parish council

[ZxM]

in my parish you have to be 18 to vote for someone on parish council. is that common in all parishes?

i would think if you were a practicing catholic registered at the church then you should have a vote, it cant be because “the state doesnt allow voting until 18 so we just do it that way” because in that case i would think that we would have to withhold the blood of christ to anyone under 21 because i cant see the state believing in transubstanation.

 

[edward_george]

In my parish you just have to be a confirmed member of the parish to vote (and presumably to serve). When I was in high school, I actually served as a youth representative to the parish council for a couple of years. Some parishes do this. Parish councils are suggested, but not required by Canon Law (para 536), and it would seem to me that the way they’re administered is up to the particular parish and diocese.

-ACEGC

 

[Spirithound]

in my parish you have to be 18 to vote for someone on parish council. is that common in all parishes?

i would think if you were a practicing catholic registered at the church then you should have a vote, it cant be because “the state doesnt allow voting until 18 so we just do it that way” because in that case i would think that we would have to withhold the blood of christ to anyone under 21 because i cant see the state believing in transubstanation.

It is my understanding that even when the state restricts alcohol to a certain age limit, parents are allowed to allow their children to drink alcohol in their own home. That could reasonably extend to receiving a couple milliliters of the Precious Blood in a church.

 

[dconklin]

We do not vote for the PC in our parish. Voting would be necessary if there were many people interested in serving. Names are suggested and the Pastor solicits their involvement.

 

[Phemie]

In my parish you just have to be a confirmed member of the parish to vote (and presumably to serve). When I was in high school, I actually served as a youth representative to the parish council for a couple of years. Some parishes do this. Parish councils are suggested, but not required by Canon Law (para 536), and it would seem to me that the way they’re administered is up to the particular parish and diocese.

-ACEGC

In our parish it’s 16, allowing youth to serve on the PC – not that we have a PC at the moment.

As for Communion, I know that in Canada and in some (most?) States the law specifically exempts alcohol consumed during religious services from the age requirement (18 or 19 in Canada depending on the province & 21 in the US).

 

[thomas_jd]

in my parish you have to be 18 to vote for someone on parish council. is that common in all parishes?

i would think if you were a practicing catholic registered at the church then you should have a vote, it cant be because “the state doesnt allow voting until 18 so we just do it that way” because in that case i would think that we would have to withhold the blood of christ to anyone under 21 because i cant see the state believing in transubstanation.

The Finance council is required by Canon Law and the members are appointed by the pastor. The pastor remains the juridic authority for final decision. As there is no such provision for the Parish Council , the authority still remains with the pastor and the members serve at his discretion.
In both cases the Councils are advisory and consultative.

 

[puzzleannie]

in my parish you have to be 18 to vote for someone on parish council. is that common in all parishes?

i would think if you were a practicing catholic registered at the church then you should have a vote, it cant be because “the state doesnt allow voting until 18 so we just do it that way” because in that case i would think that we would have to withhold the blood of christ to anyone under 21 because i cant see the state believing in transubstanation.

in any case the role of the parish council is advisory only, not representative as in a state legislature or city council, and it does not have the authority to make policy but to advise the pastor. The representatives should be chosen therefore so that the parish community is adequately represented. Generally the heads of parish departments are also members but do not vote, but the results of the voting are not binding on the pastor. Many parishes do opt to invite youth of the parish to represent that group but not as voting members, but that is not required. What the state does or does not do is irrelevant. The parish council (which is recommended but not required(, finance commission (which is required) and other such bodies are regulated by canon law.

 

[ZxM]

i understand what the councils do and such, im just having a hard time wrapping my head around why some parish members can vote in this body but not other parish members.

 

[SuscipeMeDomine]

I find it interesting that people vote for parish council members. Do they have platforms that they run on? How do you decide who to vote for?

In my parish we solicit names and you can suggest yourself or someone else. Then the current parish council reviews them with the pastor and together they discern who should be asked to serve. We have 12 people on the parish council and four rotate off each year.

 

[ZxM]

they way they did it here was there were 3 seats to fill so that asked for 6 people to nominate themselves and then during a flurry of activity at the offertory they passed out ballots and pencils and you voted for 3 out of the 8 people listed.

basically what was listed was the persons family and stuff the person themself did at church.

 

[Corki]

I find it interesting that people vote for parish council members. Do they have platforms that they run on? How do you decide who to vote for?

In my parish we solicit names and you can suggest yourself or someone else. Then the current parish council reviews them with the pastor and together they discern who should be asked to serve. We have 12 people on the parish council and four rotate off each year.

We don’t vote for ours either. The pastor solicits members for the PC and the Finance Council. They are pretty much life time appointments. I have been in this parish for almost 10 years and the only changes were when someone died or moved away.

When I was in college, our Newman Chapel had a voting system for PC but that’s the only time I have seen it. That doesn’t really help the OP since all of the Newman Chapel parishioners were over 18 or at least functioning independantly.

ZxM,

Are people under 18 registered independantly in your parish? At ours, the head of a family would register his or her whole family so it wouldn’t generally occur that anyone under 18 is a registered parishioner.

 

[corsair]

The present OF parish that I attend has a PC but it is limited to an Advisory body, only. Not sure how the new pastor is going to view it.

The last parish I belonged to was RUN by the PC and the priest just caved in to anything they wanted. Most of the PC members were also in charge of the altar, liturgy and the choir music.
They sort of ran it like a “good ol’ boys & girls club”.

 

[MarkThompson]

i understand what the councils do and such, im just having a hard time wrapping my head around why some parish members can vote in this body but not other parish members.

Because some are adults and others are children. What’s so hard to understand?

 

[Spirithound]

i understand what the councils do and such, im just having a hard time wrapping my head around why some parish members can vote in this body but not other parish members.

Probably the same reason that the state has age thresholds. People of a certain age are unable, or unlikely to make serious decisions.