Parish Membership Boundaries

With a certain degree of frequency, requests come to the chancery from Catholics who would like the bishop's permission to transfer from their current parish to a different parish. The reasons for the request will vary, but I have detected a misconception about parish membership by both the Catholic making the request and the pastors of the parishes involved.

We need to review what the Church has established in this regard and the reason why in order to understand this very important fact of Catholic life. The best source for the information needed is the Code of Canon Law, the compilation of the regulations which govern the universal Church and its members, In the second book of the Code, which is entitled The People of God, in part II which describes the structure of the Church, there is a section on parishes, pastors and parochial vicars (associate pastors).

We need to understand that the structure of the universal Church and the particular Church (a diocese) is hierarchical in nature. This is what Church law states: "A parish is a certain community of the Christian faithful stably constituted in a particular church, whose pastoral care is entrusted to a pastor as its proper pastor under the authority of the diocesan bishop... It is only for the diocesan bishop to erect, suppress, or alter parishes." (Canon 515 §1, §2) There are some important matters this Church law addresses. First, a parish is a part of a diocese and depends on the diocesan bishop for its existence and pastoral care. Second, it is made up of a group of Catholics which is stable and identifiable, that is, in a certain location and that the number is relatively constant so that this group or community needs to have a formal identity (be a parish) and needs to have ongoing (regular) pastoral care.

The other necessary element of the parish as a part of the diocese, is what Church law then addresses: "As a general rule a parish is to be territorial, that is, one which includes all the Christian faithful of a certain territory." (Canon 518) Thus, a parish usually has real, physical boundaries so that all the Catholics living within them can identify with the Church and with the pastor, and the pastor and the Church can know and minister to the Catholics entrusted to their pastoral care. What some Catholics and even some pastors may not realize is that they belong to the parish in which they actually live, from the first moment they take up residence even before they actually register in that parish.

What this means is that no parish priest can tell a Catholic he or she can register in another parish and no parish priest can accept as a member of his parish a Catholic who does not live within the territorial boundaries of the parish he serves. Just as it is the sole responsibility of the diocesan bishop to create, suppress or alter parishes, so only can he give a Catholic permission to live in one parish but register in another parish. Finally, the Catholic must give the diocesan bishop a compelling reason for the request to register in another parish but remain living in one's proper parish. In my experience I have not seen too many compelling reasons. Usually the reasons are related to matters of convenience or preference and not real necessity.

Catholics need a stable parish life just as much as any parish needs a stability among its members.

Msgr. David Kagan
Vicar General, Moderator of the Curia
Diocese of Rockford, Illinois