Territorial Parish

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twf said:
It does matter in a few cases. Marriage for example. It is not lawful to marry outside of one’s geographical parish without the consent of one’s canonical (territorial) pastor for example. Only your geographical pastor is obliged to baptize your children as well (though others could consent to do so).
For the past year I’ve lived an 8 minute walk from a particular parish. I’ve been operating under the assumption that I live within the parish boundaries, but it just occurred to me that a possible logical dividing line could be the major street I cross on my way to the church (I live one block east of said street and the parish is a few blocks west of it). If so, I have no idea where my territorial parish church would be.
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Well, I was already married when I converted. I don’t intend to get married again. They have had no problem baptizing my children at the cathedral.

I’m surprised I haven’t heard anything, maybe I’ll drop another email. Well, someone on vacation might have quite a backlog, maybe I’ll wait until later in the week.
 
Well I did get an email, apparently they don’t have the record electronically are they are in files archives. She said:
Very few parishes restrict parishioners to their parish boundaries – one specific church in Little Rock is the only one that comes to mind. In most areas of the diocese people are free to register at whatever parish they want to attend.
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That one is the one with their boundaries listed on their website, go figure.
 
misspriss said:
Well I did get an email, apparently they don’t have the record electronically are they are in files archives. She said:

That one is the one with their boundaries listed on their website, go figure.
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A rather disappointing answer.

Dan
 
misspriss said:
Well I did get an email, apparently they don’t have the record electronically are they are in files archives. She said:
Very few parishes restrict parishioners to their parish boundaries – one specific church in Little Rock is the only one that comes to mind. In most areas of the diocese people are free to register at whatever parish they want to attend.
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Did you ask for the parish that is the territorial parish for your address? Or which parish you are supposed to register/join?

I called the diocese when we moved here, and was INSTRUCTED that I had to belong (not just register) to a certain parish. We later registered/joined (for valid reasons beyond ‘church shopping’ ) a different parish, but had to get approval from the pastor/priest at the 2nd/new (to us) parish in order to change our registration, since we hadn’t moved to a new home. We were given it quickly.
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ccmcmg said:
Did you ask for the parish that is the territorial parish for your address? Or which parish you are supposed to register/join?

I called the diocese when we moved here, and was INSTRUCTED that I had to belong (not just register) to a certain parish. We later registered/joined (for valid reasons beyond ‘church shopping’ ) a different parish, but had to get approval from the pastor/priest at the 2nd/new (to us) parish in order to change our registration, since we hadn’t moved to a new home. We were given it quickly.
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I just asked in general in my first request, thinking they’d have an electronic version and it’d just be a simple attachment.

When she sent the reply, I replied back requesting with my address specifically and my county (my city spans two counties).
 
twf said:
How would such dioceses, with such a care free attitude towards parish boundaries, deal with matters of jurisdiction and marriage I wonder…
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I’m not sure. Maybe they just let people marry in the church they are registered in? Is it up to the Bishop or the diocese to allow the “relaxed” attitude toward the boundaries?

There are not many Catholics in my state, less than 10% claim to be catholic, and I’m sure less than that actually attend mass regularly. Perhaps the Bishop has taken the relaxed attitude since churches may be far apart and it may be much easier to attend a closer one or something. Just a thought.
 
I’m not sure people know how to answer. I am curious, and it seemed like a simple enough question. The dicocese couldn’t answer me, so I emailed the individual churches nearby. I have received two replies:
We do not enforce parish boundaries at ____; we have members that live in …(many places), etc.

You are welcome to come and visit and see if you would like to join our parish!
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And the other one just listed neighborhoods and said their boundaries are shared with the boundaries of all the different churches boundaries they touch (like "our boundaries border so and so to the west, so and so to the south, and such and such this way…). But where are the actual boundaries? Does anyone know?
 
I live in a rural area where the two closest parishes are each 10 miles from my house.(They are OF only parishes) I have chosen to drive 80 miles each way to join the FSSP parish (EF only).
 
misspriss said:
I’m not sure people know how to answer. I am curious, and it seemed like a simple enough question. … Does anyone know?
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Yes, your answers have not been on point. Does anyone know the answer? Somebody, somewhere, should be able to find the answer since, like I said before, every parish has defined boundaries. But, it seems as though you will not be able to get to the bottom of this…

Dan
 
twf said:
How would such dioceses, with such a care free attitude towards parish boundaries, deal with matters of jurisdiction and marriage I wonder…
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Well, as long as the priest/deacon is within his own parish church building, everyone can be assured that they are within the territory of the parish. 🙂

This gives me an idea: perhaps the OP can call the tribunal and see if they have the parish boundaries on a handy map. At times, we have to deal with weddings which took place outside of a parish church. So, we tend to check to see within which parish the wedding took place…at times, there are problems because the priest/deacon was outside of his own parochial territory and did not have proper delegation.

Dan
 
Well it isn’t that big of an issue for me, I have asked both the diocese and the individual churches, none of the respondents have given me an answer, perhaps that I should just drop it. It’s not a matter of marriage or baptism, just my own personal curiosity. If it’s not important enough to the diocese, it probably is not ever going to come up as an issue in my lifetime or with my family.
 
Well I got one reply with actual boundaries! And another one where they told me the 4 streets that surround the block on which it sits. The one with the actual boundaries also said they weren’t enforced anymore.
 
The terrestrial understanding of divine law is based on the fact that the Trinity moves according to the divine supremacy of cosmic law. In simple words, a parish is not confined according to its archintegrity. The terrestrial fact is that its integrity will always be Roman law.
 
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