The new millennium arrived and the practice of the Catholic faith in the region began to show decline as numbers of those who were participating in parish life dropped significantly. Masses were not as full as they were, enrollments in religious education programs, like those in the Catholic elementary schools, were down, and the revitalization that was supposed to accompany the reorganization of the 90’s was not happening. Bishop Wuerl initiated “Envisioning Ministry for the Future,” a conversation that began among neighboring parishes about sharing resources to meet the reality facing many parishes.
In 2005, Father Jones left Saint Malachy, and the bishop appointed Father Michael Maranowski as the new pastor there. That year, Father Lawrence Smith succeeded Father Householder at Saint John of God, but the following year, 2006, Father Louis Vallone was appointed pastor. As debts continued to grow, in 2006, Saint John of God Parish closed Saint Mark Church. After serving Holy Trinity Parish since 1979, Father Herrmann retired in 2007. Father Gary Oehmler was named as the new pastor. He stayed briefly, and a native son of the parish, Father Kenneth Keene, arrived as pastor in 2009.
Saint John of God School closed at the end of the 2009-2010 year and students were welcomed at Saint Malachy School. Bishop David Zubik, successor to Bishop Wuerl in 2007, announced his vision for a “Church Alive” that asked every Catholic to get excited about the faith. As his administration looked at the changes in the diocese, it became evident with the projections about numbers of priests, practicing Catholics, and debt in parishes and schools, that the status quo could not hold.
2013 brought a papal resignation and an Argentinian cardinal, Jorge Bergoglio, came to the papacy as Pope Francis. His message called the Church across the globe to look at priorities of serving others, and asked Catholics to be missionaries of the Gospel. He sent people out the doors of their structures and into the places where Jesus would be encountered and accompanied.
Father John Hissrich, a former assistant at Saint Francis de Sales, replaced Father Maranowski at Saint Malachy Parish when the latter was reassigned in 2014. In 2015, the bishop announced that the Church of Pittsburgh would be “On Mission for the Church Alive,” in an effort to combine resources and solidify parishes that would be able to exist into the future. Data was offered for feedback, and a commission representing the whole diocese was convened to take that feedback, and working with the data, determine how best to group parishes. In April 2018, the bishop announced decisions about these groupings, assigning clergy teams to each one.
Holy Trinity, Saint John of God, and Saint Malachy Parishes became known as the RocKenRo grouping in October 2018. Holy Trinity and Saint Malachy Schools were closed after the 2018-2019 year and became a new school, Archangel Gabriel, for the 2019-2020 school year. On January 6, 2020, the grouping became Archangel Gabriel Parish, with Father David Poecking as the first pastor.