In historically Catholic places like the City of St. Cloud, if one dresses like a priest, one can’t go far without being asked “Which parish are you at?” It’s an obvious and fair question for anyone wearing a Roman collar – really for any Catholic. But what does it mean? What do people picture when using the word “parish”?
In historically Catholic places, most people think of a parish as a church building – maybe something with a steeple, a bell tower – something with “churchy” features and a big open interior with lots of places to sit. People picture a parish as a building in which children are baptized, young people get married, and the school, if there is one, holds its Christmas program. And, at least according to Canon Law, that’s all wrong.
Canon 515 §1 defines a parish as “a certain community of Christ’s faithful stably established…,” and c. 518 states the “general rule” that “a parish is territorial,” that is, it should “involve all the people of a certain territory.” “Territory” here means what we think it means: a geographic region defined by boundaries on a map. Maps, then, not church buildings, should be the first thing we picture, when picturing a parish. Membership in the parish, too, does not have anything to do with registration or even catholicity. Indeed, just as one becomes a citizen of a city or a county or a state based on one’s address, one’s address makes one both part of a parish and the object of its mission. Baptized or not, Catholic or not, every human being with an address in the Diocese of St. Cloud is a member of a parish, for no part of the diocese is not covered by the territory of one parish or the other.
While this is a true point of Church law, many Catholics become distressed by it. Imagining a parish as anything other than the church building in it, where the registered members meet, pushes against what is for most a lifelong understanding. Still, it pushes in the right direction. Insisting that a parish is the people, not the building, and further that it is the people who are physically next to each other, “neighbors” if you will, puts at the forefront of parish identity the mission of the Gospel. Jesus did not die on the cross to save buildings. Indeed, what little the Scriptures tell about heaven makes the point that there are no temples there (Revelation 21:22). Also, the Gospel tells us to cultivate a special love not for the one whose company we enjoy, or who fits our preferences, but for the one who simply happens to be our neighbor (Luke 10:25-37).
Father Matthew Crane is the Vicar for Canonical Affairs for the Diocese of St. Cloud, Minnesota.