Ask a Canon Lawyer
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What Is a Parish? �or readers of the Courier, it might
seem silly to ask, “what is a parish?" After all, the parish is where most of us find our primary spiritual “home” and community, and where we have our most direct experience of the Catholic faith. But we can still learn a lot from looking at how canon law understands the concept of a parish. The Local Church
To get a sense of what a parish is, it’s helpful to first go back and look at how canon law defines a diocese. Canon 369 tells us:
A diocese is a portion of the people of God which is entrusted to a bishop for him to shepherd with the cooperation of the presbyterium [i.e., the priests serving under the direction of the bishop], so that, adhering to its pastor and gathered by him in the Holy Spirit through the gospel and the Eucharist, it constitutes a particular church in which the one, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church of Christ is truly present and operative.
The Church’s diocesan structure is overwhelmingly based on geography or location, similar to the way that the United States of America is broken up into individual regional states. This harkens back to the predominantly local character of the early Church. For instance, when St. Paul writes to the Church in Corinth or Ephesus in the New Testament, he’s actually writing to the precursors of our modern dioceses. Canon 374 §1 goes on to say: Every diocese or other particular church is to be divided into distinct parts or parishes.
So, if a diocese is a portion of the people of God, then a parish is a portion of a portion of the people of God. Canon 515 §1 further elaborates:
A parish is a certain community of the Christian faithful stably constituted in a particular church, whose pastoral care is entrusted to a parish priest as its proper pastor under the authority of the diocesan bishop.
August 2020 w The Courier w dowr.org
Who Belongs to a Parish?
There is such a thing in canon law as a “personal Jenna Cooper parish,” which is a parish established for the pastoral Tribunal Coordinator & Judge care of a specific group of people. For example, in the jcooper@dowr.org early 20th century, in cities with large immigrant populations, it was common for there to be personal parishes for each major ethnic group. In a city near help us to grow in Christian charity. where I grew up in New York, within an area of three The territory-based parish system also helps square miles there was an Italian personal parish, a ensure that no Catholic is overlooked or falls through Polish personal parish, and an Irish personal parish! the cracks. This is especially true in that pastors Here in the Diocese of Winona-Rochester, the St. and parish priests have a spiritual responsibility Thomas More Newman Center in Mankato is estabto everyone in their parish, that is, to all Catholics lished as a personal parish for the pastoral care of dwelling in their territory without exception (and the local college students and university community. actually, this spiritual responsibility technically even However, most parishes are territorial, or based extends to the non-Catholics living within the parish entirely on geography. Many Catholics are surprised boundaries). Even if a Catholic never got to learn that they become an official memaround to signing up at their parish, or ber of a parish simply based on what Do y if they’ve been lax about frequento address they have! (See can. 372.) u ha a qu v e e ing the sacraments, the Church s That is, if you as a Catholic live in tion cano a n b doesn’t leave them orphaned, l o a a certain parish’s territory, you woul ut w tha d t l but still officially assigns a pasy i k are automatically a member ou answ e to s e e tor to be concerned about their r e e of that parish, regardless of d he Ema re? il welfare. whether or not you rememjcoo In addition to this, sacper@ bered to register at the pardow with ramental records are kept at ish office. (Though of course, r.org "C parishes. Any sacrament that ques ourier registering with your local tion occurred within a parish’s parish is still a good idea for subje " in the boundaries are recorded at that other reasons, especially since ct lin e. parish. This is a particularly useit helps the parish know who ful system in cases where the sacyou are.) raments were administered in an emergency, such as when a newborn Why Have baby with grave health concerns is bapGeography-Based Parishes? tized at a hospital. Since we know that the parish Catholics are free to attend Mass and otherwise of whatever territory the hospital happens to be in participate in the parish life of any parish, even is the one that will record the baptism, this ensures one with a territory other than the one where they that the fact of the infant’s baptism will be properly themselves live. Still, all other things being equal, noted and not forgotten, even in the midst of a crisis. the Church does see a value in the geography-based Similarly, every Catholic has a “master record” of parish system. their sacramental life kept at their parish Church of For one thing, belonging to a parish based simply baptism. Every time a Catholic takes a major step in on one’s address helps us to pray and form Christian their life of faith—e.g. when they receive the sacracommunity with those whom God in His providence ment of Confirmation, get married, are ordained a has made our literal neighbors—as opposed to priest, or enter into consecrated life—a notification potentially picking and choosing a community based is sent to the parish where they were originally baponly on how much we personally happen to like the tized. This shows that the Church cares about our people involved, or by how many superficial things life story as it unfolds, as each life story is precious we have in common. Geography-based parishes can to God.
