Can You Tell Me What a Parish Is?
Loyola University, Chicago, IL July 17-20
OVERVIEW
The parish affords the sole experience of the Church for the vast majority of the laity, and is the venue in which both the mission of the Church is lived and the relation of Catholics to the local and universal Church is mediated. Catholics come to the parish, not to the diocese, to celebrate the sacraments, to be catechized and formed, and to receive pastoral care. The parish is “the Church inserted into the neighborhoods of the world”, the place in which the Church encounters the world, and the world encounters the Church.
As the principal locus of the Church’s life, the parish is also the setting in which tensions and divisions are encountered, between so-called “conservative” and “liberal” factions, around such issues as authority in the Church, the role of the laity in the Church’s life, the relation of the parish to the diocese. Moreover, in many dioceses of the United States, parish life is presently imperiled by the financial burden of the recent scandals and by the fact that there appears to be little unified vision of the nature and role of the parish, as well as the bishop’s pastoral office as it is exercised in the parish.
Despite an abundance of discussion regarding the nature of the diocese and the episcopal office, there has been very little theological elaboration of the role of the parish in the life of the Church. Many fundamental questions remain. For example: What is a parish? Is the parish merely a geographical subdivision of the diocese? To what extent is the parish an ecclesial community in its own right? Is the parish merely an intentional community of individual believers (i.e., is a parish merely an aggregate of individuals)? Or, if the parish is “a definite community of the Christian faithful”, can the parish qua parish be regarded as a subject of the call to holiness, ecclesial communion and mission that characterizes the Church? Given that the parish is a Eucharistic community whose priest pastor stands in the place of the Bishop, can the parish be said in any way to be a “church” in the manner of the New Testament? What part should the parish play in diocesan pastoral planning? What is the canonical status of the parish, and what is the manner in which the parish should be respected in civil law?
The colloquium has three objectives: First, to frame the state of the question with respect to the theological, pastoral, canonical and civil status of the parish. Second, to outline further theological work to be undertaken. Third, to propose criteria for evaluating further theological, pastoral and civil judgments and initiatives concerning the parish and parish life. The proceedings of the colloquium will be published, and will be advertised with a view to inviting further national consideration of these questions.
Following the summer colloquium, abstracts of the papers will be made immediately available, with early publication of the full proceedings of the colloquium.
Conference is at Loyola University/Chicago - Lake Shore Campus (Housing is available on campus)
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For more information, please contact 510-849-2030 or info@dspt.edu, or visit www.dspt.edu.
See also the Dominican School of Philosophy and Theology Events Calendar and Academic Calendar.
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