In Crisis Magazine, Alexandria McCormick has written an insightful response to what she calls “the recent, and particularly grandiose, liturgical vision of a certain Midwestern diocese.”

I am sympathetic to much of what she argues: that people have a right to feel their spirituality is nourished in their parish community, and that whether they find that nourishment in the parish of their geographical area or another parish is not of ultimate significance.

The weakening link to geographical parishes

The widening gap between Catholics and their “Geographical Parishes” (McCormick’s term), however, is an issue that will need particular attention in the coming years, especially when we consider how digital technologies are also shaping people’s approach to parish life.

To use an example: When the Covid-19 pandemic struck, priests rushed to livestream themselves celebrating Masses during lockdowns and other restrictions on how many could be physically present in our churches.

The proliferation of so-called “Online Masses” led Catholics to discover that they had access to liturgical celebrations from across the world, not just their own parish.

Online Masses has contributed to the increasing sense that if my own local parish or priest did not quite match my liturgical sensibilities, there would be another parish and priest somewhere that would.

The issue, though, runs far deeper.

Digital faith communities and belonging

There is no denying that digital faith communities now offer many people a sense of belonging and security, perhaps even more than their own parish communities.

The online world offers a place to connect with other like-minded Catholics, a space to evangelise and be evangelised, a sense of belonging to a global Church, and, to some extent, pastoral and quasi-pastoral care through priests and other “leaders” with an outsized social media influence.

Community and the challenge of commitment

These are not entirely negative developments, but they have made even more widespread the belief that we should always be able to choose the communities to which we belong and feel free to change them when they no longer provide what we might be looking for.

In this landscape, we need to rediscover the beauty of commitment to a particular community — in all its diversity and even messiness — not chosen but given to us, and the genuine human encounter and Christian life that it brings about.

Spiritual growth through shared pilgrimage

After all, it is within a community where others are different to who we are, sometimes frustratingly so, that we are reminded that the grace of God crosses every human boundary.

It is within a dynamic community, with its sometimes sharp and painful vicissitudes, that we are reminded that we are still a pilgrim people who must journey together.

Rediscovering the gift of the local parish

It is within a Christian community that we have not chosen or created, but welcomed and accepted, and that has us, that we are reminded that we are part of God’s Church, God’s new creation, not ours.

That is the gift of the “Geographical Parish,” perhaps needed now more than ever before.

• Errol Xavier Lobo is a priest of the Catholic Archdiocese of Perth. Ordained in April 2024, he currently serves as an Assistant Priest at the Kalgoorlie-Boulder parish, while also providing pastoral care to its Catholic schools and acting as a Visiting Chaplain at Curtin University’s WA School of Mines. He completed his Master of Philosophy by research in the area of Pauline Studies at the University of Notre Dame Australia, after a Bachelor of Theology with High Distinction, and a Bachelor of Engineering (Computer Science), First Class with Distinction. He enjoys reading, listening to music, and long walks, and is particularly interested in New Testament Studies.
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