§ 125. The Particular Duties of the Parish Priest

The circle of the particular duties of the parish priest is very extensive, since in his community he must not only perform the office of teacher of faith and morals and the office of priest, and take care to be a mirror of everything good and noble, but he must also conduct all the official business concerning the life of the church community which is entrusted to him by both the church and the state authority. The general rights and duties of the members of the hierarchy, which we have surveyed (§. 62), apply in every respect to the parish priest as well. As the deputy of the bishop in the parish concerned, we shall here mention, on the basis of the existing laws, the duties of the parish priest under those same rubrics under which we have set out the rights of the diocesan bishop (§. 108), having first spoken of his life; and so we shall survey: 1. The duties of the parish priest concerning his private, family, and social life, 2. his duties as teacher of faith and morals, 3. his duties as celebrant of the sacred mysteries, and 4. the duties concerning his official position in the parish.

1. Of the duties of the parish priest concerning his private, family, and social life, pastoral theology and the first part of the book “On the Duties of Parish Priests” speak in detail. In particular we here add:

1. The parish priest is obliged strictly to watch over his conduct, both in public and in his own house, and accordingly: a) he must always wear the dress appropriate to his rank;[1] b) he must not engage in secular affairs,[2] nor in general in anything that would be contrary to his calling and position;[3] c) he must not frequent public places of amusement unbecoming his position,[4] nor remain at entertainments in the houses of his parishioners beyond what his priestly office requires;[5] d) he must not keep in his house any strange woman, except the closest kin,[6] and his house, as well as its inmates, must in every respect be an example of good order and piety.[7]

2. He is obliged always to read Holy Scripture and the writings of the holy fathers, often to review the theological sciences which he studied in seminary, to read church periodicals, to occupy himself with the composition of sermons, and, so far as possible, also with the composition of writings on theological subjects and pastoral practice.[8]

3. He is obliged to cultivate in himself, and likewise, in word and deed, always to strive to cultivate in his own parishioners, sentiments of loyal subjection toward the ruler, and obedience toward the lawful authorities and the laws of the state;[9] and when he and his parishioners are called to exercise constitutional rights, he must always do so as a priest of peace and a teacher of morals, and never espouse one or another political party, but must instead teach his people in such circumstances peace and considered conduct, and turn them away from every passionate impulse and from every ill-considered, and perhaps also unlawful, action.[10]

II. Among the duties of the parish priest as teacher of faith and morals, the chief are:

1. To preach always in church, and especially on Sundays and feast days, choosing for this, according to the spiritual needs of his parishioners, passages from Holy Scripture, being guided in this solely and exclusively by the teaching of the Church.[11]

2. To catechize in church, every Sunday and feast day, at a suitable time, the youth, acquainting them with the foundations of the faith and teaching them the fear of God, and likewise to instruct in church the adult parishioners each time they are preparing for confession,[12] and in particular, betrothed couples at their marriage,[13] godparents at baptism,[14] and prisoners.[15] The performance of the teaching office in the parish is strictly enjoined upon the parish priest, so that if he should neglect this he is subject to excommunication, and if he remains obstinate in this neglect he is subject to deposition from the priestly order.[16]

3. To catechize children in the elementary schools.[17]

4. To see to it that at church services, and likewise when performing extraordinary services for his parishioners, the teaching of the Orthodox faith is kept in all its strictness, and that nothing new is introduced in the reading and chanting.[18]

5. To prevent the spread in the parish of books of a content contrary to the faith, and in general of any book of immoral content, and to report this at once to the diocesan authority.[19]

6. To combat every attempt at heterodox proselytism that might appear in his parish, to the detriment of his parishioners, and to report this at once to the diocesan authority.[20]

7. To care for the church-communal library, in the sense that the necessary religious and morally instructive books be procured for it from church funds, and that his parishioners derive as much benefit as possible from these books.[21]

III. As the lawful mediator between God and the people entrusted to him, and as the organ through which the people become partakers of God’s grace, the parish priest is obliged, as the regular celebrant of the sacred mysteries in his parish:

1. To serve matins and vespers every day in the parish church; on Sundays and feast days, in addition, the liturgy, and during the Great Fast also on Wednesday and Friday; and in general to perform the established public sacred rites at the times prescribed by the church statute.[22]

2. To perform, at the request of his parishioners, every sacred rite at once and without the least delay.[23]

3. To announce to the people from the ambo in church the feast days which the people are to observe, and to see that these feast days are duly kept by everyone.[24]

4. To administer the holy mysteries to his parishioners, namely: the baptism of the children of his parishioners,[25] confession,[26] marriage,[27] the proclamation [banns] of marriage,[28] the burial of his parishioners,[29] the keeping of the register of the premarital examination of couples,[30] and the register of those who have confessed in the year concerned.[31]

5. To watch over the cleanliness and good order both of the church and of all the objects pertaining to divine worship,[32] and likewise, that no one puts to domestic use any object intended for divine worship, and to preserve old such objects from misuse.[33]

6. To supervise whether the deacon and the church servitors (readers, chanters, paramonars) exactly perform their duty, and, should this not be so, to take the necessary measures for them to be removed from office and others appointed.[34]

IV. Most extensive of all is the circle of duties which every parish priest has in his parish according to his official position as superior and administrator of the parish. We shall bring forward the chief of these:

1. Just as the bishop is obliged permanently and without interruption to reside in the place where the cathedral diocesan church is (§. 110), so likewise is the parish priest obliged uninterruptedly to dwell in the place after which his parish is named. He may not, of his own will, absent himself from that place under any pretext whatsoever, least of all when there prevails by chance in that place some epidemic disease, or when his parish is in general exposed to some danger.[35] If he has an urgent need to be absent for some time from the parish, he may do so only by written permission of the competent authority; should he absent himself without this, he is subject to punishment.[36]

2. As a permanent official with defined jurisdiction in his parish, the parish priest must have his own particular office in a suitable place in his own house, and that office must be organized according to the legal prescriptions which apply to every other public office. In this office of his the parish priest must keep and hold in order all the records and books pertaining to the parish itself and to the persons composing it, namely: the register of official documents received and issued, the register of episcopal diocesan encyclicals, of consistorial ordinances, of protopresbyteral instructions, the general parish census, the parish registers, the inventories of church property, the books of church income and expenditure, and so on.[37] Among all these official records and books, the principal ones are the parish registers.

3. The parish registers are the foundational records of the whole of society. And just as the Church accords them the highest importance, so too does the state.[38] The parish registers have their origin in the first centuries of Christianity, and just as the clergy have kept them through all the centuries, so this same thing takes place today in the whole Orthodox Church in the world.[39] Since the registers, as public books, are subject, both for the church and for the state authority, to the strict control of both authorities, the parish priest concerned is obliged, in keeping the registers, to follow in every particular the instructions issued for this by law.[40] Three registers exist in every parish (and likewise in every independent chaplaincy): the register of births, the register of marriages, and the register of deaths, and in the first are entered all who are born in the parish concerned, in the second all who are married, and in the third all who die. These entries are made and may be made solely and exclusively in the manner prescribed by the relevant instructions of the church and the state authority. Every neglect by the parish priest of the legal prescriptions in making entries in the registers is also punished by the state authority.[41] Once a given case has been entered in the register, the parish priest may no longer correct it on his own authority; rather, if an error is noticed, he must wait for written permission from the higher authority, and only then may he subsequently enter the correction into the register.[42]

4. Extracts from the registers must be issued by the parish priest himself, with observance of all the legal prescriptions existing in this regard. These extracts are either in the form of certificates for private persons, or formal extracts, which the parish priest is obliged to send to the competent authorities. These latter (extracts) the parish priest is obliged to prepare: a) every three months, for state-statistical purposes, b) every year, for military purposes, concerning young men who are liable for military service, c) every year, for purposes of the vaccination register, concerning children who were born in the past year, and d) in all those cases mentioned in the relevant instructions, the parish priest is obliged to issue official extracts from the registers.[43]

5. According to his duty to take care of public morals in his parish and to prevent whatever is to the detriment of morals, the parish priest must periodically report to the competent higher authority on all those vices that are frequently maintained among the people, and to seek a remedy, so as to root them out the more successfully. Here belong especially the parish priest’s reports on those who live in concubinage and do not wish to enter into lawful marriage.[44]

6. So that the more important events in the parish should not fall into oblivion, and so that the memory of these events may be preserved for posterity, the parish priest is obliged to keep, in a special book, a chronicle of his parish.[45]

7. Of the duty of the parish priest to take care how church property, and the endowments and legacies intended for the church, the school, and charitable institutions, are administered, and that the parish priest is obliged to conduct the supreme management of all this, we speak in §. 128.

In the performance of all the duties now set out, and of the rest, the parish priest must, whenever any doubt arises for him, turn for clarification to the competent protopresbyter, or, through him, to the diocesan consistory.[46]

Footnotes

[39] We find the keeping of these registers already in the earliest times of the Church. The book in which the priests entered the names of those baptized and of their godparents is mentioned in Dionysius the Areopagite, De ecclesiastica hierarchia, cap. II. p. 2. §. 5. (Ed. Migne) The names of deceased Christians were recorded in the time of Cyprian of Carthage in special diptychs, from which those names were read at the common divine service (Cypriani ep. 16. 62). For the attestation, however, of a marriage that had been concluded, those who had not concluded special marriage contracts had, in accordance with one (74.) novel of the Emperor Justinian, that is to say in the first half of the 6th century, to present themselves to the priest concerned, who, together with two or three other priests, would prepare a written document in which were recorded the time, the place of the marriage and the names of the betrothed, and this document was kept among the other written documents of the church. It was so at first; and later, when the state began to draw from these church registers the data it needed, these same registers were then also arranged in the manner they have today.

[40] For Austria the imperial patent of February 20, 1784 (Jos. G.-S. IV Theil, № 113), pursuant to which the pertinent instruction for Dalmatia was issued by the gubernial proclamation of Aug. 20, 1816, no. 13529. For Serbia the order of the council of bishops of May 1884, no. 7. For Russia arts. 1037 and 1038 of vol. IX, Laws on the Estates, ed. of 1876, and art. 99 of the consistory statute of 1883. For Greece the law of April 13, 1852. For Romania the law of May 14, 1882.—The registers themselves and the accuracy of their keeping by the competent priests are subject to the control of the eparchial authority, which is answerable to the state authority for the registers and which issues the necessary books for these registers to the parish priests concerned. In Dalmatia, according to the gubernial circular of July 14, 1825, no. 12062, the imperial-royal district prefects have the right to visé the parish registers with their signature and official seal. This is rather a special exception to the general norm in force in Austria, for according to the decision of the Administrative Court of Justice of November 24, 1887, no. 2753, the political authority has only the right of general supervision over whether the registers are kept in accordance with the provisions of the law, while of the aforementioned visation of the registers by the district prefects no mention is made there.

[43] Instructions for this exist in particular in every state. For Dalmatia, the consistorial circular of 29 February 1892, no. 474. For Russia, arts. 1047, 1048, 1052 of vol. IX of the Digest of Laws, ed. 1876, and arts. 271—274 of the Consistorial Statute of 1883. For Serbia, vol. VI of the collection of laws and ordinances, p. 130. For Greece, the royal decree of 16 May 1859. For Romania, the royal decree of 5 April 1860. On the various certificates and extracts from the registers in Austria, see A. Griessl, Vorschriften und österreichische Gesetze und Verordnungen in den Matriken-Angelegenheiten. Graz, 1891, p. 206 ff.—In Hungary, since the state does not recognize parochial registers but only state ones, extracts from those state registers are issued by the respective officials, the keepers of the registers, and only those extracts have evidentiary force before the state authorities (§§ 28 and 29 of Law Article XXXIII of the year 1894).

§ 125. The Particular Duties of the Parish Priest

§ 125. Посебне дужности пароха

§ 125. б) Наказания для духовных лиц