Catholic Church Societies are very numerous throughout the world; some are international in scope, some are national; some diocesan and others parochial. The right of association is one of the natural rights of man. It is not surprising, therefore, that from earliest antiquity societies of the most diverse kinds should have been formed. In pagan Rome the Church was able to carry on its work and elude the persecuting laws, only under the guise of a private corporation or society. When it became free it encouraged the association of its children in various guilds and fraternities that they might more easily, while remaining subject to the general supervision of ecclesiastical authority, obtain some special good for their souls or bodies or both simultaneously. By a society we understand the voluntary and durable association of a number of persons who pledge themselves to work together to obtain some special end. Of such societies there is a great variety in the Church both for laymen and clerics, the most perfect species of the latter being the regular orders and religious congregations bound by perpetual vows. As to societies of laymen, we may distinguish broadly three classes:

  1. confraternities, which are associations of the faithful canonically erected by the proper ecclesiastical superior to promote a Christian method of life by special works of piety towards God, e.g. the splendor of divine worship, or towards one’s neighbor, e.g. the spiritual or corporal works of mercy
  2. pious associations, whose objects are generally the same as those of confraternities, but which are not canonically erected
  • societies whose members are Catholics, but which are not in the strict sense of the word religious societies.

Some of these associations are ecclesiastical corporations in the strict acceptation of the term, while others are merely subordinate and dependent parts of the parish or diocesan organization, or only remotely connected with it. Church corporations, inasmuch as they are moral or legal persons, have the right, according to canon law, of making bylaws for their association by the suffrage of the members, of elections their own officers, of controlling their property within the limits of the canons, and of making provision, according to their own judgment, for their preservation and growth. They have, consequently, certain defined rights, both original or those derived from their constitution, and adventitious or what they have acquired by privilege or concession. Among original rights of all ecclesiastical corporations are the right of exclusion or the expelling of members; of selection or the adoption of new members; of convention or meeting for debate and counsel; of assistance or aiding their associates who suffer from a violation of their corporate rights. Societies of this nature have an existence independent of the individual members and can be dissolved only by ecclesiastical decree. Catholic societies which are not church corporations may be founded and dissolved at the will of their members. Sometimes they are approved, or technically praised, by ecclesiastical authority, but they are also frequently formed without any intervention of the hierarchy. In general, it may be said that Catholic societies of any description are very desirable.

The Church has always watched with singular care over the various organizations formed by the faithful for the promotion of any good work, and the popes have enriched them with indulgences. No hard and fast rules have been made, however, as to the method of government. Some societies, e.g. the Propagation of the Faith and the Holy Childhood, are general in their scope; others, are peculiar to one country. It sometimes happens that an association formed for one country penetrates into another. There are also societies instituted to provide for some special need, as an altar servers’ society, or for the furthering of some special devotion, as the Sacred Heart Confraternity.

In the Parish of Katukurunda there are 10 Societies which are prominent some active and some need reorganization and re-establishment. They are:

  1. Family Encounter Group (FEG)
  2. Legion of Mary (LM)
  3. Sacred Heart Confraternity (SHC)
  4. Vincent de Paul Society (SVP)
  5. Catholic Workers’ Movement (CWM)
  6. Altar Servers’ Association (ASA)
  7. The Holy Childhood Society (HCS)
  8. Young Catholic Students’ Movement (YCS)
  9. Catholic Youth Society (CYS)
  10. Seth Sarana Small Groups (SSSC)