Parish boundry question

[franksv]

Hello

Does anyone know what the deal is with Parish boundrys?

We are lucky enough to have 4 Catholic churches within 5 miles of our home. We have decided to jump ship to another one that is 1/2 mile further then the Parish that we where at, which is our Parish for our home. One block over is another Parish.

Anyways, we are going simply cuz we feel the other Parish is a better fit. We are not leaving due to anything negative. The other Parish has a school and seems more geared towards kids & young adults, they also have a small group program that interests me and my wife.

My wifes parents are giving her a hard time abut this. Comments such as “one should go to & support the Parish in their zone” so to speak.

Is this Parish zone thing a guidline, or a rule handed down from Rome?

I have spoken to one Deacon and our soon to be old Pastor, both of whom have given their support & blessing that this very well seems to be a better fit for young familys.

Does it state anywhere in the Catechism, Scripture, or any Apostolic letter about this?

Thanks for reading & your time.

Frank

 

[BlestOne]

Frank,
In your wifes parents generation there was cause to have people stay in their “zones”… Mostly because you had the Italian section of town, the Irish section, The Polish section and masses were still said in Latin but the ties of nationality helped the new immigrants to find services and jobs within their comfort zone. The individual parish was more of the center of the community and there was less access to transportation. Today, there is absolutely no problem attending and joining another church within your diocese. In my town we only have one parish, yet 5 miles one direction there is another parish that has our old pastor there. Many folks liked him so much they switched churches when he went there… no biggie! The other direction from my parish is a church 10 miles away but in another diocese… most of the time no problem… the only time we see a problem is when there is a diocesan jurisdiction thing like in annulments. My dh was in that diocese and his annulment had to go through there… which is a little more lenient so our diocese also required 4 weeks of counseling before we could marry in our diocese. Kids from that parish still attend our parish school as long as their parents can drive them here…not a problem at all.

 

[franksv]

Frank,
In your wifes parents generation there was cause to have people stay in their “zones”… Mostly because you had the Italian section of town, the Irish section, The Polish section and masses were still said in Latin but the ties of nationality helped the new immigrants to find services and jobs within their comfort zone. The individual parish was more of the center of the community and there was less access to transportation. Today, there is absolutely no problem attending and joining another church within your diocese. In my town we only have one parish, yet 5 miles one direction there is another parish that has our old pastor there. Many folks liked him so much they switched churches when he went there… no biggie! The other direction from my parish is a church 10 miles away but in another diocese… most of the time no problem… the only time we see a problem is when there is a diocesan jurisdiction thing like in annulments. My dh was in that diocese and his annulment had to go through there… which is a little more lenient so our diocese also required 4 weeks of counseling before we could marry in our diocese. Kids from that parish still attend our parish school as long as their parents can drive them here…not a problem at all.

Thanks for the info.

I did’nt think there would be problem, I just did’nt know if the inlaws where going to pull something out of their hat that I did’nt know about.

 

[Br.Rich_SFO]

Hello

Does anyone know what the deal is with Parish boundrys?

We are lucky enough to have 4 Catholic churches within 5 miles of our home. We have decided to jump ship to another one that is 1/2 mile further then the Parish that we where at, which is our Parish for our home. One block over is another Parish.

Anyways, we are going simply cuz we feel the other Parish is a better fit. We are not leaving due to anything negative. The other Parish has a school and seems more geared towards kids & young adults, they also have a small group program that interests me and my wife.

My wifes parents are giving her a hard time abut this. Comments such as “one should go to & support the Parish in their zone” so to speak.

Is this Parish zone thing a guidline, or a rule handed down from Rome?

I have spoken to one Deacon and our soon to be old Pastor, both of whom have given their support & blessing that this very well seems to be a better fit for young familys.

Does it state anywhere in the Catechism, Scripture, or any Apostolic letter about this?

Thanks for reading & your time.

Frank

If you current pastor has no problem then there is no problem. It is possible for a Bishop to require people to register in and support there parish church, even though they may attend another parish church.

 

[puzzleannie]

Hello

Does anyone know what the deal is with Parish boundrys?

We are lucky enough to have 4 Catholic churches within 5 miles of our home. We have decided to jump ship to another one that is 1/2 mile further then the Parish that we where at, which is our Parish for our home. One block over is another Parish.

Anyways, we are going simply cuz we feel the other Parish is a better fit. We are not leaving due to anything negative. The other Parish has a school and seems more geared towards kids & young adults, they also have a small group program that interests me and my wife.

My wifes parents are giving her a hard time abut this. Comments such as “one should go to & support the Parish in their zone” so to speak.

Is this Parish zone thing a guidline, or a rule handed down from Rome?

I have spoken to one Deacon and our soon to be old Pastor, both of whom have given their support & blessing that this very well seems to be a better fit for young familys.

Does it state anywhere in the Catechism, Scripture, or any Apostolic letter about this?

Thanks for reading & your time.

Frank

the deal is canon law and yes it is handed down by Rome, although the actual boundaries are of course set locally by the bishop.

boundaries may be territorial, geographic, or ritual or other basis
for instance you belong to the territorial parish in which you reside, and the pastor of that parish is responsible for the spiritual life of everyone resident in his parish. He may not accept for baptism, marriage, confirmation anyone who is not a member of his parish, w/o permission from that person’s pastor.

However you may also belong to a ritual parish if you are from one of the Eastern Rites, or to an ethnic parish, one established to serve a large number of immigrants from another country with priests and schools in their own language. In Cleveland we resided in the territorial parish of St Jerome, but had we belonged to any of these groups, would have been expected to attend the Lithuanian, Slovenian, Hungarian, or Italian parish closest to us.

There is no reason why you cannot attend the nearest parish that meets your family’s needs–Mass times, school etc., but to celebrate sacraments there you must either register, if it is not your territorial parish, or get permission from your own pastor.

 

[franksv]

the deal is canon law and yes it is handed down by Rome, although the actual boundaries are of course set locally by the bishop.

boundaries may be territorial, geographic, or ritual or other basis
for instance you belong to the territorial parish in which you reside, and the pastor of that parish is responsible for the spiritual life of everyone resident in his parish. He may not accept for baptism, marriage, confirmation anyone who is not a member of his parish, w/o permission from that person’s pastor.

However you may also belong to a ritual parish if you are from one of the Eastern Rites, or to an ethnic parish, one established to serve a large number of immigrants from another country with priests and schools in their own language. In Cleveland we resided in the territorial parish of St Jerome, but had we belonged to any of these groups, would have been expected to attend the Lithuanian, Slovenian, Hungarian, or Italian parish closest to us.

There is no reason why you cannot attend the nearest parish that meets your family’s needs–Mass times, school etc., but to celebrate sacraments there you must either register, if it is not your territorial parish, or get permission from your own pastor.

Thank you.

Could you point me in the right direction where I might find this in written form? I need to either set thier minds at ease(as we already have our territoral Pastors blessing), or point out the real issue here being what’s best for the in laws vs our family.

Frank