Are you allowed to move Parishes?

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I’m 17 years old and have been attending my geographical home Parish by myself for a while but after the Coronavirus, we have been doing practices in my Parish such as letting the laypeople directly grab the Eucharist from the vessel, letting laypeople distribute the Eucharist to other laypeople, forbidding communion on the tounge entirely, political sermons, and some other things. I am wondering if I am allowed to go to another Parish that is not my home Parish to go to Daily Mass and recieve the Sacraments? Also, since the church I am going to might be one of the best in my area from what I have read, can a person as young as me register at a Parish, or do I have to be older?
 
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JordanAccount said:
I am wondering if I am allowed to go to another Parish that is not my home Parish to go to Daily Mass and recieve the Sacraments? Also, since the church I am going to might be one of the best in my area from what I have read, can a person as young as me register at a Parish, or do I have to be older?
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You are always welcome to attend another parish.

As far as registering in another parish, many dioceses have specific geographical boundaries for each parish, and have a rule stating that each person must be registered at the parish that corresponds to their location.

However, from my experience, the geographical rules are rarely enforced in practice, and you will likely have no problem registering at a different parish. Though if you were previously registered at a different parish, you should inform the staff member handling your registration at the new parish. They may have a protocol in place for contacting your old parish to remove your old registration, so they do not have duplicative records at the diocesan level.

As for your age, I couldn’t say for sure. It would be unusual for someone your age to register on your own, but I’m not aware of any specific rule against it. (People your age can have children, and a large source of parish registrations is parents wishing to get their children baptized, so I’m guessing it’s probably okay.) Best bet is to ask the parish staff if they would allow it. If you get a “no,” ask the priest. Doesn’t hurt to get a second opinion if the first answer they gave you was a rejection. 🙂
 
paperwight said:
Registering at a parish surely isn’t compulsory?
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It’s usually not required, unless you anticipate either needing some major sacraments for you or your family such as marriage, confirmation etc or unless you are planning to enroll children in the parish school. In those cases, the parish may want you to register.

If all you want to do is show up for Mass and see if you like it, then just go to the Mass, you don’t need to register. I currently attend at least 3 or 4 parishes regularly, and was attending many more than that prior to coronavirus, which cut back on Mass schedules and on my personal travels. I am only registered in one parish and it’s not the one I usually attend, long story. But when I needed a memorial service for my husband, I contacted my registered parish to arrange it.
 
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JordanAccount said:
letting laypeople distribute the Eucharist to other laypeople, f
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Do you mean using EMHCs? That is allowed.

How do you mean’ laypeople directly grab the eucharist from the vessel’, though? That is definitely not allowed. Could you have misunderstood/ not seen clearly what was happening?

Forbidding Communion on the tongue could have come from the Bishop, and obviously related to Covid. and a temporary safety measure.
 
They weren’t EMHCs, some of them were just regular laypeople in the parish. While the Priest allowed laypeople to grab the Eucharist with two fingers while he let people pass the vessel around. It was really really different from just going to the communion line to take it.
 
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The Possibly Soon to Be Outdated or Possibly Outdated Relevant Info: I think you’re an automatic member of your geographical Parish, but you would need to register at other Parishes if you wanted to take part, and the Priest has to be willing (my grandma’s Priest is unwilling for me to register at his Parish, despite having been Baptized there, under old rules).

New Info: That said, just this past week, Pope Francis/The Vatican put out a release. It looked like he’s asking the Priests to be a bit more relaxed about territorial Parish sort of things. It was released on Jul 20, 2020.

The release it looks like, from the varied news articles, covers all sorts…so I’d have to look at the original document itself to advise further.

http://press.vatican.va/content/salastampa/en/bollettino/pubblico/2020/07/20/200720a.html

If I’d read it myself, I might have been more helpful. 😂
 
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Thank you so much! This paragraph and specifically these lines seems interesting. "It is true that a characteristic of the Parish is that its rootedness at the centre of where people live from day to day. However, the Parish territory is no longer a geographical space only, but also the context in which people express their lives in terms of relationships, reciprocal service and ancient traditions. It is in this “existential territory” where the challenges facing the Church in the midst of the community are played out.

As a result, any pastoral action that is limited to the territory of the Parish is outdated, which is something the parishioners themselves observe when their Parish appears to be more interested in preserving a nostalgia of former times as opposed to looking to the future with courage[19].

It is worth noting, however, that from a canonical perspective, the territorial principle remains in force, when required by law[20]."

I’m guessing this means that it is required for the Priest at your geographical Parish to perform services while the other Priest at your non-geographical but say daily attendant and pariticipant Parish is not required by law to do so but can if he wants to.

Anyways, I remember that I was Confirmed at a different Parish from my geographical Parish and took CCD there even though for my First Communion it was at my geographical Parish.
 
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Please be aware that the bishop may have temporary rules in place due to the pandemic. One such rule here is that for now, we may only attend the parish of registration from prior to the pandemic’s start and aren’t permitted to “Mass hop”.

Another rule could be the suspension of communion on the tongue or something else.
 
If you are a Latin (Roman) Rite Catholic, you are automatically a member of the geographical parish in whose boundaries you make your primary residence. There may be an exception for personal or national parishes (ex-Anglican Ordinariate Catholics, historically black parishes, the traditionally ethnic parishes that cater to a nationality, cultural, or linguistic group). I have found that this is rarely enforced to the letter, but parishes retain that prerogative.

For quite some time, I have not attended the geographical parish where I was registered. Long story. I attend another parish downtown, and there are a lot of people in town who go there, but do not live within that parish’s boundaries. Due to other priorities, I have not yet changed my registration. I contribute to the downtown parish and think of it as “my” parish, though we do religious education at home, and I have made arrangements for my funeral Requiem Traditional Latin Mass, when that must take place, to be celebrated in the mortuary chapel.
 
Cor_ad_Cor said:
One such rule here is that for now, we may only attend the parish of registration from prior to the pandemic’s start and aren’t permitted to “Mass hop”.
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Nothing like that is happening here. We also don’t need to sign up to attend Mass like some other areas are doing. Around here there’s a church about every 5 miles and people routinely go to more than one parish.
 
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