You're Own Parish

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Diana_Catherine

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I am asking this because of something I read on another thread. It was said we are supposed to support our local parish by attending Mass there, so what are the guidelines in traveling distances to find a Latin Mass or attend Mass outside of your parish?
 
I am registered in both an OF parish and an EF parish. I attend the former about once a month and the latter the remainder of the month. The local parish is 11 miles away and the EF parish is 100 miles away. 🙂
 
We can attend Mass wherever we like but ideally - keep in mind that we don’t live in an ideal world - people supported their local parish, formed a tight-knit community with its members and form actual, stable, meaningful relationships with people. The Christian life must be lived in community because we worship a Triune God. Community and love exist at the highest, most primordial level of reality and Christian civilisation should be an icon of that.

Having said that, you can attend Mass wherever you like. There are no canon laws prohibiting you from attending Mass in at another parish or diocese or whatever.
 
iohanne said:
We can attend Mass wherever we like but ideally - keep in mind that we don’t live in an ideal world - people supported their local parish, formed a tight-knit community with its members and form actual, stable, meaningful relationships with people. The Christian life must be lived in community because we worship a Triune God. Community and love exist at the highest, most primordial level of reality and Christian civilisation should be an icon of that.

Having said that, you can attend Mass wherever you like. There are no canon laws prohibiting you from attending Mass in at another parish or diocese or whatever.
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I too think that ideally we should support our local parish. But, this doesn’t always happen. I do not attend my local parish either. But I do think that is ideal.

This is just my personal opinion.
 
I’m kind of pressed by two issues. On the one hand, I want to attend a properly celebrated Mass. On the other hand, I don’t want to let irreverent practices go without saying something about it or trying to fix it. If I’m not there, I can’t help to fix the problem. That’s been my issue at least.
 
corsair said:
I am registered in both an OF parish and an EF parish. I attend the former about once a month and the latter the remainder of the month. The local parish is 11 miles away and the EF parish is 100 miles away. 🙂
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E WA or W WA Corsair?
 
smndtupidisaftr said:
I’m kind of pressed by two issues. On the one hand, I want to attend a properly celebrated Mass. On the other hand, I don’t want to let irreverent practices go without saying something about it or trying to fix it. If I’m not there, I can’t help to fix the problem. That’s been my issue at least.
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We’re in a similar situation. Our local parish (literally 2 blocks away) has some, shall we say creative, practices and traditions in their celebrations. We had been attending a different parish about 15 minutes away, but after introducing himself to the Bishop at a conference, my husband was encouraged to begin attending the local parish for the reason you mentioned above–if no one is going to help bring about changes, no changes will happen. It helped that the priest there was retiring, so we started attending once the new priest started. It’s been 9 months and there have been some small changes, but my husband has recently been selected to the parish council, so we’re hoping he can help bring about even more through this ministry.
 
Exorsist; western Washington. We do attend St. Birgitta’s in Portland once in a while too. Nice low Mass there. But mostly we attend FSSP in Seattle.
 
Ideally we’d go to our geographical parishes.

But my geographical parish is full of abuses and heretical teaching.

Even if it weren’t, it’s the OF, and I’d go quite a distance to go to the EF. I live in Queens and go to the EF in Manhattan, so I literally pass dozens of Catholic Churches to have to go to the EF.

It’s ridiculous, but I don’t think what I do is ridiculous. I think it’s ridiculous that of all those churches I pass, not one of them offers an EF Mass.
 
I don’t know that there is a rule on this but I’m told that each parish’s financial contributions to the diocese are based on how many Catholics live in its boundaries, and some parishes will only let Catholics within those boundaries register as parishioners.

I think it’s ideal to support one’s local parish, but in my case it doesn’t offer the EF Mass, so I drive a few miles further for Mass (I’m one of the lucky ones, I only have to drive 2 miles!)

However, I made sure I registered at the EF parish and I try to support it both financially and socially to the extent that I can. I think if we can’t be at home in our local parish we should at least try to give the same kind of commitment at the parish we attend.
 
corsair said:
I am registered in both an OF parish and an EF parish. I attend the former about once a month and the latter the remainder of the month. The local parish is 11 miles away and the EF parish is 100 miles away. 🙂
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Like a champ. I’ll say a prayer that some day you don’t have to drive so far. I like to think I’d have the same commitment but I’ve never been so tested.
 
Rich_C said:
I don’t know that there is a rule on this but I’m told that each parish’s financial contributions to the diocese are based on how many Catholics live in its boundaries, and some parishes will only let Catholics within those boundaries register as parishioners.

I think it’s ideal to support one’s local parish, but in my case it doesn’t offer the EF Mass, so I drive a few miles further for Mass (I’m one of the lucky ones, I only have to drive 2 miles!)

However, I made sure I registered at the EF parish and I try to support it both financially and socially to the extent that I can. I think if we can’t be at home in our local parish we should at least try to give the same kind of commitment at the parish we attend.
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Our annual assessment is based on three previous years of income–a percentage. Which for my parish is bad—we’re poor, doing badly, if we bring people in and increase income our assessment goes up and it’s a struggle to pay what we have. I know that’s just here, it could be different elsewhere? I wish it was figured differently.
 
Priests get reassigned. Things change.

But the Church belongs to the people who reside in that parish and, in my opinion, therefore have a responsibility to contribute to it’s well-being. Certainly, this could be financial and/or through active participation. If one cannot bring themselves to attend Mass at their Parish Church, I think it is laudable that they continue to provide some manner of financial support for the benefit of the parishioners.
 
I think parish life is very much under appreciated and neglected in our Church. Church is more than just Mass.

We are supposed to pray for each other and help each other. How can we know to do that if we drive to a parish ten zip codes away to attend Mass and then don’t interact with those people for the other 167 hours of the week?

We are Catholics. We are supposed to be willing to die for each other. How can we even tell who in our neigborhood is Catholic if we don’t get involved in our local parish?

Don’t we want other Catholics to be our friends, to shop at our stores, to date our daughters, and to care about us? I think there is value for the sanctifiation of our souls there and that some are probably missing out on holy and lasting friendships.

-Tim-
 
Grasscutter and TimothyH: in an ideal world. you are both definitely right.

But in this current world we live in, I can’t do either. The parishes near me are simply full of bad teaching. I’ve tried to go, and the liturgical abuses are awful, and clear heresy (not stuff only trads think is heresy, but obvious in-your-face heresy) is sometimes preached.

I do not want that kind of influence in my own mind, let alone my wife or child’s mind. And I won’t financially support these parishes either.

Perhaps though, I should do something I wouldn’t have thought of if it weren’t for you. Perhaps I should pray regularly for the parishes near me, and write them telling them I’m praying for them and that if they offered the EF Mass I’d happily come and contribute financially as well.
 
iohanne said:
We can attend Mass wherever we like but ideally - keep in mind that we don’t live in an ideal world - people supported their local parish, formed a tight-knit community with its members and form actual, stable, meaningful relationships with people. The Christian life must be lived in community because we worship a Triune God. Community and love exist at the highest, most primordial level of reality and Christian civilisation should be an icon of that.

Having said that, you can attend Mass wherever you like. There are no canon laws prohibiting you from attending Mass in at another parish or diocese or whatever.
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Excellent response. I also agree that we should support (financially and otherwise) our local parish where our fellow parishioners are also the neighbors that we see at our children’s schools, the grocery, etc.

However, as others have said, one of the beauties of the Catholic Church is it’s universiality, so that we can indeed attend Mass at any parish in the world.

I live in an area where there are 5 parishes all within about 10 miles of my house. We regularly attend Masses at other parishes becuase of our schedules or because a parish offers a particular Mass (First Friday, etc.) that another doesn’t.
 
newyorkcatholic said:
Grasscutter and TimothyH: in an ideal world. you are both definitely right.

But in this current world we live in, I can’t do either. The parishes near me are simply full of bad teaching. I’ve tried to go, and the liturgical abuses are awful, and clear heresy (not stuff only trads think is heresy, but obvious in-your-face heresy) is sometimes preached.

I do not want that kind of influence in my own mind, let alone my wife or child’s mind. And I won’t financially support these parishes either.

Perhaps though, I should do something I wouldn’t have thought of if it weren’t for you. Perhaps I should pray regularly for the parishes near me, and write them telling them I’m praying for them and that if they offered the EF Mass I’d happily come and contribute financially as well.
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Priests are reassigned regularly. True liturgical abuses and heresy are rare, things we don’t like and confusing statements are much more common. As others have said, you can’t be part of the solution if you aren’t even there to understand the problem.

Certainly, attend a Mass you prefer, but prayerfully and seriously consider if you are being called to assist in building up the Church in your own neighborhood.
 
Mrs_Sally said:
Priests are reassigned regularly. True liturgical abuses and heresy are rare, things we don’t like and confusing statements are much more common. As others have said, you can’t be part of the solution if you aren’t even there to understand the problem.

Certainly, attend a Mass you prefer, but prayerfully and seriously consider if you are being called to assist in building up the Church in your own neighborhood.
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Litrugical abuses and heresy are rare? I disagree.

I haven’t seen clown masses or liturgical dancing. But I have seen (many times!) priests repeatedly do things that I know are forbidden by liturgical law. Over and over again. Scripture as well as a basic understanding of obedience would teach us that we shouldn’t violate liturgical law in small things either.

And heresy? Yes, I’ve heard it many times. I haven’t heard priests deny the Resurrection from the pulpit, but I’ve heard heresies, including ones that have been specifically named and condemned. Like indifferentism. Lots of modernism. The idea that the Church was really only born after Vatican II. Denial of mortal sin.

I know I have some sort of obligation to my local Church. But I have a very real and concrete obligation to protect myself and my family from filth, so I don’t go! I will travel far if I have to for a reverent and respectful NO. And if available (thankfully it currently is) I will drive even farther to a TLM or a DL.
 
newyorkcatholic said:
Litrugical abuses and heresy are rare? I disagree.

I haven’t seen clown masses or liturgical dancing. But I have seen (many times!) priests repeatedly do things that I know are forbidden by liturgical law. Over and over again. Scripture as well as a basic understanding of obedience would teach us that we shouldn’t violate liturgical law in small things either.

And heresy? Yes, I’ve heard it many times. I haven’t heard priests deny the Resurrection from the pulpit, but I’ve heard heresies, including ones that have been specifically named and condemned. Like indifferentism. Lots of modernism. The idea that the Church was really only born after Vatican II. Denial of mortal sin.

I know I have some sort of obligation to my local Church. But I have a very real and concrete obligation to protect myself and my family from filth, so I don’t go! I will travel far if I have to for a reverent and respectful NO. And if available (thankfully it currently is) I will drive even farther to a TLM or a DL.
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I would encourage you to get clarification from those priests in question. If they really said and meant a heretical statement, please alert the bishop or vicar general. It does the Body of Christ no good for us to see a problem of that magnitude and do nothing to help correct it.

Certainly you can attend Mass at any parish you chose, but don’t abandon your brothers in Christ to bad teaching if you are certain it happend and can document the instances. 😦
 
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