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April 10, 2008
Q: I tried to register at a parish, but the secretary told me that I can't since I live outside the boundaries of the parish. She told me what my real parish is supposed to be, based on where I live, but it's notorious for its guitar Masses and the priests' leftist social justice sermons, so I don't want to have anything to do with it! Am I really required to attend Mass at this horrible parish? — Maggie
A: We Catholics in the U.S. tend to take it for granted that it is necessary to register ourselves and our families at a parish. It is routinely understood as a requirement if we want our children to attend the parish school, receive their first Holy Communion, or marry in the parish. It may come as a surprise, therefore, that parish registration is nowhere mentioned in the Code of Canon Law, and may very well be simply an American invention.
Canon 518 states that a parish is territorial. (There are some very unusual instances when a parish may be erected differently, but they are extremely uncommon and do not concern us here.) As such it embraces all the Catholics of a given region on a map. When a bishop formally erects a parish, he establishes its specific boundaries, and all Catholics residing within those limits are ipso facto members of that parish, whether they know it or not. The law does not require anyone living within the parish boundaries to take the additional step of registering at the parish. The very fact that a Catholic lives in the territory of a particular parish is enough to make him a member.
This fact, which is so often lost on Catholic Americans, brings with it certain rights and certain obligations. We saw in the April 26, 2007 column, for example, that a Catholic has the right to a funeral Mass in his parish church, regardless of whether he has regularly been attending that church (c. 1177.1). An obligation can be found in canon 857.2, which states that as a rule, a person is supposed to be baptized in his own parish, unless a just reason suggests otherwise.
If a person is baptized elsewhere, it will not affect the validity of the baptism, but the same cannot be said for the celebration of a marriage. Catholics who wish to marry are required to marry in the parish church of one of the spouses-or in the Catholic spouse's parish, if it is a mixed marriage (c. 1108.1). If they do not, and do not obtain permission in advance to marry elsewhere, the marriage is actually invalid! These canons that refer to a person's parish always refer to the territorial parish of the Catholic person. Whether that person is registered at a completely different parish, or is not registered anywhere at all, is canonically irrelevant.
In general, pastors are well aware of this. In many cases they may permit people who live outside the parish's boundaries to register, but they know that territory determines one's parish in the canonical sense. To cite a very common example, the average pastor knows that if a Catholic parishioner wishes to marry in his parish, but actually lives in the territory of a different parish, permission must first be obtained from the pastor of the territorial parish for the wedding to take place elsewhere. Frequently this permission is sought and obtained by the pastor himself, without the spouses ever even being aware of it. But the very fact that this happens is due to the canonical reality that a person's parish is determined by his home address, and not by filling out a registration form!
Note that the the fact that parishes are by definition territorial does not mean that it is illegal or otherwise wrong to ask people to register in their parishes. It can be tremendously helpful for a pastor to know the demographics of his parish members, for a variety of reasons. Rather, one might say that the U.S. parish registration system has been superimposed on top of the canonical structure. The fact that a person has or has not registered in a particular parish can never be used in a way that would directly violate canon law. If the two systems were conceivably to contradict each other, canon law would unquestionably have precedence.
Does Maggie have to attend the parish in which she resides? On a regular basis, when it comes to weekly Mass attendance and routine reception of the sacraments, we are not obliged to attend any one church in particular. Canon 1247 asserts that on Sundays and holydays, the faithful are obliged to participate in the Mass, but does not specify that we must attend Mass in any specific place. Similarly, we may receive the sacrament of confession from any priest who is lawfuly able to administer it (c. 991), without regard to the location where this takes place.
Therefore, there is no legal reason why one cannot routinely attend Mass and receive the sacraments at a parish church other than the one to which we technically belong — although this is hardly an ideal situation. But on major occasions, such a child's first reception of the sacraments, we have seen here that it is the norm that these be celebrated in one's own parish church. And when it comes to marriage, as discussed above, the law is even more serious, for the validity of a marriage depends in part on whether it is celebrated in the parish of one of the spouses.
It should be noted that if a Catholic wishes to avoid his territorial parish because there is a truly serious issue there which might merit the pastor's or even the bishop's attention, it may be prudent to respectfully call his attention to it. But there is nothing inherently heterodox or illegal about guitar Masses, however distasteful and distracting one may find them. Similarly, "leftist social justice sermons" (obviously a subjective term) are not necessarily theologically unsound — although they may be! — and dissatisfaction with them can possibly be reflective of a problem with parishioners than with the preacher. It is important to distinguish between preaching that is actually contrary to church teaching, and that which simply does not accord with our own ideas. The first should be objectionable to every Catholic; the second should not.
On the flipside of this, there have been a few somewhat public instances in the last couple of decades, when pastors tried legally to eject certain persons from their parishes because they caused repeated disruptions. While a person can certainly be removed from parish property by the police for creating a disturbance, it is impossible, canonically speaking, for a parishioner to be permanently "kicked out" of his parish for such behavior.
Occasionally one hears of people moving to a new home which they have chosen based on the fact that it is located within a parish that is, for whatever reason, particularly attractive to them. It may sound like a radical solution, but canonically, this is a sound means of avoiding membership in a parish which one would rather not attend. The only way under canon law to leave one parish and join another is to move to a new home, in the territory of another parish.
We'll take a look at more of the practical fallout from the issue of parish registration in future columns.
So where does one find out which parish they live in? We honestly do not know. If we live outside of the boundaries of the parish which we have been registered at and attending for the past 17 years, and no one realized this does that mean our daughter's marriage which took place there is invalid? Momof11
Submitted by momof11 on Fri, 04/11/2008 - 8:55am.
I had heard here in Italy a few years back--but now I cannot remember from who, maybe it was Cardinal Ruini when he was head of the Italian Episcopal Conference--the publicly-made comment that our parishes are like the families in which God places us. And so the Lord wishes us (the converted, the faithful and prayerful members) to remain in them and to work for the conversion of all the members of our parishes the same way we do this within our families. Sometimes all we can do is offer patient and trusting prayer. But the message was that it is important to attend our parish churches for Sunday Mass (surely during the week or on Saturday evening one could go to another church for one's peace of mind)--because the Church will be converted not from on high but from the bottom up: first individuals, then families, then parish by parish, diocese by diocese.
Submitted by Catherine on Fri, 04/11/2008 - 9:19am.
In our diocese, it is a simple matter of submitting a written transfer request to be approved or disapproved by the affected parishes. I would not like to think a secretary is the final arbiter of who goes to what church.
Submitted by nezatda on Fri, 04/11/2008 - 10:37am.
Having attempted to stay and "work for the conversion" of a parish that I was in, despite heretical homilies, continuous liturgical abuse, and inadequate "faith formation" programs, and because of those attempts, consequent persecution and marginalization by the pastor, I can say that staying any longer than we did would probably have resulted in the loss of my faith entirely. It was a spiritually poisonous environment. And I won't even go into the probable effects of having to have discussions with my children in the car on the way home from nearly every Mass to tell them that no, what Father said is not what the Church teaches, and so on. I want my children to respect the priesthood, but that is very difficult for them to do when the priest himself does not. I want them to grow up as faithful Catholics in a fallen world, but that is hard enough without feeling as if we are going against the culture in the Church, as well. I would never leave the Catholic Church, but I had to leave that church, for the sake of all our souls. Sometimes, it is that bad.
Submitted by staceyjohnson on Fri, 04/11/2008 - 11:42am.
Dear Staceyjohnson--I'm sorry you had such a terrible experience. I'm sure the Pope himself would even invite you change parishes! I wish to suggest to you and to anyone else who has been through the same experience to write a letter detailing the abuses and send it to the Bishop of the diocese concerned and a copy to Cardinal Francis Arinze here:
Cardinal Prefect Francis Arinze
Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments
Palazzo delle Congregazioni
Piazza Pio XII, 10
00193 Roma
tel: ++39-06-69-88-43-16
fax: ++39-06-69-88-34-99
It may not change the immediate situation but it is very important that these abuses be made known. Cardinal Arinze has made his voice heard and his message is clear: he cares very much!
Submitted by Catherine on Fri, 04/11/2008 - 2:29pm.
For more than a decade we attended weekend as well as daily mass at our neighborhood church, three blocks from our house. After ordination to the permanent diaconate, my husband was assigned to an inner-city parish. We attend there on weekends, but still attend the neighborhood church for daily mass. Two years ago to our amazement, we received a letter from the parish we live in stating that we were suppose to become members of the inner-city parish because that is where we attend weekend masses. I guess the amount of masses during the week do not account for attendance. We were still giving to both parishes, but still long to belong to the nearest church.
"Do not try to please everybody. Try to please God , the angels, and the saints. These are your public. If you are afraid of other people's opinion, you should not have become Christian." St John Vianney
Submitted by bambushka on Fri, 04/11/2008 - 3:37pm.
Catherine,
thanks for your support...I did write to the bishop at the time (before we left the parish, even). Unfortunately, nothing changed. It being a military parish, I'm pretty sure that the bishop (for the military ordinariate) is reluctant to do much because we have a serious priest shortage...I'm pretty sure that fewer than 50% of the slots for priests in the military are filled. And since we're so spread out all over the globe, consolidating parishes and using one priest to serve two that are close together is not an option.
Submitted by staceyjohnson on Fri, 04/11/2008 - 4:45pm.
Dear Staceyjohnson, I feel sure that a letter from you, discussing this unique problem for military faithful and clergy would be of great interest to Cardinal Arinze. As you say, you wrote to the Bishop--and who knows what he might have been able to do about the problem. But it seems to me that we are even duty-bound to make known these problems also to the prefect of the Congregation concerned (even though they must certainly be well-informed--esp. about the problem you have spoken of since it seems to be quite a big problem). And not so much in the spirit of whistle-blowing, which many of us do not wish, but more the way a sick person visits a doctor hoping to find relief and a return to good health. I have been profoundly moved to see the special attention that holy Mother Church devotes to the faithful serving in the armed services. I have seen this only in Italy, but I mention it here so that you and other military personnel might be more encouraged to let Rome know about the difficult situation in which you find yourselves. Let your voices be heard--something wonderful could come of it!
Submitted by Catherine on Fri, 04/11/2008 - 6:28pm.
Don't worry, your daughter is canonically and legally married. If your daughter was registered in the parish on the day when she was married, then she is ok.
If she wasn't, and her husband wasn't either, and they did not receive permission, then the marriage can be declared null and void.
I obivously don't know which part of the world you live in, but in my home state [the Commonwealth] of Massachusetts, His Eminice, Sean P. Cardinal O'Malley, Archbishop of Boston, and Metropoliton of Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Maine, Vermont, and auxiliary Rhode Island and Connecticut, is the final authority for determining parish boundaries.
In the suffrigian see of the Diocese of Worcester, Bishop Robert McManus recently closed 5 church buildings in the city of Worcester proper. In his diocese, parish territories have been divided into clusters. That means that if you live at X Street, you are allowed to attend any parish within the cluster boundaries. This change was made due to the shortage of priests.
Before the closings, my cluster had five parishes, St. John's (the seat of the cluster), Ascension, the Polish church, St. Casmir's (Lithiuanian), and Our Lady of Vilna (Vietnamese). Ascension and the Polish church are right next to each other, and the closest to my house. I could walk to either of those, but the Polish church speaks Polish, and the Ascension church closed, and the records are now at St. John's. St. Casmir's closed because most of the Lithiuanian immigrants have sinced passed away, and attendence was low. They had an English mass at 8 in the morning, and that had nobody going. So, those records end up at St. John's, my home parish, which is in the middle of downtown. (St. Paul's Cathedral is up the hill, but not in my district.) I end up there, anyway. I got my communion and confirmation in there, and most likely I'll be married in there because the priest knows me.
That is a real-life scenerio. Check with your local chancery and they can figure it out.
Christopher R. Whittle
Submitted by Crw9006 on Tue, 05/27/2008 - 3:55pm.
Very interesting article.