May I be simultaneously registered in multiple parishes?

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My house is equidistant from two Catholic churches. I’m registered at one, but have been getting more involved at the other. The priests at the second church have asked me to coordinate a new ministry, and I agreed, so I’ll have to register there.

I’m also involved in some ministries at my current parish, but I feel more spiritually fed at the new one.

What are my options?
 
Yes, you can register at two parishes however it is usually discouraged because you should support the parish in your community. Also you will have double the donation envelopes…🙂 teachccd
 
The answer is “it depends.”

You have ONE parish to which you belong, typically the parish in whose boundaries you live. You can certainly go to more than one parish and be involved in more than one. You can also give money to more than one.

But, you should be on record as a parishioner at only one under a “registered” status.

If your diocese is not using integrated software then registering at more than one parish might not be “caught” and you would be double counted in diocesan roles. You would also be counted at each parish for purposes of the diocesan bishop’s assessment on that parish (so I hope you mean to substantially contribute to both if you “register” in both).

But, if your parish has an integrated software package where the parish records synchronize with the diocese, then you CANNOT be registered in two places as the software will catch this and the parishes will be required to fix the situation. If you want to be active in both, contribute to both, etc, there are ways to put you in both parish databases but you would only be REGISTERED in one place. That’s how it works in our diocese.
 
I’m not sure what the parish boundaries are. There is nothing on my diocese’s website, and when I asked some people what the parish boundaries were, they looked at me like I was crazy. But like I said, both parishes are of equal distance from where I live (an 8 minute drive to either).

I’m a college student, so I cannot “substantially” donate to two (or even one) parish. I have always been in the custom of sharing 10% of my earnings, and then more if possible, but that doesn’t come out to very much. However, I do try to donate a lot of my time, and commit myself to prayer on behalf of my parish community.

To find out the diocesan system, should I just go ahead and register and see if they catch it?
 
We have a cluster parishes and so I am also involved because of visiting many. I am registered with only one though, I tried two but it was pretty confusing to the secretaries.
Our priests as a group have now decided to have a cluster children’s Mass at one of the two big ones. They are going to bus, costs?, the children to that church when school starts. Once a month or so. For a 9:30am Mass. This is going to be interesting. Right now the children have a Mass on Fridays, 8:30 am at our parish every week, and others have it a different day.

The cluster may take turns between our two big ones and we have a fifth one in a small outside town. The idea behind this there are many in our parishes that absolutely will not attend a different parish, usually the old folks. And the children are learning to shun another parish, or pick and chose between the priests. I like him but not that one etc. Also we are getting short on our priests.
This starts sept. 5th will let you know how it turns out.
 
GIMJ said:
My house is equidistant from two Catholic churches. I’m registered at one, but have been getting more involved at the other. The priests at the second church have asked me to coordinate a new ministry, and I agreed, so I’ll have to register there.

I’m also involved in some ministries at my current parish, but I feel more spiritually fed at the new one.

What are my options?
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Your best bet is to ask at the other parish what you should do.

If your parishes are both geographic parishes then technically you are a member of whatever parish you are physically in. But it’s been my experience that many parishes don’t have the exact information of where their boundaries are. That information is kept hidden in some diocesan file. Some dioceses care where you ‘register’ and others don’t. But for for all *practical *purposes you are a member of the parish where you (are permitted to) register as a member.

But being a “registered” member of a parish needed be the same thing as being in the parish database. And most parishes are probably more concerned about you being in the database than they are about your registration status if it means you will be doing something for them or giving them money.

At least where I live, the diocese assigns a unique tracking number to each ‘household’ in the diocese. The parishes keep track of the members of those households.

In the case of the parish census software company that I work for, each household gets a unique ID number and each member of those households also gets a unique ID number. Those numbers are separate from the diocesan ID (which is also in the database). Registration is ‘flagged’ at both the household level and at the household member level. Other flags control whether households and/or individuals want to receive parish mailings, whether or not they are active, whether they use envelopes, etc. I’m assuming other software providers have similar provisions.

So a household and/or person can be active, use envelopes, but still not be a ‘registered’ member of the parish.
 
GIMJ said:
Okay, how do I “unregister” at the parish I’m currently at?
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Assuming your diocese allows registration at whichever parish you wish, if you decide you want to be registered in a different parish you simply notify your current parish. Let them know whether you want to remain “on the books” as unregisteredt. Then go register at the new parish.

Generally once a year or so a parish is supposed to notify the diocese of those who have left the parish, those who have died, and those who are newly registered.
 
I didn’t realize there were such thing as parish “boundaries” anymore. I thought that went out years ago. There are 3 parishes closer to me than the one I belong to…
 
I don’t know if there are boundaries as such but when I was registered at one and then went to another. The first priest did not even put me on the books so I had to ask for envelopes and then I went to another that priest was more friendly and put me on the rouster right away without asking, so I ended up with double envelopes so see how it can get confusing to the secretaries. Then it came to the diocesan appeal and they figured I was going to send to both. Well also my Mom was pledged for so much but just put dollars in the collection and didn’t get recorded so they did not think she made her pledge. So the secretaries and finance committee has to account for all the monies. so I just called the first secretary and told her to take me off her books and the one I am at now I told her to not send me any envelopes as there is a lot and I can’ t give much, so I just send a check in the mail to them to use wherever. Such a waste of paper but I don not want a direct withdrawal now. When I visit a parish I just put cash in. I wish they could come up with a better system. Since we are a cluster, I don’t know how it could be any different as we are all (5 Churches ) are in the red, two by a half a million each.:eek: One a new Church the other a new addition to the school. I am avoiding getting involved with another parish just look for things to do at my own and there is plenty to do. I go the other ones that have plays, dinners, festivals, adoration, speakers, music group, bible study sometimes, relative confirmation etc. driving some one to church etc. If you make pledges, our parishes expect us to honor them hopefully I can but my husband is on layoff a lot now. I hope it goes better for you, you sound like a perfect cluster person 🙂 don’t feel bad about it, even suggest that your parishes develop this system it is working out for us. It is quite nice after you get used to it.👍
 
You have to get an anullment from your first parish, or else you might cause a rupture in the Space-Time magisterium . 😉 Oh, the humanity… But seriously, watch out, priests can get pretty fiesty about their flocks. You might set off a parish feud! (That first priest isn’t named Father Cesare Borgia by any chance, is he?)
 
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