St. Boniface Catholic Church, the longest continuously operating church in Louisville, is on a list of parishes the Archdiocese of Louisville could shut down completely as part of a sweeping restructuring plan. Parish leaders have proposed an alternative: put a deacon administrator in charge of day-to-day operations, backed by two or three retired priests willing to pitch in, rather than close the doors on a congregation that has served the city since 1836.
The proposal came in a letter the St. Boniface parish council sent to the Archdiocese, which remains under consideration, according to WAVE News. Fred Williams, speaking for the parish, said St. Boniface wants to remain open but is trying to avoid an adversarial relationship with the Archdiocese as the process plays out. He also pointed to a blunt reality driving the whole conversation: there simply are not enough active priests to serve every parish.
That shortage is not unique to St. Boniface. Over 40 percent of pastors across the Archdiocese of Louisville were already serving more than one parish as of March, according to a report in The Record, the archdiocesan newspaper. The Archdiocese of Louisville spans 24 central Kentucky counties with 107 parishes serving roughly 164,784 Catholics out of a total regional population of 1.32 million, per Wikipedia. Nationally, less than one-third of U.S. Catholic adults attend Mass weekly and just 20 percent of U.S. adults identify as Catholic, according to a Pew Research study cited in the seed reporting.
A Draft Plan With St. Boniface On It
The Archdiocese released a draft plan in March with possible parish closures and mergers, and St. Boniface was one of six parishes citywide recommended for potential closure, as reported by WE News. According to the Archdiocese of Louisville, merged parishes are two or more parishes combining to form one religious community. The evaluation is part of a formal four-phase parish planning process the Archdiocese launched in 2025 to weigh changing demographics, priest availability, and facility costs, with a final comprehensive plan expected before the end of this year. Archbishop Shelton Fabre’s office has said the process included consultation with pastors, parish leaders, and a parish planning committee, and that the Archdiocese met with pastors and parish leaders from all 107 parishes as part of that consultative process, which began in 2025…