Without Making Any Calls or Looking it Up, Do You Know Which is Your Official, Territorial Parish?

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In another thread, someone mentioned how they never met someone who didn’t know which parish they belong to. Do you?

I’m not referring to the parish you are necessarily registered at, but the parish that you are assigned to based on where you live, and as decided by your diocese.

**Edited: **Also, please state if you have been Catholic for more than 20 years. I have a feeling that those who grew up in the times when everyone went to their neighborhood parish, may have more exact ideas.

Those who are growing up in this global, internet society may think differently. Just a hypothesis.

Disclaimer, I am not referring to Canon law. I know what Canon law says thanks to Fr. David.

I am just trying to get a feel of what the laity know.
 
I know but I didn’t for years. I do belong to a personal parish. I assumed that one parish in town was my territorial parish. But a few years ago when they closed some Churches and combined others, I went to the Diocese web site and found out I was wrong. I live in a township. My mailing address is the city where the Parish I thought I was in, but it turns out it is the one in city on the other side of my township.
 
There are five parishes within a 15 minute driving range of my home, but I still know which one I belong to by reason of being within its geographic boundaries.
 
JimG said:
There are five parishes within a 15 minute driving range of my home, but I still know which one I belong to by reason of being within its geographic boundaries.
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I’m with Jim … I have five parishes within a 15 to 20 minute drive. one of the two that are closest (mile wise) I never liked since they don’t have kneelers. I am registered at the other parish closest mile wise to me.

the parish I grew up at is about six miles from me. there is another parish about the same distance from my home parish but I never liked that one either. The fifth parish I attended on a regular parish but switched to my current parish about 1 1/2 years ago.
 
JimG said:
There are five parishes within a 15 minute driving range of my home, but I still know which one I belong to by reason of being within its geographic boundaries.
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This, though I’m pretty sure there are a several more than five parishes that are within a 15 minute driving range from home. I live in a suburb of St. Louis and St. Louis is a very Catholic area, so we have many Catholic parishes.
 
Be it that I’m not particularly up to date on the exclusive term Territorial Parish in the singular sense.

Except as defined here: A parish is a portion of a diocese under the authority of a priest legitimately appointed to secure in virtue of his office for the faithful dwelling therein, the helps of religion. The faithful are called parishioners, the priest parochus, curate, parish priest, pastor. To form a parish there must be (1) a certain body of the faithful over whom pastoral authority is exercised; the ordinary manner of determining them is by assigning a territory subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the parish priest.

My understanding is that several parishes in a Archdiocese or Diocese can fall under a Territorial Deanery or several Deaneries.

My parish situated in an Archdiocese in the English Deanery also has the distinction of being the Mother Parish of the entire Archdiocese.
 
TrueLight said:
Phemie and Mary, can you take a look at my edit please?😃
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I have been a Catholic for over 50 years. If anything that worked against me because I knew of the two territorial parishes in “my town” I would have been in the one on the east side. IT just turns out that I was mistaken and my mailing address city isn’t what they go by. I have lived where I do for almost 20 years. I have lived in this area for almost my whole life.
I do remember when I was a child at school my best friend moved to the other side of town and had to switch.
 
I’m a lifelong (50+) Catholic, and I know which is our territorial parish. We are registered in another, however, where our children went to school, as the territorial parish never has had a Catholic school. There are 5 parishes within 20 minutes of us.

Years ago, I did research for the Archdiocesan Board of Education when we lived in a different part of town. As part of that research, I had to document the parish boundaries for all parishes in the city. I discovered that the little street we lived on was the only street that had been overlooked, though we were surrounded by multiple parishes. Oops!
 
It is an interesting question.

The closest parish to my house is actually a Polish language personal parish run by an Order of Polish priests.

We are not members there.

The next closest parish is another ethic personal parish, it is staffed by diocesan priests from outside diocese in another country ( the bishop of that foreign diocese assigns priests from his diocese to staff our parish. This has been per agreement with the Archdiocese of Detroit dating back to the early 1900’s. We are members there.

The third parish is the actual territorial parish to which by neighborhood belongs. But as I mentioned, we are actually registered at an previously mentioned ethnic personal parish. I don’t know the exact parish boundries for that parish.

When we lived in another house, we belonged to a territorial parish there. In the narthex the document establishing the parish was displayed. On that document, it listed the territorial boundries.

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I grew up in a military family but without living on base. We always knew which was our parish but didn’t always attend regularly there.

I think that there may be something to the idea that converts, who aren’t used to the idea don’t get it. In my experience, protestants do a lot of church shopping and so are used to the idea that they go to church whereever they want. The converse of this is that most protestants I know never go to church when on vacation or away from home because they think of themselves as only belonging to one “church” (specific building/pastor).

Edit: my diocesean website lists parish boundries as do most of the individual parish websites. I also live in a very populous area with 5 parishes within 15 minutes from my house in each direction.

I do know of folks in this area that have had issues when trying to register or receive certain sacraments at a parish that is not their own territorial parish. I’ve heard of these incidents over the course of the 30 years or so that I’ve been paying attention. It’s not a frequent issue, but has happened recently as well as in the past.
 
I’m one of the old-timers, 20+ years Catholic, and I know (and belong to) my official territorial parish. My saintly mother, on the other hand, prefers a neighboring parish to her home parish (she thinks she can remain anonymous there, but the other regulars all know her by now). We are blessed to have many parishes nearby.
 
I have been Catholic my whole life, although I was “non-practicing” for much of my adulthood, and I have always know what parish I “should” attend.
My “territorial” parish is literally up the street from me. It is actually faster to walk than it is to drive & find a parking spot! 😉 I attend this parish occaisionally, but I am not a “registered” member.

I live in a city where there are still many “neighborhood” parishes. Within a 15 minute drive, there are at least 20 parishes that come to mind right away.
At one time, within a 2 mile radius from where I live, there were 7 parishes.

I work at our Cathedral, so I will sometimes attend Mass there, but most often, I go attend Mass at the parish I grew up at, which is about 3.5 miles away.
 
SwizzleStick said:
This, though I’m pretty sure there are a several more than five parishes that are within a 15 minute driving range from home. I live in a suburb of St. Louis and St. Louis is a very Catholic area, so we have many Catholic parishes.
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I forgot to say that I am a cradle Catholic, so I’ve been a Catholic for 20 years plus a bunch.😃
 
I converted to the Catholic church in 1970. Due to the nature of my work I was either promoted or transfered about every two years. I was Baptised in one parish, Confirmed in another 350 miles away and have been registered in another 6 or 7 parishes over the years.

Currently I live almost exactly on the geographical boundary between two different OF parishes. So I selected the most reverent of the two for a once a month OF Mass and a once a month TLM. The other two weekends I will either go to the FSSP which is 120 miles away or to Portland to Diocesan TLM which is 90 miles away.

BTW, I live in a very rural area. So a parish that is 10 miles away is “a cake-walk”.
 
TrueLight said:
Phemie and Mary, can you take a look at my edit please?😃
Click to expand...
I’m a cradle Catholic, 58 years old and grew up in a one-parish village. Until the last decade or so I was unaware that there was such a thing as a territorial parish and that that might not be the parish closest to your home. I was also unaware that being in the military meant that you automatically belonged to the Military Ordinariate and were members of the military parish even if you lived off the Base and your house was tucked next a Catholic church.
 
We go to our closest parish. We have gone to different parishes in other places when they seemed to be a better setting for us. Thing is, how does one know for sure what parish you belong to. Should that be on the diocesan web site? I will checkm but I have “hung out” there and did not see such a link. ???
 
I live very close to a LOT of parishes. My husband and I have been going to one that isn’t the closest, but it is a really great parish. We went to evening Mass all through college because that is what our college group had. We have gotten used to this and we like our parish’s evening Mass. Our diocese doesn’t say, “If you live in area X go to Church Y.” They just list all of their parishes and Mass times online.

I have found it to be very fascinating to see the differences and similarities among the parishes in my diocese. One thing I would like to do is try all of the Masses in other languages in my diocese one day just to learn more about how other cultures celebrate the Mass.
 
My territorial parish is a 5-minute drive/15-minute bus ride/30-minute walk down the road.

I’m a cradle Catholic, so I’ve always belonged to that parish, and I feel a strong affinity for it, even though our parish population is relatively large (thousands).

On occasion though, I do attend mass at the nearest parish, which is incidentally different. 😉
 
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