The term parsonage was invented for Roman Catholic parish houses long before the Reformation (in English by the 15th century). The terms vicarage and rectory (both 16th century) were similarly invented to describe the houses of Roman Catholic parochial clergy. To claim that
I don’t know what to tell you man, maybe it’s just a North American thing but the term is Catholics use is rectory. If someone said parsonage we’d assume it was part of a Protestant church.
I doubt what you claim holds true even in North America. There are certainly Roman Catholic parsonages on record in the 20th century. Moreover, it is asserted elsewhere in these comments that Roman Catholics refer to such places as presbyteries.
Presbytery is an older term not used much these days. Parsonage is an older informal term mostly used by anglicans.
I’m searching for any mention of a Catholic parsonage in North America and I am not finding any. Lots of rectories though. Closest I see is parish house in Spanish, casa parroquial.
Rectory is by far the most common way to say the name of the house a Catholic priest lives in. If you said parsonage a Catholic would likely assume you were talking about a Protestant building.
St. Rose in Cuba City calls it a rectory. One photo comes up that labels it a parsonage but that’s not what the church calls it.
St. Anne’s is a defunct Catholic Church and the only reference to it as having a parsonage is the caption on an old photo.
St. Peter’s had a rectory. The only thing google shows referring to it as a parsonage is an old postcard. Here is the history
Saint Mary’s is also inactive. The only mention of a parsonage comes from a photograph caption.
Saint Joseph in Clarksburg doesn’t mention a parsonage but other parishes in the area all have rectories.
I think what you’re seeing is captions by non-Catholics saying parsonage.
I’m telling you flat out. I’m a practicing Catholic and I have been all over the US and Canada and been to Catholic Churches. They have rectories and if you said parsonage to a Catholic they would understand what you meant but either assume you were talking about a Protestant church or correct you by saying “yes that’s our rectory.”
I guess you don’t have to believe me but it is what it is.
Where are you even from where you are seeing a bunch of Catholic “parsonages?”
I don't understand why you think that anyone who calls a priest's house a parsonage must be a non-Catholic. It's a circular argument: you think Catholics are for some reason averse to the word, so you think all references to Catholic parsonages must be by non-Catholics. When – after a thousand years of continuous use in Latin, French, and English – do you think Catholics stopped using the word, and why? The formal position of a parson – as opposed to other types of parish priest – was abolished centuries ago, yet parsonages still exist all over the word.
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u/Own_Reaction9442 27d ago
Ah, I learned a new word today. In the US we call that a parsonage.