Re: Parishes (the last post)

1.) Since I wrote that last post I also heard from another source that canon law has changed as Neil said.

2.) Since I wrote that last post I have also had it called into question whether it is something that has a spirit you ought to observe even though there is no law on the books.

3.) I did not mean that to speak authoritatively as the final word in that last post.

4.) I don't know what the deal is at Notre Dame, but I can't imagine dorm chaplaincies are like a "normal" parish anyway.  I don't know whether they have any policies of their own there.

5.) Hey, Neil - have you met the Shrine of the Holy Whapping folks or are they all graduated (or undergrads who are thus outside/below your social set)?  They are whimsical Notre Dame student bloggers who are much more famous than we are.

6.) Albert tells me that he is going to write a post on the other side of this issue, with which I am totally sympathetic.

Comments

[Neil]

short answer, no I haven't met them, except one, as they are either graduated or outside/below my social set. I think it has some to do with the campus ministry's organization, and some to do with a lack of effort on my part.

It's typically me, a professor and his wife and this married student in the congregation at daily mass here, so I haven't really indroduced myself into the broader Catholic social community. I did meet the president of the right to life club, Mary Liz Walter, and I think she's a blogger on the shrine. She has her own blog and doesn't post often to it.

Last I looked at their site, it looked like most had graduated. As to me being above their circle, that maybe, but it isn't my choice as there is quite a divide between undergrads and grads here, partially due to the adherance to the dormitory system. It's rather as though each dorm functions as its own CSC. I asked a campus ministry fellow what activities existed that would be appropriate for grad students, and the list was both quite short and rather nondenominational. (humorous aside, I wished to know what retreats I was eligible to attend as a grad student and all that came up was an LGBTQ retreat.) As such I'm somewhat restricted to things for the whole community and groups run by students. All that said, I'm told their is a social group that formed around the basillica, so if I feel the smallish grad student Catholic community is insufficent I can start walking across campus and perhaps meet bloggers/students there. I'm told that the priests who say daily mass over here are all very good, so of course I'm sticking with that. In fact the homilies are much different than most other homilies I've heard. For better or worse they have a rather scholarly character and are a bit less personal than something you'd hear from Fr. Bill.

PS it's taken my many tries to get past your word verifcations system, I rather hate it.

[PeterTerp]

Below or outside your social set?
Didn't you learn anything from my example as the resident graduate student at the CSC?
What? Do you want to graduate on time or something?

[Al T]

Thomas hit most the points I was going to make. But let me just say that in the 1917 Code of Canon Law there were rules mandating church attendance that forced you to respect the parish geography, but these rules were dropped when the 1983 Code was written. I also asked a Canon lawyer if he could think of any non-Canon Law documents that suggested we respect the parish geography and he was unable to come up with anything.