The Catholic parishes come in Sociological studies under the category of Congregation, which is a voluntary organization of people who identify themselves as a distinct religious group and engage in a broad range of religious activities together. The Congregations have usually a regular meeting place and a regular schedule of religious activities. The Catholic parish, as it exists today, is not a Congregation in the sense of an entity that functions in a specific hall; rather it stands for a group of believers that exists in a specific territory, where people representing other faiths may also exist with similar organizational networks.
The parish congregations render varied forms of services to the people. One of them is religious. They provide a way for people to worship: they read and reflect over the sacred texts, sing devotional songs and listen to spiritual discourses together as one family. Such common religious activities give them a sense of cohesion and experience of transcendence. The dependence of members on the parish for religious needs – sacraments, rituals, study of Scriptures, collective prayer – gives them a status of “citizens” in the religious domain.
Another significant service given by the parish is religious education. The children and youth are given catechism, an important instance of transmission of faith to the young generation. The religious education of adults is mainly done through sermons pronounced on Sundays. The sermons help the faithful to reflect on who they are and how they should behave in the society.
Besides the religious services, the parish also fulfil a variety of secular functions like recording of births, marriages and deaths of its adherents. At the time of tragedies, the parishes function like hubs of social service for the entire population. They take steps to gather funds and meet the basic needs of people like food, shelter, dress, health etc. irrespective of creed and caste.
Parishes function also like identity building hubs for the Christians. There are many Catholics who like to be known as members of their parish. The parish activities provide them with a sense of belongingness to the group and help them to grow in their identity. For example, in my own parish, at Chittattukara village, in the diocese of Thrissur, the parish sustains to be the space around which people construct their social life. For many young men who are working abroad, to come home to celebrate the feast of St Sebastian in the month of January, is a yearly routine. Not only they come for the festal celebration but also spend lavishly for clubs and associations that make the feast pompous. And those who are residents in the parish territory involve in the festal preparations for months as part of various committees. All these point to the fact that the parish is a social institution that render a genuine identity to inhabitants of the locality.
The parish becomes the identity builders because people consider it as the safest place where they can engage with full heart and spirit in meaningful works. Parishes offer a space for people to comfortably express what they are and what they have. This is truer in the case of immigrants who see the parishes as instances to preserve and express their minority culture. To them parish is a space where they can have their own food, dress codes and customs. The assurance that the parish community will support them in times of crises augments their ‘bonding social capital.’
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