Some Technical Questions and Answers on Parishes
This is based on a document shared by the canon lawyers in the Archdiocese. So it is more than a bit technical, but it can hopefully be helpful.
What is a parish? A parish is a definite community of Christ’s faithful stably established within a particular Church, that is, a Diocese, whose pastoral care, under the authority of the diocesan Bishop, is entrusted to a parish priest as its proper pastor.
What is a personal parish? Where it is useful personal parishes are to be established by reason of the rite, language, or nationality of Christ’s faithful or on some other basis. The intention of the law in this regard is to assure the best possible provision of pastoral care relative to the unique needs of the particular aggregate of Christ’s faithful under consideration.
What happens to the stuff and money from a closed parish? As a juridic person, each parish has the right to own temporal goods. When parishes are altered (i.e., when two or more parishes are joined together to create a new parish, or when one parish is absorbed by another, or when one parish is subdivided into separate parishes), the temporal goods owned by the former parishes must follow the members of Christ’s faithful into the new parish entity.
What does Canon Law stipulate about the diocesan Bishop’s ability to alter parishes? The diocesan Bishop alone can establish, suppress, or alter parishes. He is not to establish, suppress or notably alter them unless he has consulted the council of priests. As expressed, this consultation is required in order for the diocesan Bishop’s action concerning a parish to be valid. This required consultation is distinct from approval. That is, the required consultation with the council of priests is of the nature of acquiring advice, not consent. The diocesan Bishop must convene all the members of the council of priests who have a vote on the council according to its statutes and they must be heard. He himself must consult the members of the council regarding each individual parish modification which has been proposed. The diocesan Bishop is not in any way bound to accept the advice of the council of priests, even if it is unanimous. Nevertheless, without what is, in his judgment, an overriding reason, he is not to act against their advice, especially if it is unanimous.
The diocesan Bishop must seek out the necessary information to inform and assure his assessment that just cause exists for the proposed action and, insofar as possible, he is to hear those whose rights could be injured.
What are the required canonical components regarding the merger of parishes? There must be just cause and the reasons for modifying a parish must be ad rem; that is, the reasons must be relevant to that individual parish. The diocesan Bishop is the one competent to judge the existence of the required just cause but his judgment must conform to ecclesiastical jurisprudence. Additionally, the processes and consultations outlined in the answer to the preceding question are required.
What is the difference between merging parishes and closing churches? The closure of churches and the relegation of churches to profane but not sordid use is a separate from merging parishes.
If a church cannot in any way be used for divine worship and there is no possibility of its being restored, the diocesan Bishop may allow it to be used for some secular but not unbecoming purpose.
Where other grave reasons suggest that a particular church should no longer be used for divine worship, the diocesan Bishop may allow it to be used for a secular but not unbecoming purpose. Before doing so he must consult the council of priests. He must also have the consent of those who could lawfully claim rights over that church (i.e., the entity which owns it) and be sure that the good of souls would not be harmed by the transfer of its use. The diocesan Bishop is the one who is competent to judge the existence of the required grave cause.
Jurisprudence directs that it is necessary to assure that the church of a suppressed parish remains open to the faithful unless there are grave reasons to the contrary. Jurisprudence has also established that the following reasons individually and separately in themselves do not constitute grave cause, though a combination of factors may coalesce in a way that rises to the level of grave cause: a general plan of the diocese to reduce the number of churches, the church is no longer needed, the parish has been suppressed, the number of parishioners has decreased, closure will not harm the good of souls, a desire to promote the unity of a (merged) parish, some potential future cause that has not actually happened yet.