What does it take to switch parish memberships?

[BVMFatima]

Is there a process to become a member of a different parish?

 

[Deo_Gratias42]

While your territorial parish will always be your territorial parish as long as you live within the boundaries of the territory, registration-wise all you need to do is tell your current parish your registered as you’re leaving (this helps with administration type things), and perhaps why you’re leaving (if your parish is damaging you spiritually, it would be wise to inform the pastor of this is a politely worded letter for his information). Then all you need to do is register at your new parish. Usually they have a form to fill out. It’s really easy.

 

[SuscipeMeDomine]

Technically you belong to the parish that covers the territory where you live. The exception would be if you belong to a special group with its own parish, such as an ethnic group that is served by a particular ethnic parish.

Basically, unless you move, you can’t change what parish you belong to.

At the same time, at least in the US, it is common to register in a parish. You can register in any parish you want, but it doesn’t change your proper parish. Most of the time you won’t run into any problems if you belong to Parish A but are registered in Parish B. But there may be circumstances where the pastor of Parish B will tell you that you need the permission of your pastor from Parish A in order to do something.

 

[KP3243]

I am having a difficult time in my territorial parish, my pastor whom I care deeply about omits things from the mass, that the GRIM doesn’t allow to be taken out of mass and other things like it is a free for all before mass and people are talking and running around and we sing Happy Birthday to the parishoners every week, he sometimes makes fun of the Bishop which I think is really wrong. I volunteered to teach Church school and I have 3rd -6th grage because we have a small parish and none of the kids knew Jesus was really present in the Eucharist and they all had made their First Communion, lots of other things they were clueless about as well and the books he selected aren’t helping them understand their faith. One of the first activities was give your guardian angel a name and I was like WHAT, they don’t know Jesus is in the Euchaist but we are asking them to name a higher creature then we are which doesnt seem correct and not for anything they might already have a name since we know the names of three of the seven archangels, Michael, Raphael and Gabriel and God may have given them their names. I sincerely believe our guardian angles deserve our profound respect.

 

[Elisabeth51]

I’ve never been to my territorial parish here in California. My territorial parish doesn’t know I exist, I don’t go because my sister–who moved out here years before I did–doesn’t go there because it’s all Latino and Asian and we don’t understand them at all, she felt super uncomfortable, like she was in another country. Nothing against them, but I’m a cliched Anglo-Saxon descent American…as Western Europe as you can get.

I have just switched parishes though because the parish I did register with was damaging me spiritually—something I didn’t even realise was that bad until speaking with an Anglican priest, a woman. I asked what I needed to do and the secretary said “oh, we don’t keep track, only if you have envelopes.” So no envelopes, we don’t care??? I told the priest why I was leaving and he has yet to respond in any way to my nice letter.

I registered with the ICKSP parish and now am happily attending the EF Mass.

I would think it would be a good idea to have an active and inactive list, and not tied to envelopes, my family never uses them, we just put cash in the basket. Someone should know if people are leaving or coming.

I’m not really used to the geographic boundary thing either, it just wasn’t a strict concept back home. Our city’s parishes were founded on ethnic groups, not geography, there was the French Parish, the Irish, the Germans, the Italians…all just within 2-4 blocks of eachother for the oldest churches. It was very fluid, no one seemed to care where you lived, you registered, but if someone needed help—it wasn’t until I moved away that I was shocked to hear of priests asking if someone belonged to the parish, they just didn’t do that back home. If someone came in need, they were helped.

 

[Phemie]

I have just switched parishes though because the parish I did register with was damaging me spiritually—something I didn’t even realise was that bad until speaking with an Anglican priest, a woman. I asked what I needed to do and the secretary said “oh, we don’t keep track, only if you have envelopes.” So no envelopes, we don’t care??? I told the priest why I was leaving and he has yet to respond in any way to my nice letter.

I registered with the ICKSP parish and now am happily attending the EF Mass.

I would think it would be a good idea to have an active and inactive list, and not tied to envelopes, my family never uses them, we just put cash in the basket. Someone should know if people are leaving or coming.

It used to be that priests did an annual parochial visit, going to every home to meet with the parishioners. I also know towns where there is only one parish and they hired people to go door to door to take a census of all Catholics in the town. But I haven’t seen that kind of action in decades.

I worked as secretary for a parish and added any family that I knew was Catholic to the parish roll, but in 13 years I may have seen 4 formal registrations and we have a highly transient population. Usually the only time they registered was if they wanted to use envelopes. It wasn’t that we didn’t care, it’s that we didn’t need the information - all Catholics were our parishioners. If they weren’t regular attenders, we’d hear from them if they were in the hospital or if they wanted to get married, baptized or buried. It wouldn’t have changed the way we did things.

I’m not really used to the geographic boundary thing either, it just wasn’t a strict concept back home. Our city’s parishes were founded on ethnic groups, not geography, there was the French Parish, the Irish, the Germans, the Italians…all just within 2-4 blocks of eachother for the oldest churches. It was very fluid, no one seemed to care where you lived, you registered, but if someone needed help—it wasn’t until I moved away that I was shocked to hear of priests asking if someone belonged to the parish, they just didn’t do that back home. If someone came in need, they were helped.

You belonged to a personal parish. One established based on language rather than territory. It’s like that back home in the town next to my village. There used to be two bilingual geographic parishes; several years ago they changed that to 2 personal language-based parishes. Now we have an English parish and a French parish. Because most people are bilingual they probably kept going to what had been their territorial parish but they no longer get to experience Mass in their own language.

 

[Elisabeth51]

It used to be that priests did an annual parochial visit, going to every home to meet with the parishioners. I also know towns where there is only one parish and they hired people to go door to door to take a census of all Catholics in the town. But I haven’t seen that kind of action in decades.

I worked as secretary for a parish and added any family that I knew was Catholic to the parish roll, but in 13 years I may have seen 4 formal registrations and we have a highly transient population. Usually the only time they registered was if they wanted to use envelopes. It wasn’t that we didn’t care, it’s that we didn’t need the information - all Catholics were our parishioners. If they weren’t regular attenders, we’d hear from them if they were in the hospital or if they wanted to get married, baptized or buried. It wouldn’t have changed the way we did things.

You belonged to a personal parish. One established based on language rather than territory. It’s like that back home in the town next to my village. There used to be two bilingual geographic parishes; several years ago they changed that to 2 personal language-based parishes. Now we have an English parish and a French parish. Because most people are bilingual they probably kept going to what had been their territorial parish but they no longer get to experience Mass in their own language.

I have heard of the visiting, census, it would be nice if that was still done, I know there is a shortage of priests, so let the lay people help. I feel like people need to be more aware of who is in the pews with them—if someone is missing, why not call and see if they are ok? Sure, maybe they went to a different Mass that weekend, but what if they are single and sick and need help or something?

Ok, that is more clear, personal vs geographical.

 

[Mrs_Sally]

Well my parish covers 5000 families and has six Sunday Masses, so it would be very difficult for anyone to notice if a less active member were missing (at least right away).

We do have a very active Legion of Mary group. I don’t think they do a specific census, but they do visit people in their homes throughout the year.

This area has a very high percentage of Catholics so the diocese does talk about territorial boundries in order to ensure that people are being well served. I have never specifically heard of anyone being turned away for a wedding or a funeral, but parishes do require registration and there may be some communication among pastors about numbers of people crossing parish boundries.

So around here the process would be to both register at the new parish and unregister at the old parish. If you were not registered at any parish and approached one for marriage, baptism, religious education, confirmation, or a funeral, you would need to become registered and their might be an issue with where you ‘belong’ and where you want to receive the sacrament.

The pastor of each parish needs to put the needs of his own parishioners first. Even if you are a regular Mass goer at parish A, that doesn’t mean the priest or parish is really aware of you (especially so at larger parishes). If you actually ‘belong’ to parish B, than that pastor is the one with the responsibility to ensure you have appropriate access to the sacraments.

Hope that helps.

 

[thistle]

Is there a process to become a member of a different parish?

In essence, because a parish is territorial you would have to move house and live in the parish you wish to become your parish.
Without that you are always part of the parish in which you reside and while you may attend Mass in any Church in any parish you want (and indeed register although registering makes no difference to your status) it is only your actual parish that must, for example, baptise, marry and bury you. Priests in other parishes may only perform such acts if your own parish priest gives permission.