Receiving Sacraments at our parish required

[jilly4ski]

When I checked with our Diocesan office I was told there was not a problem with registering and attending a parish other than our territorial parish and I have not heard of a local Pastor refusing to acknowledge such parishioners. We have changed Bishops since then so perhaps I should check again.

I respect Canon Law (hence the check with the Diocese) but to assume I must belong to a specific parish simply because I purchased a home within some arbitrary boundary seems archaic. With all the “modernizing” of the past 40+ years this seems like a pretty odd rule to insist upon.

When we moved, we happened to move right on the boundaries between 3 territorial parishes. The maps on the diocesan website were unclear, (and very difficult to find, only available because there was a reorg of parishes). So we joined a parish, but needed to schedule a baptism for our soon to come baby. So in scheduling, we brought up the issue that we didn’t know which of the three parishes was our territorial parish. The parish didn’t know either, but that was our attempt at following the canon. We have moved again, but are going to get our current baby baptized at our old parish (which we definitely not in the territorial boundaries), but there is no way we can set up our residency, registration, participation, tithing, in order to get the baby baptized as early as we would like.

 

[Vico]

…The parish didn’t know either, …

Sounds so … usual.

When I was growing up, new parishes were being built, so I was switched from one to the other, but attended at at least four that I remember. I was only an altar server at one.

 

[Sunbreak]

One thing I’m not clear on with personal parishes. Since, as you said, some towns and cities had mostly, if not only, personal parishes, if I was Polish did I have to be a member of the Polish Parish? Or could I be a member of another ethnic personal parish if, say, it was closer to my home?

The ethnic parishes evolved in the old days because of the way people settled when they came to America. So, ethnic groups tended to settle in a certain part of town and built a parish there. A few blocks away another ethnic group settled and had their own parish. It’s not that you had to be Polish to belong to the Polish parish - it’s that you would live near the Polish parish and so would naturally go there. In the old days when there were mostly personal parishes in larger cities many people would walk to church.

 

[Phemie]

The ethnic parishes evolved in the old days because of the way people settled when they came to America. So, ethnic groups tended to settle in a certain part of town and built a parish there. A few blocks away another ethnic group settled and had their own parish. It’s not that you had to be Polish to belong to the Polish parish - it’s that you would live near the Polish parish and so would naturally go there. In the old days when there were mostly personal parishes in larger cities many people would walk to church.

I did that on nice days in the mid 70s when I lived about a mile and a half from an Italian parish. Didn’t have a car and it was closer to me than the military parish which I had to catch a bus to go to.

 

[FrDavid96]

One thing I’m not clear on with personal parishes. Since, as you said, some towns and cities had mostly, if not only, personal parishes, if I was Polish did I have to be a member of the Polish Parish? Or could I be a member of another ethnic personal parish if, say, it was closer to my home? Obviously by doing that I would be giving up all expectations that my own ethnicity would be taken into consideration in any decisions made.

For the time and places I’m writing about, for most people it didn’t matter–that is, it wasn’t a question for them to ask. They simply joined their ethnic parishes.
In my own personal experience, there was always a territorial parish which applied anyway. If it was a place that wasn’t an ethnic neighborhood, the parish was likely to be mostly Irish or German (though unofficially).

Similarly, for 23 years our family was part of the military and, as such, part of the Canadian Military Ordinariate “diocese”. As I understand the set up for that Ordinariate, it is responsible for all Catholic members of the Canadian military and their dependents regardless of whether they live on Base or not, are posted in Canada or not. For most of those years we attended the military parish on whichever Base to which we were posted. Except for the last 4 years hubby was in. For three of those we attended Mass and considered ourselves part of the “Communauté Catholique Francophone”, a community created by the local Archbishop and given a Chaplain. Not big enough a group to become a parish, we attended Mass at the school my children attended, a building that was the heart of the Francophone community in the area. Had it been large enough to be a parish it would have been a personal parish.

Our last year in the military saw us posted to a Base where there was no Catholic Padre. We had to attend Mass off Base and become part of the regular parish downtown. I gather it would have all been arranged between the Bishop of the Military Ordinariate and the bishop of the local diocese, I can’t see a bishop dumping part of his flock on another bishop without a “by your leave.”

It all depends. Not all military personnel necessarily have a nearby military chaplain (Catholic or not). There could be (and are) a situation where there’s just a handful of military persons living in a given place (like a recruiting station where some active duty are assigned, but it’s not near any base). The military Archbishop (in the case of the U.S.) doesn’t make formal arrangements with every single local bishop. It’s not that he is “dumping” them; they simply come under the pastoral care of the local pastor. If an issue arises where jurisdiction is an issue, then those things are worked-out on an individual basis. Of course, if it’s a situation that involves a large number of people, then such arrangements are indeed made.

 

[Phemie]

It all depends. Not all military personnel necessarily have a nearby military chaplain (Catholic or not). There could be (and are) a situation where there’s just a handful of military persons living in a given place (like a recruiting station where some active duty are assigned, but it’s not near any base). The military Archbishop (in the case of the U.S.) doesn’t make formal arrangements with every single local bishop. It’s not that he is “dumping” them; they simply come under the pastoral care of the local pastor. If an issue arises where jurisdiction is an issue, then those things are worked-out on an individual basis. Of course, if it’s a situation that involves a large number of people, then such arrangements are indeed made.

In this case the Base had had both a Catholic & a Protestant Padre when we’d lived there three years earlier, but the decision was made to no longer post a Catholic Padre here. Our first Sunday back the boys and I dressed and showed up for Mass as we’d always done and…nothing. The last Mass had been celebrated the previous week. Back then we probably had a few hundred members.

That was 19 years ago. We retired here and have noted over the years that few, if any, Catholics who live on Base come to the local parish. It’s part of the mentality of this isolated posting that if it’s not happening on Base, it’s not happening, period. Recently the military bishop convinced our Pastor to celebrate Mass on Base once a month. His congregation there is smaller than at our daily Mass – 3 to 5 people.

 

[Brendan]

Another thing to know is that personal parishes are quite common here. Because of our history of immigration, until recent times, it’s probably safe to say that we had more personal parishes than we did territorial ones–as a statistic…

I can attest to that. Within 4 miles of my house are 9 Catholic parishes. 4 of those are Eastern Catholic, 3 different sui juris Churches.

Of the 5 Roman Catholic parishes, 3 are personal parishes and 2 are territorial.

So, on a given street, you could potentially have 8 Catholic families who belong to 8 different parishes, all of which would be in full accord with the relevant Canons of their respective Churches.