MISSION STATIONS. - In missionary territories, in addition to the parishes of dioceses and quasi-parishes of quasi-dioceses, there are also mission stations, which form the first nuclei of the future ecclesiastical organization. Generally, their boundaries are not well defined; at the beginning, the faithful are very few and often, instead of a church or oratory, they have only a separate place for sacred functions.
In some missions, they are called by different names; but generally, a distinction is made between permanent or main stations, where the missionary resides permanently, and secondary stations, visited occasionally. The Code of Canon Law does not mention them (cf. can. 216), all the more so since the very extensive faculties granted to missionaries provided for the various needs of the cura animarum in the missions. According to the practice of the Sacred Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith, expressed in the instruction of 25 July 1920 (Sylloge Prop. Fide, no. 141), mission stations form a single parish whose parish priest is the Ordinary, who is assisted by missionaries as his missionary coadjutor vicars. The instruction of 8 December 1929 states that they can be established only by the Ordinary (Sylloge Prop. Fide, p. 353), preferably in writing at least for the main stations.
These are considered by the Sacred Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith as "ad instar quasi-parochiae" and, with the necessary exceptions, many canons concerning parishes can be applied to them, for example, those regarding the administration of goods, so that their transformation into true parishes or quasi-parishes may be prepared.