Should we choose which Catholic church we attend?

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Beverly

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As Catholics, aren’t we supposed to go to our local church? I was curious since I had seen a lot of posts saying people had changed churches because they didn’t agree with something the priest or the people were doing. I am honestly asking - it doesn’t come up much here in the “bible belt” - you don’t normally have more than one Catholic church locally. In other words, as Catholics, I thought we were not supposed to change parishes because of our preferences. That does seem to be an very “Protestant” thing - not meaning to offend my Protestant brothers and sisters- but it seems that they choose their church based on if they agree with the beliefs, which is logical for them, since all Protestant churches do not teach the same things. But it should not be the case for us. We have 2 Catholic churches here for the first time. I have gone to the one across town since I was 6 months old. I had my first Communion there, was confirmed there, married there, and all of my children have received their sacraments there. My husband also entered the church there, but should I be attending the one that is now in my neighborhood? Just curious. I want to be obedient, but I will really miss my old church. :confused:
 
FWIW, I’ve never heard we had to go to our local Church. My wife and I used to drive 20-25 mins each week to go to a Church we enjoyed more than the one that was 3 blocks from our house. Now, the Church we like is local to us. We have three Churches that we have gone to here in our town…not sure why anyone would care which we were registered at…

John
 
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Beverly:
As Catholics, aren’t we supposed to go to our local church? I was curious since I had seen a lot of posts saying people had changed churches because they didn’t agree with something the priest or the people were doing. I am honestly asking - it doesn’t come up much here in the “bible belt” - you don’t normally have more than one Catholic church locally. In other words, as Catholics, I thought we were not supposed to change parishes because of our preferences. That does seem to be an very “Protestant” thing - not meaning to offend my Protestant brothers and sisters- but it seems that they choose their church based on if they agree with the beliefs, which is logical for them, since all Protestant churches do not teach the same things. But it should not be the case for us. We have 2 Catholic churches here for the first time. I have gone to the one across town since I was 6 months old. I had my first Communion there, was confirmed there, married there, and all of my children have received their sacraments there. My husband also entered the church there, but should I be attending the one that is now in my neighborhood? Just curious. I want to be obedient, but I will really miss my old church. :confused:
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I would suggest you attend whichever parish nourishes you the best in a spritual sense.

Your spritual nutrition must come first in this case.
 
Could be wrong here, but I thought it used to be required that you attend your local church. I thought somehow that this requirment had been lifted.

Today there are some churches that have very little Catholic left in them, and I would not feel comfortable staying there.

We moved across town but stayed with our old church, both because we like it better and because our kids attend the parish school.
 
Little Flower:
Could be wrong here, but I thought it used to be required that you attend your local church. I thought somehow that this requirment had been lifted.

Today there are some churches that have very little Catholic left in them, and I would not feel comfortable staying there.

We moved across town but stayed with our old church, both because we like it better and because our kids attend the parish school.
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We had a priest from a local parish speak with our Newman-Stein fellowship one evening about the rights and responsibilities of the Catholic layman. This issue came up. Essentially, the answer is that in a perfect world, yes, you would go to the church in your parish (a parish is not a building but a geographical area). But the Vatican and our bishops have examined the situation and realized that this is not a perfect world and that many Catholic parish churches are only nominally so. If this is the case in your parish, then you are free to go to a parish church that is most definitely Catholic in faith and practice.

That’s a short-term solution to the problem, though. We also, as Catholics, have a right (yes, a right!!!) to inform our priests and bishops when we are worried that a parish church has strayed from the teachings of the Church. The first step in addressing any abuse is to speak to the priest. If the priest will not correct it, then we are free to go to our bishop. If the bishop does not address the concern in a timely manner, then we are free to appeal to the Congregation of Sacred Rites, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, and yes even the Supreme Pontiff himself. Seriously. There is nothing that forbids a layman from speaking to the Pope to make a request. Look at young ThŽrse Martin, for example… Our bishops are bound to obey their superiors, and to not obey would create a very bad situation for them. So be bold. Running from abuses isn’t always the best answer. Sometimes it’s the only thing we can do in the short-term, but eventually we do need to get down to addressing the issues in our own parish. I’m preparing a letter to my bishop addressing abuses still prevalent at what should technically be my parish church even AFTER Redemptionis Sacramentum was promulgated.

Don’t be fearful. A priest cannot deny you the Eucharist because you have rebuked him. A bishop cannot brand you seditious and anathema if you gently point out that there are abuses to be corrected in his diocese. If they do something like that, you can bet that the Vatican would severely punish them, if not strip them of their offices immediately.
 
I think it was in the 80’s that the rule changed allowing Catholics to register with whatever parish they so desired. I was told that by someone who claimed to be knowledgable.
 
The only rule I was aware of is that you can only be registered with one church in the parish (or is it diocese?). Whichever church that is, is the one that gets your time, talent and money. I heard that on Relevant Radio one day but I caught the tail end of the conversation so it’s possible I took it under the wrong context???
 
I attend two Catholic churches because of the problems concerning Confession.

The town’s big parish, named Sacred Heart, has about 2000 families as members of the parish. They offer Confession every Saturday from 3:30 to 5:15. I like to goto confession at least once a month.

No matter what I’d do or how early I’d show up, I’d never get a chance to confess because each person takes 15 to 20 minutes to confess! I felt this was ridiculous. With 20 people in line, you do the math.

Recently, my work schedule has changed so that I must always work Saturdays; hence, no more confessions at Sacred Heart. I found a little church 40 minutes away called Our Lady of Fatima Church. They have confession after both Masses on Sunday.

I was most pleased to find that this older, more traditional, priest was FAST! Each person spent on average 2 minutes in the confessional. He went through 10 people in 15 to 20 minutes.

So … I goto two different parishes because of the Confession problem.
 
I think WhiteDove is right, although I can’t cite a source on this either. There are still two kinds of parishes in the U.S., “territorial” and “national” or ethnic. “Territorial” parishes encompass actual boundaries, which might be a few blocks to a few miles to a few towns. “National” parishes were set up for specific ethnic groups, which is why you so often see three Catholic Churches within a few blocks of each other–St. Patrick’s was for the Irish, St. Anthony for the Italians, St. John’s for the Germans, etc. With all the inter-marriage among the different ethnic groups, many people are 1/4 Irish, 1/4 German, etc, and attend the parish in which they feel most comfortable. When you had more Schmidts and Bonaducci’s attending St. Pat’s than O’Leary’s because they were raised there, it became hard to argue that it was only for the Irish, and I think this is what relaxed the old territorial rules too.

I certainly think a good parishioner at least TRIES the local parish, although I wouldn’t push this on anyone. Some (NOT ALL) modern churches are so ugly that I feel sorry for anyone who has to contemplate having a wedding or baptism there. And the appearance is even less important than the the spirit of the place. But it is essential to be REGISTERED in one Catholic parish. When I was in the Legion of Mary doing parish census work, we were specifically told not to give people a hard time about attending a parish outside of our parish boundaries as long as they were offically registered there, and I guess the Legion is my source since they were very much on the ball with these rules and hardly a wishy-washy group.
 
We are so dissatisfied with our new pastor of one year that we
attend mass at three different parishes:

local parish with a visiting priest who says a good homily(two days a week)

mass at a local Catholic retreat (four days a week)

Sunday mass at a third very traditional parish that supports Catholic home schooling. We are about to home school our children.

This effort would not be necessary if our new pastor would take an interest in the liturgy and folks faith. Unfortunately, he is much more interested in removing all “religious” items from the church and building a new church than helping us sinners understand the word of God.

I have talked to folks who have tried sending the letters … absolutely no positive results. The priest and the bishop ignored the situation. So the best course of action is to seek out the holy priests that help build and support my families faith. I was told the story of one lady who belonged to five parishes and she financially supported all five. When she died, all five priests were at her funeral.

So for whatever reasons we may have, it is more important to seek out the word of God in a Catholic church than to worry about which parish counts my money. I will contribute whenever the basket is passed.

God Bless
 
I’ve been a member of my parish all my life (50 years). I’ve seen many people come and go over the years for various reasons, not infrequently for what I term ‘the cult of the personality’. They follow their favorite priest all over the archdiocese. Another practice is to attend a local friary, priory, monastery, or hospital chapel liturgy to avoid any inter-parish dynamics (and dare I say financial commitment?).

I’ve lived through many pastors and assistants - charismatic and curmudgeonly, bright and average, reverent and clumsy/casual. In the good times, parish life was wonderful - church was THE source of my spiritual growth. But when the person at the altar did nothing for me, the community kept me going. I got involved in RCIA and parish council with several strong, faith-filled people and I believe we nurtured the priests. Hey, those were the times I got into reading This Rock and the spiritual classics!

If your pastor makes your blood boil, I guess I wouldn’t tell you to stick it out. Yet, in times of suffering and joy, nothing rivals having your home community of parishioners pray for you and with you, bring Communion to your dying father, rejoice in the Baptism of your child, and simply be there with you and your family week after week.

I would encourage anyone to find a parish in which to settle for the long haul. It has taught me about mission, suffering, patience, joy, and love.
 
I live in a diocesean seminary and have recently been accepted into a religious order, so this conversation comes up all the time. First, we have to acknowledge the universality of the Church. That’s important because while each individual parish will have some measure of individual identity, as in “I go to Star of the Sea,” or “We’re St. Francis people,” we sell ourselves short when we construct parish, diocesean, or even provincial lines based on these specific characters. To have a parish in town which is known to the the “conservative one” juxtaposed to it’s neighbor which dubs itself “progressive” next to another which is “more moderate” is to do a disservice not only to the individual parish but also to the wider Church. The bottom line is, things shouldn’t vary enough from parish-to-parish to warrant like distinctions. The problem is, as noted earlier, that currently that is precisely what is going on. It is true that under the former Code of Canon Law you could only fulfill your Sunday obligation at your local parish, and while the weight of the rule has been suspended, the spirit still most definitely applies. Ethnic parishes are a bit of a different situation, especially if Mass is being offered in a specific language, i.e.: Bosnian, Spanish, etc. What shouldn’t be the case though, and what parishoners have to be warned about from the pulpit, is an abuse of the law whereby half the town crams into one church and causes the dissolution of three or four other parishes with a less vibrant pastor.
 
I think we should try to attend and support our local parish. I feel an obligation to support the community that I am in. Fortunately we have never had any major problems where we are but if we did I would not have a problem going to another church nearby. It would have to be something pretty major.
 
Fenianman, the problem is, some parishes have become so hetrodox in terms of liturgy and even theology, that parishoners, in an attepmt to try to get some reverence and solid theology have no choice but to leave their home parish and go to a more conservative/traditional parish. It would be nice if the mass was more universal, but sadly the inaction of Bishops in the years after Vatican II prevented that. Of course that also works in reverse, where progressives who do not like hearing about church teachings in sermons, and who like laity all over the altar go to progressive parishes, but the burden of this is on the pastor who allows this nonsense to go on.

I think this situation will get even worse as time goes on, not better as more and more Catholics get fed up with their local parishes, unless this or the next Pope throws the hammer down and says no more to liturgical and theological nonsense.
 
I’m new here, so I hope ya’ll will bear with me…I have to state that I’m a revert to Catholicism. Part of the reason that I came back was because of the parish priest ‘outside’ of my parish. After addressing my issues (which the local parish priest had poo-pooed) , and having them put to rest , I started to attend the parish 15 miles from my ‘home’ parish. Unlike my ‘home’ parish, the folks there are welcoming and benevolent, unlike my ‘home’ parish which suffers from clique’s and the “mightier than thou’s”.

Although the local parish has since ‘changed hands’ and we now have a wonderful and knowledgeable priest, I only attend there two days a week for daily mass (the priest may have changed, but the cliques didn’t). The ‘further away’ parish welcomed me with open arms, to the point that I am part time lector. I also lector at the daily Mass for our local shrine, so, although it’s not a parish, you could say that I’m affiliated with three distinct, although totally separate Catholic Churches/Parishes.

Patricia
 
Simple answer, folks: There is no requirement to attend your local parish. You may attend any Catholic church you wish.
 
Karl Keating:
Simple answer, folks: There is no requirement to attend your local parish. You may attend any Catholic church you wish.
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If we do decide to go to another parrish, do you think it is a good idea to let someone know if it is because of a lack of orthodoxy or other such problems? Perhaps if more of us told the Bishops why we drove across town, more things would be done to fix the problems
 
There may be reasons to register at a Parish. Some friends of mine went to Mass at a hospital chapel (because the priest was so great, is so great) When they tried to adopt a child through Catholic Charities they were told they weren’t considered regular church attendees and that they had best register and attend at parish church. (the hospital chapel did not have envelopes, the priest did not greet everyone after Mass-no “proof”) Also similiar problems could arrise concerning marraige and baptisms. We had a priest at one time who said to mail in your envelopes than that would be taken care of :bigyikes: . I guess there would be a $ trail if not a faith one.

blessings
 
I am being torn between two places right now because I am in my hometown but I spend most of the year in a different city attending University. Also I am not a full member because I don’t know where to take RCIA. I decided that I would wait til the Fall so I can be there for as long as it takes to finally become a Roman Catholic on paper and in heart. However, at mass I desire so much for the Eucharist and I have to keep myself from thinking about how some marginal Catholics take the Eucharist without a thought or care. It seems like many of them take it for granted to the point of eating and drinking judgement on themselves. I guess I should be less judgemental. My other question was that I have a campus parish but there is a parish I enjoy going to much more. Should I stay at the campus parish so I can participate in all the campus programs or go to the one that I feel more full from being Spiritually fed?
 
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JNB:
Fenianman, the problem is, some parishes have become so hetrodox in terms of liturgy and even theology, that parishoners, in an attepmt to try to get some reverence and solid theology have no choice but to leave their home parish and go to a more conservative/traditional parish. It would be nice if the mass was more universal, but sadly the inaction of Bishops in the years after Vatican II prevented that. Of course that also works in reverse, where progressives who do not like hearing about church teachings in sermons, and who like laity all over the altar go to progressive parishes, but the burden of this is on the pastor who allows this nonsense to go on.

I think this situation will get even worse as time goes on, not better as more and more Catholics get fed up with their local parishes, unless this or the next Pope throws the hammer down and says no more to liturgical and theological nonsense.
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:tiphat:
Father Benedict Groeschel says “if you don’t like what is happing in your parish get in your car and drive” … Our parish is very liberal and there are often many abuses and irreverent conduct during the mass. We attend the TLM that is offered in one parish across town.
 
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