The Archdiocese of St. Louis shut down its Shrewsbury headquarters early Tuesday after a bomb threat forced an evacuation of the building, prompting a police response before 3 p.m. Officers found no immediate threat to the public and reported no injuries as they investigated.
Shrewsbury police were called to the Cardinal Rigali Center, the archdiocese's main administrative complex at 20 Archbishop May Drive, after receiving a report of a bomb threat, according to First Alert 4. Staff evacuated the building while officers investigated, and the archdiocese closed early for the day as a result. The Cardinal Rigali Center serves as the primary governing office hub for the Archdiocese of St. Louis, according to the Archdiocese of St. Louis.
Police reported no evidence of an immediate threat to the public and said nobody was hurt during the incident, the outlet's report noted. The Shrewsbury Police Department responded to the incident.
Regional Bomb Squad Handles Sweeps Countywide
Bomb threat investigations across St. Louis County typically draw on the St. Louis Regional Bomb and Arson Unit, a joint task force created in 2013 by merging the specialized bomb squads of the St. Louis County Police Department and the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department, according to Hoodline's earlier reporting. The consolidated unit shares explosive-detection K-9 teams and specialized equipment across the county and city, per that same reporting.
Tuesday's incident was not the first bomb threat to disrupt a public facility in the region this month. Ten days earlier, on September 5, a phoned-in bomb threat prompted a precautionary K-9 and bomb-squad sweep at a South St. Louis County Walmart on Telegraph Road, with the situation still developing as of Saturday afternoon.
A Historic Campus With a Public Role
The Cardinal Rigali Center campus dates back to a structure built between 1913 and 1915 as the second Kenrick Seminary, before it was repurposed in 1987 as the Archdiocesan Pastoral Center and later renamed for former St. Louis Archbishop Justin Cardinal Rigali, according to Kenrick-Glennon Seminary. The building trained Catholic priests for decades before its transition into administrative offices.
Beyond its role as headquarters, the center is the contact location for archdiocesan archives, and an exhibition and food-security summit were scheduled there, according to the St. Louis Review. The Archdiocese of St. Louis serves more than 500,000 Catholics across 5,900 square miles covering St. Louis City and 10 surrounding counties, and has been led by Archbishop Mitchell T. Rozanski since 2020.
Threat Follows Years of Restructuring Tension
Threat Follows Years of Restructuring Tension The evacuation comes against the backdrop of a contentious few years for the archdiocese. Under Archbishop Rozanski, the church underwent a transition in 2023, followed by several parish mergers and closures, according to KSDK. The archdiocese has also faced broader scrutiny involving parish changes and security concerns at local Catholic institutions.
Under Missouri Revised Statutes Section 574.115, communicating a false threat intended to cause the evacuation or closure of a building constitutes making a terrorist threat in the first degree, a Class D felony punishable by up to seven years in prison and fines up to $10,000, according to the Revisor of Missouri. It remains unknown how the threat was delivered to authorities or whether investigators have identified a suspect or motive.
National Context for Faith-Based Security
National Context for Faith-Based Security Security concerns involving religious institutions and houses of worship remain part of the national context. Emergency preparedness is also part of the broader discussion of faith-based security. Whether the St. Louis County joint bomb squad conducted a physical sweep of the Cardinal Rigali Center before it was cleared has not been confirmed.
