 Canon law provides no formal guidelines for choosing a name for a parish or quasi-parish; however, the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments issued guidelines in 1999 that it may commonly be the same as the name of the parish church.In turn, the Rite of Dedication of a Church and an Altar stipulates that this name must be


If two or more parishes are merged, the church buildings of each parish retain their names, but the parish itself may adopt a different name for pastoral reasons.Bishops may close parishes through two legal mechanisms under canon law.