One of the accusations you frequently hear about Catholic Life in the US today concerns parish registration/offertory envelopes/weddings/schools.

As in: "My sister wanted to get married in her parish, but the pastor said that since they didn’t use their envelopes enough, they couldn’t…"

And so on.

I’ve never encountered anything like this. Parish registration – yes. Which is inarguable – that one should be a registered member of a parish in order to be married in that parish (or one’s family should be). Or that one should be registered in the parish and be able to demonstrate some sort of participation in said parish in order to attend the parish school and receive the parish-subsidized tuition rate.

But what I’m curious about is the tying of giving – in and of itself, or even tied to specific monetary amounts – to providing parish services.

Does this really happen? Is it an Old Parishioner’s Tale?

If you have anything to share, try to substantiate it as well as you can.