I go to the parish that is the most traditional. there are two other churches closer to me but I avoid them. Unfortunately “church shopping” a protestant phrase has been introduced to the catholic world.
Yes and yes. I am a member of a parish that is not my ‘home’ parish, in fact I have a totally different bishop and rite
and therefore completely different liturgy. I agree with the idea of going where you are fed, where you have access to a priest. I am not on hold anymore, and can actively and fully participate in the life of the church.
I used to attend a parish that was quite a ways away from my home because the mass was faithful to the rubrics and the parish was orthodox, reverent and the parishoners faithful, holy, and caring. I am in another part of the country. I have found another great parish where I live now, but it is too far to drive to every week.
What was he saying instead?
Same, like I said, we probably split our time between the two but I’m involved with the things closer to home.
Well I am registered at the preferred parish, but I’m still a registered member at the home parish (which I still probably go to 2x/month). That’s all correct, right?It doesn’t matter that much.
But be aware that your pastor is the one in your geographical territory. If you feel strongly about one place over another, be sure to register in that place, so when the time comes and you “need” things, everything has been in place and worked out. If you were ever registered at the place you don’t care for, call them and tell them you have moved your membership.
Parish employees appreciate it.
I would get off the role of the home parish no reason to be counted twice. Things that effect a parish that is deviating from traditional Catholicism in a manner that people are seeking other parishes is FINANCE. Really the only way to change a parish is to hit them in the wallet. Numbers matter and a pastor not keeping up with these things will eventually be transferred and things will change. Literally the only way for us Lay folks to fight back and right the church is to hit the bottom line. Do that an you might have a lot less of a drive to feel at home in your home parish.
I get that, but I still participate there because I do see value in being part of the actual community you live in. So I am torn. I mean, days I’m not there, I’m also not giving them money–not sure if they would notice that though.
As a church employee, I would say pick one. Here’s the reason:
Many parishes have really messed up databases for this reason. Because people just register in a few places, like it doesn’t matter “just in case” or to cover their bases.
It is important to try, yes. It does not take too many tries to determine that your effort is better spent in the car driving to a different parish! How many times do you bang your head on the wall to determine that it hurts?
yeah.
got itAs a church employee, I would say pick one. Here’s the reason:
The parishes are taxed by the Diocese based on their membership numbers.
If you are artificially inflating those numbers it hurts the parish. If you are receiving envelopes from both parishes, you’re hurting the bottom line as well. These are administrative concerns, but they are concerns. (IF you are not giving in both locales)
Do you receive a tax notification from both?
For ex:
If a pastor wants to build a new youth hall, and his records show that there are 400 teens in his parish, he may proceed, asking the Bishop for clearance to go forward. But when push comes to shove, and those kids are not worshipping there, not in formation there, then he has a lot of 'splaining to do.
It’s a problem. Likewise with people who move out of state and never tell anyone. We’d like to not keep publishing them in the directory, in the rosters list, in the ministry lists, etc.
Sometimes Father will say " How come I don’t see Sally anymore at Mass?" And we’ll say, well, we heard she moved to Nevada, but she never said anything to us…maybe she did!
In a big parish, you can get lost in the numbers really easily. It doesn’t mean that the priest doesn’t care, or that he doesn’t notice you.
It boils down to courtesy.