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

[TrueLight]

If it is only 3 blocks away,why don’t you at least visit it. You may be pleasently suprised. I have found most parish websites aren’t maintained too well, so what you read there may not be correct. Who knows, your teens may love the charismatic Mass.

I’m sorry Mrs Sally, but you know that is not an option for me.

The funny thing is my kids don’t like charismatic, pentecostal like services. They might like something lively, but no manifestations.

You’ve given me an idea though. I will look to see what they have in terms of youth ministries. Maybe they have something on Friday nights or something.

 

[dochawk]

I’ve been Catholic my whole life.

I know what my parish would be for:
Roman Catholic (up the street, Holy Family)’
Byzantine Catholic (St. Gabriel the Archangel, Sui Juris Metropola of Pittsburgh, the church formerly known as Ruthenian),
Greco-Italo-Albanian (Our Lady of Wisdom, part of the same Eparchy as St. Gabriel)’
Maronite (St. Sharbel Mission, which kept that name even though it is now a parish),
Chaldean (I don’t know the name,though, and I’m pretty sure that it’s a mission, not a parish)

I canonically belong to the first, and am registered to the second where I am active. Once I submit my paperwork, I will be transferred canonically to The latter.

hawkq

 

[alwayslooking]

There are eight parishes in my city of 40,000. I was baptized at my territoriality parish. I have however attended a neighboring parish my entire life.

The reason for this is that in the 1980’s the parish I now attend was the only one with a pre-school for my mother to send me to. I now live across town, but still attend the parish I grew up in.

Actually when I moved out of my mother’s home I was told by my pastor that parish boundaries didn’t matter anymore and that I could join whichever parish I wanted.

 

[ProVobis]

If it is only 3 blocks away,why don’t you at least visit it. You may be pleasently suprised. I have found most parish websites aren’t maintained too well, so what you read there may not be correct. Who knows, your teens may love the charismatic Mass.

Mine’s within short walking distance too. But their doors are always locked except for Mass. Can’t get all my spiritual needs fulfilled there.

 

[Cider]

Yes I know, no I’m not a cradle Catholic, but I live in a small town, so it’s easy. We have one Catholic Church. I still drive 30+ miles to go the parish with the EF though.

 

[LemonAndLime]

Knowing which was mine was pretty easy. It’s across the road from me, and a few doors down. Can see it from my living room window.

 

[jilly4ski]

Interesting. Why is it so hard to find?

Judging by the poll results so far, it looks like most people know where there territorial parishes are. Keep the responses coming!

The maps were on an entirely different website from the diocese, that I think was not even linked to the diocese website. The other diocese I lived in, the maps were not available online at all. (But you are right, I could have called).

I would guess there are quite a few CAFers who live in relatively small towns where there is only one Church. (My Grandmother’s town has 2 Catholic churches, but when they were built as ethnic Churches, one was Irish and the other German).

 

[CaptCrunch73]

When my wife and I moved to our new town we called the archdiocese to see which was our parish, it’s just what we thought we were supposed to do.

We’ve lived in our town for 19 years so I think I snuck in under the wire of TrueLight’s original post. Although technically I’ve been Catholic for more than 20 years even though most of those years were spent estranged from the Church.

With that said based on the upcoming reorg of the Archdiocese of Boston just because I know which parish is mine today doesn’t necessarily mean I know which Pastoral Service Team I will belong to 6 months from now…

 

[CatholicFireman]

Cradle Catholic here.

Geographically, I’m practically in between two parishes, but I am within my registered parish’s boundaries.

It’s kind of funny, growing up in Queens (sorry, TrueLight ) it was sort of like a “Catholic greeting”: “which parish are you in?”

I miss those days.

 

[Corki]

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.

This is almost exactly my situation but a 20 minute driving range.

When we first moved to Texas, the realtor who showed us our house told us which parish it was in (and the alternates that many neighbors attended). When we moved to our present house, the parish we were in first called to let us know what our new parish was.

 

[zab]

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.

Wow, that’s news to me. I guess I understood that we belonged to the military but as far as territorial boundaries of parishes go, I didn’t think that would effect our registering at the local parish a few blocks away. Our parish would be hurting badly without the support of many military families.

 

[kmuestwin]

Mine is Our Lady of Fatima but I work at and support a mission parish that is on my college campus. It is a quasi-parish under the jurisdiction of Fatima so I guess its all the same thing.

 

[Batfink]

Did you have any problems with receiving sacraments? Confirmations, Baptisms, Marriage/funerals etc?

Never! I got a dispensation to be married out of the parish (but this was when I wasn’t living in my parents’ house anyway, and I knew exactly where my territorial parish was); just rocked up at a Saturday night Mass with the paperwork and the priest signed it afterwards. Never seen him before or since.

My daughter was baptised and I received Confirmation without any additional paperwork. Some priests are just less picky/meticulous than others. I know from working in the Church that certain parishes (like the one where I work now) will always make sure the territorial parish priest gives permission for us to prepare and present candidates for the sacraments, others don’t bother. Most of the ones around our area are getting much stricter now than they ever were when I was growing up (when, conversely, the official rules were stricter). I guess it’s partly to do with numbers: all the parishes in our deanery have at least 60 people signing up for Confirmation each year, we can’t really afford to have an open door policy because we’d never be able to catechise them properly!

Even with the more relaxed rules people can get into trouble, though: in my last parish (in a different diocese), the parish priest would accept pretty much anyone who requested the sacraments. Then it emerged that a load of people who lived one parish over were having their children baptised at age 3 or 4 (without being churchgoers at all) and then they had an equal chance of getting in to the Catholic school in their parish as all the kids of practising Catholics. The priest from the neighbouring parish was not best pleased!

 

[Sunbreak]

I have been a Catholic for over 20 years. When I was a child, it was clear what the territorial parish was since it was only in the next block from where we lived. As an adult, I have no idea which parish is my territorial parish. I live equally distant from 2 parishes that are both within my city’s limits (each being only 2 miles away in different directions). It is not at all clear which one’s territory I would fall in. The Archdiocese website doesn’t define boundaries of the parishes. Once I called one of the parish to find out if I am within its boundaries and the secretary didn’t know what the boundaries were. So, I guess it’s not a big deal around here. I don’t usually go to either of these parishes anyway as I belong to a small ethnic personal parish in the next city.

 

[Castello]

Yep.

I converted in 1997 and the first thing we check when we move to a new area is what parish we are in.

 

[Melissa]

For me it’s easy, there’s only one parish in this town.

Likewise.

In my prior location, it was a lot tougher because there were so many Catholic parishes and the locations could be so close to one another (three blocks separated two parishes with different ethnic histories, for example) that you would’ve had to look it up somewhere to find the actual dividing line.

 

[Richard320]

Nope.

I even searched the archdiocesan website, but they don’t say.

I have three parishes in three different towns all within three miles of me, but I have no clue which one I’m supposed to go to. I don’t really care much for any of them.

 

[CatholicCajun]

I am 53 and have been a Catholic alll my life. I live 1/2 mile from my childhood parish, although for the last 4 years we have been members of the neighboring parish which is about 4 miles from my home. There are 2 more chuches in our area which are easily accessable.

 

[acadian]

I was about to click “yes”, but then I realized that we moved last summer, and I’m not sure of my territorial parish.

At my old house, I’m pretty sure our territorial parish was about a mile and half down the road, but it is a parish almost exclusively for African American folks. I have gone there for daily Mass and been warmly welcomed, but for a parish to call home, we chose a different parish - about 4 miles from our old house.

Our parish is about half way between our old and new houses, so we are still about 4 miles away. There is church about 2 miles away that I attend for daily Mass sometimes, and another that is 1.8 miles away , but again is almost exclusively for African American Catholics. I suspect one of those would be my territorial parish. I can also hear the bells of the Carmelite Monastery early in the morning when everything is quiet, and occasionally attend Mass there.

We are quite blessed in southwest Louisiana. Good food AND many Catholic parishes!

 

[Mrs_Sally]

Nope.

I even searched the archdiocesan website, but they don’t say.

I have three parishes in three different towns all within three miles of me, but I have no clue which one I’m supposed to go to. I don’t really care much for any of them.

Despite how you feel, I certainly hope that you are attending Sunday Mass at one of the other of them every week.