conceptualizations of the urban parish

Conceptualizations of the Urban ParishAuthor(s): Joseph H. FichterSource: Social Forces, Vol. 31, No. 1 (Oct., 1952), pp. 43-46Published by: Oxford University PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2572572 .

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CONCEPTUALIZATIONS OF TIE URBAN PARISH 43

CONCEPTUALIZATIONS OF THE URBAN PARISH* JOSEPH H. FICHTER, S.J.

Loyola University

T HE social structure of an urban Catholic parish is highly complex. At first glance this would not seem to be true because the

casual observer probably sees nothing but a large number of people who satisfy their religious needs at a particular parish Church. At closer analysis, however, it will be noted that any social unit of a few thousand persons logically structures its social relations according to multiple patterns. It seems true also that the researcher not only can but must conceptualize the parish in multiple ways in order to achieve meaningful analysis.

The normal large urban Catholic parish may be studied under the following aspects, even though each varies in importance as a conceptual frame of reference for research. The parish may be called (a) a legal corporation, (b) a super-imposed association, (c) an institutionalized association, (d) a communal group, (e) a cluster of sub-groupings. It is also helpful for some purposes to conceive the parish as (f) a series of statistical categories and (g) a system of kinship groupings.

(a) As a legal corporation formed under the laws of the State, the urban Catholic parish has as its purposes and objectives: "the holding and admin- istering of property, real, personal and mixed, so that the same may be devoted to religious services, charitable, educational and literary purposes, for the benefit of those who attend the Roman Catho- lic Church belonging to this corporation."

The members of this ecclesiastical corporation also constitute the Board of five Directors who manage, administer, and control it. These are the legal officers of the parish. The Bishop is ex-ofticio President, the Vicar-General of the diocese is the Vice-President; the Pastor holds the combined office of Secretary and Treasurer. The two remain- ing members of the Board are lay parishioners, sometimes called "trustees," who are appointed by the Bishop, usually for a term of two years. They are almost always successful professional or business men.

In practice, all legal and fiscal business of the parish is conducted by the Secretary-Treasurer,

the Pastor. The corporation charter forbids him to contract any debt over two hundred dollars and stipulates that "no real estate belonging to the corporation shall be sold, mortgaged or dis- posed of in any way, without the vote and consent of all the five Directors."

The obvious intent of this parochial charter is that the effective legal and financial control of the parish be in the hands of the clergy. The history of lay trusteeship' in the United States has demon- strated the wisdom and practicality of this arrangement. The Pastor, who is himself subject to higher authority in the administration of the parish, usually recognizes that the practical advice of the lay trustees can be very valuable. At the same time he usually makes it clear that their function is consultative and not directive. The Pastor is obliged to meet with the trustees only on important financial decisions.

It is evident that the lay people in the Catholic parish are not stock-holders, or members in any way of this corporation. They contribute the money and the properties which the corporation administers. They may be termed "beneficiaries" of the religious services, and of the charitable, educational and literary purposes for which the corporation was constituted. The two lay members of the Board are not their elected representatives. Viewed in this legal light, the American urban parish is neither a spontaneously organized social structure nor a mass-controlled organization. The lay people have no formal authority, direct or in- direct, over the parochial corporation, but the corporation is an instrument of service to them.2

* Read before the fifteenth annual meeting of the Southern Sociological Society, Atlanta, Georgia, March 28, 1952.

1 For a brief and reliable discussion of trustees, see Theodore Maynard, The Story of American Catholicism (New York: Macmillan, 1941), p. 187-196, 235-237.

2 This arrangement differs sharply from that of con- temporary Canadian parishes. The "fabrique," or corporation, owns the real estate given by the parishioners for public worship; "it is the proprietor of the parish church, the rectory, and the sums of money assigned for the upkeep of those buildings and the celebration of the liturgical ceremonies." A lay warden is elected by the parishioners every year, and the three most recently elected wardens form the board of administration. They "set limits to the authority of the parish priest; they also set limits to the authority of



44 SOCIAL FORCES

(b) The urban Catholic parish may be called a suPer-imposed association in the sense that the conditions for its existence are fixed by Rome through the local Bishop. Canon Law 216 points out that every diocese must be subdivided into definite territorial areas, each with its own per- manent pastor, people and church.3 Thus, the religious association of lay Catholics in any given parish is not a matter of choice by the people themselves as long as they reside within the designated boundaries. In practice, of course, some of the lay persons in any parish attend neighboring Catholic churches for religious services, and some participate in other parochial activities there, but a formally imposed and morally obligatory rela- tionship still remains between them and the Pastor of their own parish.

Of more importance than the territorial assign- ment of people to a definite parish is the fact that the general framework of their religious functions and objectives is also prescribed by church authori- ties outside the parish. This means that whenever the parishioners assemble for religious activities they follow a pattern of worship and devotion which is essentially the same throughout the whole Catholic Church. The liturgical rituals of the Church, insofar as they are designed for public and corporate worship, can be termed ideal patterns of social relations. The moral and social behavior of parishioners, normatively posited in commandments, precepts, and rules of the Church are also super-imposed.

(c) The Catholic parish may also be conceptualized as an institutionalized association.4 This is

the fact which makes the parish a unique social phenomenon, different from every other parish. In other words, the patterned relationships in the urban parish have become institutionalized locally, by and for these particular people over a period of several generations in this designated territory of so many city blocks.

As Joachim Wach remarks, "the sociologist of religion, interested in the study of the cultic group, cannot be satisfied with reviewing its theology as the foundation of the theory and practice of fellow- ship among its members."5 Even the most sym- pathetic observer will note that the facts of social life in the urban parish frequently fail to conform to the expectations of social thought and behavior implied in the moral and dogmatic teachings of the Catholic Church.

This is simply another way of saying that while there are many similarities among Catholic parishes all over the world there are also distinctive features in each. The associative processes and patterns are formed, maintained and transmitted by these particular parishioners. They are affected by the age and sex, and by occupational, marital, economic, and class status of the parishioners, as well as by the manner in which the parishioners perform the roles consonant with these statuses. They are affected by the various personalities which individuate each human interaction, by the goals toward which the roles actually function, and by the strong secular values of the American urban and industrial milieu.

(d) The fourth way in which the Catholic parish may be conceptualized is that of a communal group,6 that is, of a number of people who are held together primarily by their high religious values. Everett Clinchy, who is a close observer of religious

the bishop." This is written by the Most Reverend Maurice Roy, Archbishop of Quebec, in The Parish and Democracy in French Canada (Toronto, Canada: University of Toronto Press, 1950), pp. 17ff. Some American dioceses are "corporation soles" so that the parishes are merely part of the single local corporation, the diocese.

3 See also the discussion in Joseph H. Fichter, S.J., Dynamics of a City Church: Southern Parish, Vol. 1 (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1951), chap. 2, "What is a Parish?"

4The term "institutionalized group" used by Florian Znaniecki, seems to combine both concepts used above, "superimposed association" and "institutionalized association." His definition denotes "groups which are essentially cooperative products of their own members, but whose collective functions and statuses are partly institutionalized by other social groups." See his article, "Social Organizations and Institutions," in Gurvitch

and Moore, Twentieth Century Sociology (New York: Philosophical Library, 1945), p. 212. Hiller's concept of the "institutional group" is partly similar to our concept of the parish as a "super-imposed association" in that the cultural system of the Church provides a common value-orientation for the members of the parish. See his article, "Institutions and Institutional Groups," Social Forces, 20 (March 1942), pp. 297-306.

5 See his article, "Sociology of Religion," in Gurvitch and Moore, Twentieth Century Sociology, p. 428.

6 MacIver's "communal type" of society, as dis- tinguished from the "associational type," includes a number of factors other than "high values." See R. M. MacIver and Charles H. Page, Society: An Introductory Analysis (New York: Rinehart, 1937), pp. 8-12, 218- 229.



CONCEPTUALIZATIONS OF THE URBAN PARISH 45

behavior, says that "the central element in the structure of a group's existence is religion.... The heart and will of every culture lie in the beliefs of the group: that is, its religion. Without convictions about what is good, and without specific beliefs about its goals and the means to attain them, the group's espirit will decline, and the group will perish."7

This concept of the parish as a communal group rests upon the negative notion that the group will perish unless it holds values of a high order. This is one of Sorokin's most emphasized sociological principles: that people are truly integrated by their "systems of meanings and values."8 Znaniecki also uses this principle when he calls a parish "a kind of great family whose members are united by a community of moral interests."9 Finally, Dono- van remarks that "the members of the parish, both clerical and lay, share in a unity which stems from their common religious beliefs and which finds expression in their joint participation in group functions.""0

These observations constitute the hypothesis that the sharing of common values is the essential sociological and psychological factor of the Catho- lic parish as a group. Our empirical research indicates, however, that the sharing of functions is a much more practical factor of unity. In simple terms, this means that when people do things together which they think are worth doing they tend to be drawn together. The interacting influ- ence of cooperative functions seems to increase the group appreciation of values, and this again leads to progressive interaction.

It is quite possible that smaller village parishes tend toward the ideal of the communal group. In the large urban parish, however, the great majority of lay persons use the local Church as a kind of

"service station" for their religious needs: a place to go to Mass and confession, to get married and have their children baptized, and to have their old folks buried. Their communal "social" bond with the priests and other parishioners is analogous to that which an automobile owner has with the gas station manager and with the latter's other cus- tomers. It is somewhat like the professional rela- tionship between dentist and patients.1"

While the concept of a genuinely integrated communal group does not apply to the whole urban parish as a social aggregate, this does not mean that there is no nuclear group which cannot be so conceived. As a matter of fact, there is at the heart of every urban parish a group of parishioners who are united primarily through their high religious values. It appears that only these can fulfill Znaniecki's definition of the parish as a "great family."

(e) The fact that various functions are performed and various objectives attained in an organized way leads to the fifth concept of the urban parish as a cluster of sub-groupings. Each of these has its own objectives, activities, and membership. The Pastor is theoretically and ex-officio the highest authority in all of them. Their ultimate objective must in some way conform to that of the parish as a whole: the sanctification and salva- tion of souls. But their immediate objectives help to specify the various groups.

It has been noted that the total parochial association is superimposed and maintained according to universal standards of the Catholic Church. Much more latitude is allowed in the origin and maintenance of the parochial sub-groupings. The original impetus for the formation of a group comes sometimes from the people, and sometimes from the pastor. Occasionally its formation may be re- quested by the Bishop.

These "parish societies" may be classified in many ways, according to age and sex composition, marital status and religious conditions of membership, although these norms are not in every in- stance defined. They may be placed on a con- tinuum indicating the degree of success or failure they experienced in striving for their objectives.

7See his article, "The Efforts of Organized Religion," The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Sciences (March 1946), p. 128.

8 Pitirim Sorokin, Society, Culture and Personality (New York: Harper, 1947), p. 127.

9 William Thomas and Florian Znaniecki, The Polish Peasant in Europe and America (New York: Knopf, 1927), I, 275.

10 John D. Donovan, "The Sociologist Looks at the Parish," American Catholic Sociological Review (June 1950), p. 68.

Wach similarly says that "religious communities are constituted by loyalty to an ideal or set of values which is the basis of their communion." "Sociology of Re- ligion," loc. cit., p. 428.

11 D. W. Brogan developed a similar analogy in his article, "The Catholic Church in America," Harpers, 200, pp. 40-50, where he says that the Catholic Pastor is like the Postmaster who holds the local franchise for all postal transactions.



46 SOCIAL FORCES

They may be divided as formally imposed or

locally initiated, who originated them and where. Probably the most useful sociological approach

is that which considers the main functions and

goals of the parish organizations. (1) The liturgical groups are those which assist at the religious services performed in the church itself. The Aco-

lyte Society, the Choir and the Ushers, take a

more or less direct part in the services; the Ladies'

Altar Society provides the appurtenances of the

sanctuary. (2) The socio-spiritual groups are suffi-

ciently distinctive in their functions and objectives that they may be considered separate from those

in the above category. They are organized into

social groups for the primary objective of sancti-

fication. They are Children of Mary, Sodalities,

Junior and Senior Holy Name Societies, Nocturnal

Adoration Societies. (3) In the category of educa-

tional groupings are included the Parents' Club,

the Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, and study

clubs of various kinds. (4) The ameliorative groups

do the corporal works of mercy, St. Vincent de

Paul for men and the Daughters of Mercy for wo-

men. In a sense they act as the "relief agencies"

of the parish for the needy families and indivi-

duals of the parish. (5) Finally, the primarily rec-

reational objectives are pursued in the Boy and

Girl Scouts, Brownies and Cubs, Boys' and Girls'

sport teams, and in the adult committees which

promote these groupings. Besides the five general conceptualizations de-

scribed so far it seems useful also to think of the

urban parish (f) according to the statistical cate-

gories into which the membership falls and (g) as

a network of kinship and family relationships. The purpose of the classification of parishioners

is the comparison of one category to another and

of each to the religious ideals and practices which the parish is promoting. In the first volume of the Southern Parish series these categories were em- ployed in many ways according to age, sex, marital status, socio-economic status, length of residence, amount of schooling, nationality background, and so forth.

The concept of the parish as a network of family relations is more subtle and more difficult to actua- lize. While it is probably false to assert as a gen- eralization that "religion runs in families" we have found that participation in the parochial programs is frequently a "family affair." We noted this par- ticularly in the parish organizations; the youths tend to be active in their groups when the parents are active in adult societies.

In the abstract analysis of an urban parish according to these various seven conceptual frame- works there is danger that the social roles of the persons-in-action may be neglected. For example, there can be no question that the key persons in the operation of any Catholic parish are the priests. This is true not only of the direct "care of souls" but also of the whole problem of maintaining the social structure as a going concern. Thus the pas- toral roles may be separately analyzed.

At the same time, a parish is nothing without its lay membership. According to the theory of "organized Catholic Action" the lay people participate with the priests in the work of the hier- archy. The democratic ideology of the urban American culture is a social fact which cannot be neglected. In other words, the urban parish in America seems to steer a psychologically difficult course between the "congregational approach" wherein the lay people run the Church, and the "authoritarian approach" wherein the lay people are passive subjects of church administration.



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