My favorite priest is leaving my parish can I just switch parishes

[PetraG]

Yeah. That’s pretty much what happens in my dioceses. They just want you to stay in the dioceses and not go to another state/dioceses (which is way easy in New England)

I think our archbishops have been willing to allow people to go to a different parish if that is going to help them be more active and to attend Mass more faithfully. That has its downsides, but in a state with such low church attendance overall I think it makes sense. I think it is pretty common–hence the popularity of having people “register” in their parishes.

 

[Xanthippe_Voorhees]

Xanthippe_Voorhees:

Yeah. That’s pretty much what happens in my dioceses. They just want you to stay in the dioceses and not go to another state/dioceses (which is way easy in New England)

I think our archbishops have been willing to allow people to go to a different parish if that is going to help them be more active and to attend Mass more faithfully. That has its downsides, but in a state with such low church attendance overall I think it makes sense.

Ours has to do with geography in New England. You can live in say, the town of X but really, the parish of the Y is closer because there are no straight roads in New England. When my “geographical” parish no longer became an option going 2 towns over was actually faster than going to either of the towns that bordered mine.

In reality, many towns are this way. My current parish is actually closer to me than it is for a number of “geographic” parishioners.

 

[dochawk]

In some dioceses, however, the bishop or archbishop instructs pastors to allow members of the faithful who reside outside the boundaries of a parish to establish domicile there.

Also, there are parts of the US where the parishes don’t have boundary lines, as they were originally set up as ethnic parishes.

It was a real shock to me when I landed in one of these . . .

hawk

 

[Loud-living-dogma]

We don’t totally love our current pastor, but he has good points. He has said that if our child is in the parochial school, then the family is expected to attend Mass there on Sunday. Every now and then we take a “vacation” at another parish though.

 

[Loud-living-dogma]

On the topic of the pastor’s moving every six years or so, this has good and bad points. I think that if the parishioners don’t like a particular priest or his approach to things, they just quietly resist and figure they will outlast him.

 

[SacredHeartBassist]

idk why a priest can’t stay at the same parish for life

 

[Loud-living-dogma]

That’s a good question. I would love a “good” priest for life, but not a “bad” one. I think moving them around allows the bishop to mix up the not-so-good ones.

 

[SacredHeartBassist]

then the bad churches would close unless the priest got better

 

[blackforest]

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[Loud-living-dogma]

I’m not sure a consumer model always works for the Church. I personally just wish the bishops could / would reign in some priests.

 

[dochawk]

idk why a priest can’t stay at the same parish for life

Once installed as a pastor, there are limitations on his removal under canon law; he has certain rights in his position. In the countries with limited terms, this still allows rotation.

A couple of years ago, A Ukrainian Catholic (no terms) priest retired in his 90s, after 40 years in his parish.

hawk