<![CDATA[Unequal pastoral-service access remains a critical spatial planning issue for rural Catholic communities where outstations are dispersed across hilly terrain and road quality varies substantially. This study aimed to evaluate the geographical feasibility of outstation locations for the formation of a new parish in St. Joseph Benteng Jawa Parish, Ruteng Diocese, Indonesia. A descriptive quantitative design was integrated with geographic information system analysis using field-verified outstation locations, parish administrative records, road-distance data, service frequency, chapel availability, congregation size, land area, and road-condition observations. Buffer, service-area, travel-time, and overlay analyses were applied to 18 outstations comprising 11,292 parishioners. The results show that the mean road distance from the old parish center was 6.46 km, while 10 outstations (55.56%) were located beyond 5 km and eight outstations (44.44%) required more than 20 minutes of travel. Road condition was the major constraint because 14 outstations (77.78%) were served by damaged or stony roads, reducing the practical value of distance-only coverage. Overlay analysis identified Wae Nenda and Necak as feasible candidates, but Wae Nenda performed better because it combines a large congregation (859 people), an available chapel, the largest land reserve (18,000 m2), and the capacity to bring all four underserved peripheral outstations into the candidate service catchment. The study demonstrates that parish expansion decisions can be strengthened when ecclesial, demographic, and land-readiness criteria are evaluated together with network-based accessibility rather than straight-line distance alone.]]>
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