Which parish do you attend

[RosieGirl]

I bring this topic up because of a little argument me and my boyfriend have sometimes, and I wonder what other catholics think.

We live in a very protestant, namely Mennonite, community, and there are alot of church hopers. I myself am mennonite but going through RCIA right now. I don’t really like going to the parish my boyfriend goes to, because I find that I’m never really listening to the preist. He’s a very hard guy to concentrate on, his topics for homily never seem to be relevant to me, and he kinda drones on and on. I’m not saying anything agaist him really, just not my priest of choice. My boyfriend goes there because it is the parish closest to his house…there is one closer to me that I go to, and really enjoy the priest there, he’s also the one teaching RCIA.

But awhile ago I was telling my boyfriend he should try this other parish, where I heard the priest was really great, and gave you stuff to really dwell on through the week. But my boyfriend thinks that you should choose your parish by the priest. So I wonder what other catholics think about this.

So my question is, other than feeling that your gifts (serving, singing, etc) are needed more in a certain parish than in another, is it alright to pick your parish because you like the priest better?

 

[Ray_Marshall]

I don’t know about Canada, but in the U.S., you no longer have to attend the neighborhood parish. I am a member of a parish about 5 miles from home and pass many parishes on my way to Mass.

I chose it for the architecture and the liturgies.

In my neighborhood parish, the priest always looks so bored, I find it hard to concentrate.

And I keep a list of other parishes in my daytimer in case I need to change my Mass time. I guess I have about 8 alternates, so I won’t have to miss Mass on a Sunday or Holy Day.

 

[Dr.Colossus]

I think you should choose a parish by its orthodoxy, and the priest has a huge influence on this. I see nothing wrong with choosing a parish based on the priest.

 

[KittyKat]

We are going to the one that my husband went to as a child and it is halfway across town. He really enjoyed it a lot, and it has a great school there and a lot of other things going on.

Many of the ones near here are primarily Spanish speaking and I really wanted to go someplace where it would be easy to communicate with other people. And I speak German not Spanish.