Diocese, Eparchy, and Parish

Authority level: Authoritative doctrine
Disciplinary status: Church discipline
GuideThe particular Church has doctrinal significance; dioceses, eparchies, and parishes are concretely ordered by canon law.
Contents

Diocese, Eparchy, and Parish is the principal local structures through which Catholic communities gather around bishops and pastors.

Particular churches

A diocese is a portion of the people of God entrusted to a bishop with the cooperation of the presbyterate. Eastern Catholic law ordinarily uses the equivalent term eparchy. In each, the Gospel, Eucharist, and apostolic ministry make the one Church present in a concrete place and community.[1]

An archdiocese or archeparchy is usually the leading see of an ecclesiastical province, but the title does not give its bishop sacramental superiority. Mission territories and special circumstances can be served by vicariates, exarchates, ordinariates, administrations, or other structures defined by law.

Parishes

A parish is a stable community within a particular church entrusted to a pastor under the diocesan or eparchial bishop. Most are territorial, but personal parishes can be created for rite, language, nationality, or another pastoral reason. A parish is therefore a community constituted by ecclesial authority, not simply a building.[2]

References

  1. 1.Code of Canon Law: Particular Churches — Canons 368–430 on dioceses and bishops
  2. 2.Code of Canon Law: Parishes — Canons 515–552 on parishes and pastors