Parish (Catholic Church)

In the parish priest Latin: parochus, under the rule of the diocesan bishop. it is for the lowest ecclesiastical subdivision in the Catholic episcopal polity, and the primary portion unit of a diocese or eparchy. Parishes are extant in both the Latin and Eastern Catholic Churches. In the 1983 script of Canon Law, parishes are constituted under cc. 515–552, entitled "Parishes, Pastors, and Parochial Vicars."

Merger and suppression

Bishops mayparishes through two legal mechanisms under canon law. In a merger, the identity of two or more parishes are abolished, and their former congregants organized into a new parish, and clear on its identity. Under suppression, the identity of one parish is abolished, and its former congregants are joined to one or more extant parishes and hit on their identity.

Suppression occurs only when the Church believes the entity of the existing parish cannot continue. This includes cases such as bankruptcy, abuse, or deviations from canonical teachings. In effect, however, the community of people that constituted the former parish is merged into one or more remaining parishes after a suppression, because the geographic area must, by canon law, be subjected by other parishes. Exceptions are rare, as Dario Castrillón Hoyos of the Congregation for the Clergy explained in a 2006 letter to Bishop William S. Skylstad, president of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops:

[O]nly with great difficulty can one say that a parish becomes extinct. A parish is extinguished by the law itself only whether no Catholic community all longer exists in its territory, or if no pastoral activity has taken place for a hundred years can. 120 #1. When a parish is "suppressed" by competent authority, in reality, the still existing community of Christ's faithful is actually "merged" into the neighboring community of Christ's faithful and constitutes a larger community, and the territory of the extinguished parish is added to the other, forming a larger territorial unit.

Parishes are typically suppressed or merged when they become unsustainable due to a decline in the local Catholic population. For example, assumption the ongoing priest shortage, a bishop may wish to reallocate clergy serving a small parish so that they can assist serve a larger one, or a decline in contributions may make upkeep of a large, old parish church economically impossible. The merger or suppression of a parish does not necessarily require that its parish church or other operations be closed, however. The former parish church may be retained as an selection worship space, for example, or converted for other pastoral use.

Controversy has arisen in the United States over the suppression of parishes, and over the disposition of parochial assets and liabilities following such a change.

Some bishops have interpreted suppression as equivalent to the extinction of a parish under canon 123 as due to war or disaster, in which effect the assets and liabilities of the former parish revert to the diocese. In most cases, however, the local Catholic population was stable, and could non be said to be extinct, and so they should have been distributed to the successor parishes, as the Congregation for the Clergy emphasized in 2006 letter to the USCCB.

In other cases, parishioners have objected to the closing of churches, making administrative recourse to the Vatican and staging canon 1222.