How does a Catholic choose a parish?

[mjthill]

I will be moving to a new city in two weeks and will be looking to join a parish. A friend mentioned that there are territorial and non-territorial parishes, and that you should attend the territorial parish in whose bounds you live (kind of like a district). Is this true, and if so, how do I find out whether a parish is my territorial parish? I am wondering if I am obligated to attend a parish that may have liturgical abuses.

 

[Michelle_Arnold]

Before the promulgation of the 1983 Code of Canon Law, which dispensed with the previous requirement, it used to be the case that Catholics ordinarily registered at the church within the geographical parish they lived. (The parish is the name of the geographical area; the church within that geographical boundary is the parish’s church.) Now, however, a Catholic is free to register at any Catholic church recognized by that church’s local diocese to be a Catholic church. Feel free to visit a number of Catholic churches in your new city in order to find one that seems the best fit for you and your family.