Do you have the option of attending a parish that is in keeping with your understanding of Abuse-Free and Liturgically-Correct?

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We’re required to make our territorial parish our first stop for necessary sacraments, such as baptism or marriage. If we wish to have these sacraments someplace else, then we usually need to get permission from our territorial parish to do so. We’re also expected to support our territorial parish financially.
Is that in church law somewhere? I’m just curious. In my 20 years as a Catholic I’ve never attended my territorial parish. In some cases I didn’t even know where it was located. 🤷‍♀️
 
It’s canon law that a Catholic is entitled to a funeral Mass in his parish church, that he is supposed to be baptized in his own parish church unless there’s a “just reason” otherwise, and that a marriage needs to be celebrated in the parish church of the Catholics involved, or in one of their parishes if they’re from two different parishes, unless they get in advance a permission to be married elsewhere.


Parish location might also come into play if you’re trying to enroll children in a parish school or to receive instruction for first confession/ communion/ confirmation.
 
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We have only one parish – pre-WWI architecture, and very conservative in how things are done. But if things were ever to go south there, then we also have the OLAM Shrine and three other monasteries of varying degrees of small-o orthodoxy in the county. Spoiled for choice, anyone?

D
 
Short answer - yes.

You may attend mass at any parish.

However, you MIGHT not be able to have your kids receive baptism, first confession, first communion, & confirmation there. And you might not be able to have that Parish visit you at home when shut-in and they might not consider you a parishenor for a wedding, Catholic School tuition, etc.

Each bishop and pastor is different in regards to how/when they enforce Parish boundaries.

But you can attend Mass anywherez

God Bless
 
Parish location might also come into play if you’re trying to enroll children in a parish school or to receive instruction for first confession/ communion/ confirmation.
If a child who is a resident of a parish that doesn’t have a school attends a neighboring parochial school, how is the preparation for sacraments conducted?

Can the child receive 1st communion with his classmates, or should he do it in his own parish?
 
I think you would need to check with the individual parish how they handle it. Presumably they would have some process worked out with the other parish, or maybe one centralized prep process covering several parishes that don’t have their own schools.

I know when my parents moved to my hometown when I was a baby, we were just within the boundary for our parish. One or two streets over and I would have been in the next parish and expected to go to their parochial school rather than the one I attended.
 
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Parish location might also come into play if you’re trying to enroll children in a parish school or to receive instruction for first confession/ communion/ confirmation.
If a child who is a resident of a parish that doesn’t have a school attends a neighboring parochial school, how is the preparation for sacraments conducted?

Can the child receive 1st communion with his classmates, or should he do it in his own parish?
In my Archdiocese, while the kid receives his/her education at the school, all the students MUST receive the first sacraments with the CCD kids at their Home Parish. The schools are not allowed to administer the first sacraments.
 
To answer the OP, yes, I attend an awesome traditional parish with no abuses. The music is good but I attend Low Mass most weeks with no music.

There are dioceses out there where it’s nearly impossible to find a completely orthodox, abuse-free parish. After all, it’s not like their orthodoxy is clearly announced on their website where you can easily see it. It takes a lot of time to attend Mass and get a feel for the place to figure it out. Some people may not want to go through that and settle for the best out of the first few parishes they visit.
 
2 of our 3 kids were baptized outside of the territorial parish in our town. My wife was the member of a small country parish up to the point where our oldest was at the age of starting RE, at that point she switched membership and #3 was baptized there.

She’s looking at switching RE for our kids back out to the country parish, and in investigating they did invite us to stay for Mass after class and for us (her) to think about joining their parish…they really need members. Sounds like it doesn’t matter to them if we live in the parish bounds or not.
 
We live in a city with three parishes. All three are traditional, with an emphasis on the organ for music. Two offer Latin Mass every week. Fortunately, about 20 minutes away, there’s a parish with contemporary music, great homilies, and a much more welcoming atmosphere than the ones in town. Worth the drive!
 
From past discussions on here it seems like certain areas of the country are more concerned with geographic bounds than others. Someone from Texas posted previously that down there you just pick a parish and join. The parishes that have strict boundaries tend to be in densely populated areas where there’s probably more need to make sure the numbers of parishioners are equally distributed between the churches.
 
Please help me to understand. I really feel badly for people who are so obviously miserable in their parish and are struggling to accept what they feel are liturgical abuses, irreverence, “banal” music, lack of Latin, people who dress too casually, people who talk in the nave, etc. I think it would be good if they could pick up stakes and start attending a parish where they not so conflicted and unhappy.
How are any of these liturgical abuses?
 
Some people would claim it is a liturgical abuse because of the wording of certain Vatican documents on music that have been the topic of discussion in many music threads. Depending on how traditional the person you’re speaking with is, arguments have been made not only for chant having pride of place, but that certain instruments and musical styles are not supposed to be used at Mass.

I’m not really in favor of all these “music police” arguments but there are definitely people who would claim that the so-called “My Little Pony Mass” is a “liturgical abuse”.

We have had people on this forum who go even further and holler “liturgical abuse” when the priest was on the altar wearing shorts and crocs under his vestments, so “liturgical abuse” often means whatever somebody personally doesn’t like/ thinks is disrespectful.
 
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I’m just tired of people who aren’t canon lawyers or priests talk about liturgical abuse like they know more than priests
 
I find it very difficult to believe that every parish is your diocese is guilty of some sort of liturgical abuse.

What exactly do you consider an abuse?
 
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Guitar masses are not liturgical abuse. Just because you don’t prefer them doesn’t mean that they’re abusing the liturgy
 
Oh. They exist. Absolutley. I went to parish last year where I couldn’t hear myself think before or after mass because it was so loud. There was no reverence for the altar. The TABERNACLE was behind a cage way off the other other side of the building. I got a dirty look and a tsk tsk from the priest for kneeling while receiving commuinion. It was not pleasant. Maybe it was just a bad weekend for them, but it felt weird. My philosphy is; if it feels weird, it usually is.
 
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I’ve played music at mass. In order for it to be accepted for mass it has to be approved by the usccb
 
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