Personal parish

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The personal parish (Latin paroecia personalis , in Austria personal parish ) is a special form of organization of the parish according to Catholic canon law . While the parish is generally defined as a community of believers and a particular church to which all Catholics in a given territory belong, the personal parish does not have its own territory. The affiliation of Catholics to personal parishes does not depend on the place of residence, rather they are assigned to certain groups of believers who differ from the rest of the Catholic population in a region by ritual or language, and more rarely by nationality or social origin. If the bishop deems it necessary, he can establish special parishes for such groups in the interests of adequate pastoral care.

The Codex Iuris Canonici explicitly mentions the possibility of forming personal parishes for:

  • Believers of another rite (can. 383 § 2)
  • Students (can. 813)

Since the 20th century, personal parishes for national minorities that have arisen worldwide as a result of the many migration movements have also been widespread. Such national parishes first emerged in large numbers in the immigration countries of the United States and Canada . After the Second World War, personal parishes were founded in many European countries.

In the Catholic Church , the advantages and disadvantages of national parishes in particular are controversial. On the one hand, the categorical pastoral care for the national minorities offers the possibility of maintaining their ties to the church, because their relatives see the parish as “a piece of home” in a strange environment and therefore like to visit them. On the other hand, the delimitation of parishes according to national criteria contradicts the universal and supranational character of the Catholic Church.

On February 1, 2007, under pressure from the Vatican, a staff parish was set up for the first time in Bordeaux for the ancient ritualistic Institute du Bon Pasteur, which was established in 2006 , in which services are celebrated in the extraordinary form of the Roman rite . Such a parish has also existed in Rome since June 2008, which is looked after by the Society of St. Peter . This practice was promoted by the Motu proprio Summorum Pontificum of July 7, 2007, which came into force in the autumn of the same year.

See also:

literature

  • Cristina Fernandez Molina: Catholic parishes of other mother tongues in the Federal Republic of Germany: Canon law position and pastoral situation in the dioceses in the context of European and German migration policy. (= From religion and law. Vol. 2). Berlin 2005. ISBN 3865960162 . Pp. 128-137, 498-503.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Joséphine Bataille: La face sombre des traditionalistes. In: La Vie , May 4, 2010, accessed on August 14, 2020 (French).
  2. ↑ Report on Vatican Radio , May 8, 2008, accessed on August 15, 2020.

Web links