May we choose our parish?

NO…but maybe!

(In practice the answer is YES!)

Unlike many Protestants, most Catholics do not generally choose a parish. The issue arose for me when I retired from a small rural town (with one Catholic church) into a large city which has ~forty parishes.

My new home is almost equidistant from 3 Catholic churches. I love aspects of each of them, but the parish in which I ‘territorially’ reside is not the one I prefer. (Readers of my article about the Traditional Latin Mass might guess that I gravitate to a more conservative, traditional style — though my preference is still the Novus Ordo Mass.)

CANON LAW

Can. 518: As a general rule a parish is to be territorial, that is, one which includes all the Christian faithful of a certain territory. When it is expedient, however, personal parishes are to be established determined by reason of the rite, language, or nationality of the Christian faithful of some territory, or even for some other reason.

Clearly, this allows exceptions to the territorial parish rule. The majority of ‘personal’ parishes are related to being in a specific community — such as being part of an emigrant Hungarian or Spanish-speaking population. Also, one can still join a ‘personal’ parish because it provides the TLM.

The church acknowledes that many people have ready access to transportation so they may not even know which is their ‘official’ parish.

THE STATS

A 2016 report in America Magazine showed: 59 percent of Catholics said they had never looked for a new parish, the largest percentage of any faith group. Of the 41 percent of Catholics who said they have looked for a new congregation, 30 percent said it was because they had moved. Other reasons they gave included marriage or divorce, 11 percent; disagreement with clergy or parishioner at their previous parish, 7 percent–the lowest percentage of any religious group in the survey noting this as factor; and other reasons, 14 percent.

It went on to note that: “when searching for a new church or house of worship, the top five factors for all U.S. adults were: quality of sermons (89 percent); feeling welcomed (79 percent); style of services (79 percent); location (70 percent); and education for children (56 percent).” 

2020 VATICAN GUIDELINES on Parishes

The Vatican revised it’s guidelines on parish life in 2020.

As reported by the Catholic News Agency: “The Congregation for Clergy's guidelines recognize that reality. "Increased mobility and the digital culture have expanded the confines of existence," the guidelines state, "people are less associated today with a definite and immutable geographical context, and "digital culture has inevitably altered the concept of space, together with people's language and behaviour, especially in younger generations."

The full document is available [HERE].

Kevin Hay

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