PARROCCHIA. — It is an institution of ecclesiastical origin, arising within the diocese for the direct pastoral care of the souls included in a particular territorial district.
I. ORIGIN
The term, used in Roman public law in the 3rd–5th centuries to designate a group of provinces governed by a high official (vicar), was also used in Western ecclesiastical law for the territory governed by a bishop, until it became exclusive to the much more modest circumscription of today. As a rule, every diocese is now divided into p., each of which has its own church for the gathering of the people and the exercise of divine worship, and its own head, called the parish priest (pievano, prior, rector; in ancient times also parrocchiano and juridically sacerdot proprius). Its origin is attributable to historical developments and local circumstances that made it necessary, until the canonical laws that gradually regulated its development created the present uniformity of its administration. From the beginnings of Christianity, the diocese has, generally speaking, had its organizational nucleus in the urban center. It is evident that in regions where cities were very close to one another, genuine rural centers did not form and, consequently, small ecclesiastical organizations were not established; indeed, in the East, where they seemed about to arise, rural bishoprics (chorepiscopates) encountered opposition, and even rural p. were organized only with difficulty and at a later date. Instead, bishoprics with limited circumscriptions and populations were preferred, as in Asia Minor and especially in Proconsular Africa and Numidia, and in certain regions of central and southern Italy, where only with the disappearance of many cities amid the barbarian turmoil did circumscriptions of a parochial type subsequently arise. In countries, on the other hand, where cities were rarer, numerous etici arose, small agricultural centers, villas, or farms belonging to great landowners, particularly in the Po Valley and in central and southern Gaul; it was therefore necessary first to provide for the conversion of those agricultural populations (and this could not be done before the urban nucleus had been firmly established), and then for their constant spiritual care. It was preferred not to fragment the diocese into small independent communities, which would have led a precarious and uncertain existence, but to organize them, on a smaller scale, according to the model of urban organization, under the direct subjection of the bishop. What had already been achieved in the 6th century, at least in its general outlines, in the aforementioned countries served as a model for reorganizing in the 7th–8th centuries the countries recovered from barbarism(Noricum, the Rhineland countries, northern Belgica, Upper Pannonia), or newly evangelized from the 9th century onward, as the episcopal system was reconstituted or established: very extensive dioceses, because the inhabitants were few and scattered and the places suitable for serving as organizational centers were extremely rare; while the progressive development of civil life and the growth of the population, especially the agricultural population, gradually brought about parochial organization; so that it may rightly be said that this proceeds hand in hand with, and is at the same time the most effective factor in, national and social progress. The rural church is the gathering place of the people scattered across fields, valleys, and forests; there they feel themselves united and see themselves guided in religious life. All this takes place under the direct supervision of the bishop: often he cedes to the p. part of the endowment of his church, or encourages private owners or benefactors to establish the necessary endowment. When, under the Carolingian regime, the payment of the tithe to the church was organized, it went, together with offerings, particularly to the benefit of the p. When monasticism, in the 7th century, began to establish increasingly extensive and important estates in the countryside, it also found itself obliged to provide for spiritual life on its holdings, building chapels and eventually organizing communities and genuine p., placing its monks at their head and entrusting them to clerics dependent upon it, without, at least initially, breaking their dependence on the bishop: the monastery itself could thus also be a p., or could have p. dependent upon II. Finally, there was also the very frequent case, beyond the Alps, of great lay lords establishing churches on their estates for their own benefit and that of their dependents, and feeling themselves to be their owners, to the point of wishing to dispose of them as of their own property. All this disrupted the organic and uniform order that characterized the diocese of Christian antiquity, particularly after feudal law also permeated benefices (v) and other ecclesiastical institutions; the endowments of the p., especially the tithes, suffered reductions and divisions to the benefit of other institutions and even lay bodies; p. were subjected to Chapters so that the latter might enjoy their revenues, entrusting their spiritual administration to their own dependents; prebends were established within parochial benefices, which no longer had anything to do with the care of souls; in the 15th and 16th centuries, parochial benefices came to be conferred upon ecclesiastical dignitaries and even lower clerics, and were also accumulated in the same persons. The legislation that had intervened in the 12th century to limit lay interference through provisions relating to the right of patronage restored parochial discipline at the Council of Trent to its original concept and made it one of the cornerstones of Catholic reform (sess. XIV, de Reform. c. 9; sess. XXIV, de Reform., c. 13). Present-day discipline is merely its updated continuation.
Particular attention is warranted by parochial organization in cities. Only in the largest and most populous cities was it necessary, from Christian antiquity onward, to resort to a particular organization: in Rome, beginning in the 3rd century, provision was made by establishing the tituli (v.); in Alexandria, subsidiary churches had existed from that time in the various districts. In other cities, later on, such as Milan, Verona, and Lucca, urban or suburban sanctuaries were officiated by special colleges of clerics or even by monks. In the 13th century, the great churches of the Mendicant Orders became centers of religious life and of special gatherings of the laity. An attempt was made to preserve, at least symbolically, the unity of the entire population by reserving special honors and rights for the Cathedral, such as that of possessing the sole baptistery; but the continual growth of the urban population everywhere led, although in differing forms in each city, to the emergence of a network of churches through which care of souls was provided. Here too Tridentine legislation intervened to regulate relations and to encourage the establishment of genuine p. where they had not yet been formed. Pio Paschini
II. DIVISION
Parishes may be: 1) independent, if they have no juridical relationship of coexistence with others, or incorporated, if they are united with an office or an ecclesiastical institution. In this case the actual care of souls must be entrusted to a vicar. 2) With an irremovable pastor, if he cannot be removed except under certain conditions established by law and ordinarily after a canonical process; with a removable pastor, if removal takes place through a simpler procedure and even without being warranted by a genuine offense; the CIC favors irremovability, because it is more consonant with the nature of the institution. 3) Secular, if they are entrusted to the secular clergy, or religious, if they are administered by religious. Almost always these parishes are incorporated pleno iure into a religious family; in case of doubt, the parish is presumed to belong to the secular clergy. 4) Territorial, if a portion of diocesan territory with defined boundaries is entrusted to the jurisdiction of the parish priest, with ordinary competence over all the faithful who inhabit that territory, or personal, if the authority of the parish priest is limited to a certain number of families or individuals, who are united either by reason of language, common origin, or because they are enrolled in the same rite. 5) Mother churches or filial churches, of which the former retain honorary prerogatives over the latter, which derive from the mother churches through an agreement or custom.III. LEGAL NATURE
The elements of the parish are: the church, the ecclesiastical office, the territory, and the population. Among these, the church in which worship is conducted and the Sacraments are administered stands out. Connected with the church is the ecclesiastical office, that is, the complex of rights and duties exercised by the holder with ordinary authority. The territory determines the boundaries of parochial authority and constitutes a clear definition of the population: this element was defined by the Council of Trent in its juridical relations. Nevertheless, even today there may be parishes that are independent of territory. The parish is a juridical person; three elements contribute to its formation: the church, to which the parish’s spiritual and temporal rights pertain; the benefice, consisting of income from property belonging to the church, or of certain offerings accruing to the parish priest as remuneration for his work; and the churchwardens’ board, which is established for the maintenance and preservation of the church. In general, these three elements constitute a single moral person, but throughout history this union did not always exist; at times there were three distinct entities. The CIC presupposes these three elements in a single juridical person. The churchwardens’ board (v. FABBRICA E FABBRICERIA) is then considered rather as an organ of the parish than as an entity in its own right (can. 1183).IV. ERECTION
The establishment of a parish ex novo takes place in territories that do not belong to any parish, which in practice can now occur only in mission territories; elsewhere, the establishment of new parishes occurs through the division or union of pre-existing parishes. Division entails the separation of part of a parish’s territory, together with its population, in order to constitute a new parish. This act was regarded by the law as odious and therefore required a proportionate cause (3, X, III, 48), which the Council of Trent found in the great inconvenience that the faithful would experience in reaching the parish church to receive the Sacraments and attend services; it also added another cause already found in the Gloss, namely, the excessively large number of parishioners (sess. XXI, cap. 4). These two causes were accepted by the CIC (can. 1427 § 2). The allocation of the property assigned to the new parish must take place ex bono et aequo, without infringing the wishes of the founders or donors, and without violating acquired rights or particular laws (can. 1500). The dismemberment of a parish falls within the competence of the capitular vicar and the vicar general (can. 1427). The union of parishes may take place in an extinctive form when, after one or more parishes have been suppressed, a new one is created, or when one or more parishes are united into a single parish (can. 1419); in the form aequo principalis, when two or more parishes are permanently entrusted to a single incumbent, although they retain their juridical personality (can. 460, 1); or in the form minus principalis, when one parish is united to another as an accessory to the principal parish and is placed under a single incumbent. Extinctive union is reserved to the Holy See (can. 1422). Any form of union is excluded from the competence of the capitular vicar and the vicar general without a special mandate (can. 1423, 1).Moreover, between a juridical person and a parish there may be a
twofold union: pleno iure, when all the spiritual and temporal rights of the parish are transferred to the juridical entity; or only quoad temporalia, when the revenues also benefit the juridical entity, while the spiritual rights remain with the parish independently of the entity. Union pleno iure may be authorized only by the Holy See (can. 452, 1).
The alteration of a parish takes place through the transfer of its seat and through transformation from removable to irremovable (can. 254, 3).