QUASI PARROCI. — Quasi-parish priests are secular or religious priests placed in charge of quasi-parishes within vicariates and apostolic prefectures.
The territories of these ecclesiastical circumscriptions, most of which depend on the Sacred Congregation of Propaganda Fide (a few on the Sacred Congregation for the Oriental Church), are divided into distinct sections, at least in places where this is feasible; to each of these subdivisions a particular church with a group of the faithful is assigned, under the care of its own rector. This portion of territory is called a quasi-parish.
The instruction of the Sacred Congregation of Propaganda Fide of 25 July 1920 (Sylloge P. F., no. 82) reaffirms the obligation to divide the territory into quasi-parishes and moreover lays down precise norms for their erection, while permitting part of the quasi-diocese to remain undivided and governed in the form of missionary stations (v.) by coadjutor vicars. The same faculty is granted also to missionary dioceses by the instruction of 9 December 1920 (ibid., no. 85), which empowers bishops to appoint religious to the direction of parishes when suitable secular priests are lacking.
Quasi-parish priests are equated with parish priests in all rights and obligations, and in canon law they are designated under the name of parish priests (can. 451 § 2). Hence all the norms governing the institution of parish priests apply to them (v. can. 454 § 4; 456; 461; 1356).
There are only a few particularities regarding both the institution of quasi-parish priests and their obligations. With regard to stability, they are considered removable parish priests, i.e., they may be removed from office without a formal administrative process. Their election, moreover, if they are chosen from among the secular clergy, is reserved to the local Ordinary, with a consultative vote of the members of his council, composed of three of the most senior and prudent missionaries (can. 302, 457); if they belong to the regular clergy, the norms established for the election of religious parish priests must be observed (can. 456). These formalities are not required for validity, but to prevent the selection of unsuitable persons, whether through deficient faith, lack of knowledge of the language, customs, and traditions of the place, defects which might give rise to scandal and harm the mission.
Among the obligations differing from those of parish priests is the obligation of applying the Holy Mass. The days on which quasi-parish priests are bound to apply the Holy Mass for their faithful are: the Nativity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, Epiphany, the days of Easter, Ascension, Pentecost, Corpus Christi, the Immaculate Conception and the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, St Joseph, the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul, and All Saints. This obligation, which is both real and personal like that of parish priests, differs only in the number of applications (can. 306, 466).
The same obligations attach to the parish priests of missionary dioceses to which the same statutes governing quasi-parish priests have been applied (cf. the decree of the Sacred Congregation of Propaganda Fide of 9 December 1920: AAS, 13 [1920], p. 17). This norm may not be extended to parishes that have been transferred to the competence of the Sacred Congregation of the Consistory (S. Congr. Consistoriale, 1 Aug. 1919: AAS, 1 [1919], p. 346).
Finally, quasi-parishes are subject to the tax for the seminary, even if all their income is derived solely from the offerings of the faithful (can. 1356).