the Archdiocese.
Senator Onder has agreed to be the procurator offering his time solely as a volunteer. The canonist will be Philip Gray who is also offering his services free of charge.
This is huge because typically anyone who has challenged All Things New has not been able to find a procurator and canonist to take on the initiative until after the mergers (resulting in a closed parish) have been agreed to.
Any St. Louis catholic affected by the All Things New initiative can fill out a “Procurator Mandate” to appoint Onder as their procurator, allowing him to initiate petitions for the cessation of All Things New, to make appeals, and to take necessary actions, whether at the diocesan or supradiocesan levels.
After filling out the procurator mandate here, the original signed copy should be mailed to the following address:
Ken Battis
PO Box 105
Wentzville, MO 63385
A scanned copy should be emailed to: info@SOSTLP.org.
They need both a physical, original signed copy sent by mail and a scanned version sent by email.
We must keep educating our catholic communities and applying pressure to keep our churches and schools open!