Parish and Place

Parish and Place tells the story of how the largest religion in the US is responding to unprecedented diversity in its membership through the use of "personal parishes," which serve not a given territory, but a defined purpose-- a particular language or ethnicity, or a preference for the Latin Mass. Nearly all Catholic dioceses in the US have such parishes, but few know about them. Tricia Bruce offers the first sociological study of personal parishes, based on an original national survey, ethnographic data gathered at 67 personal parishes in fifteen dioceses, and interviews with pastors, diocesan leaders, and bishops.