Parish Pastoral Council
What are Pastoral Councils and what do they do?
Vatican II urged active involvement in the life of the Church by emphasizing the principles of collaboration responsibility, consultation, and lay participation.
Pastors know that Christ did not mean for them to shoulder alone the entire mission of the Church themselves. A Pastor needs to consult with the laity who in turn have the right to express their views and concerns to the Pastor. An important structure to foster this collaboration in the mission is the Parish Pastoral Council.
In the early years of Pastoral Councils, members served in both an advisory capacity along with task responsibilities, such as development and oversight of various programs and ministries. In later years, this pattern has shifted from a focus on actual program planning and implementation and now calls for the Pastoral Council to lead the community in the discernment and expression of the mission of the parish.
Pastoral Council Members focus and serve in an advisory capacity to the Rector and Associates on matters that impact the spiritual vitality of the parish. It acts as a channel of communication among the people of God in developing, unifying, and growing the parish spiritually as a Christian Community. Topics of meeting discussion relate to: are we meeting the spiritual needs of all parishioners, how can we grow our parish, how can we attract former Catholics as well as non-Catholics to the teachings of Jesus Christ, are we fulfilling the Cathedral’s Mission, are we meeting the needs of our elderly, our youth, our widows and our divorced parishioners. We seek to energize all of the baptized and bring the non-baptized to a fuller participation in the life of Christ and His Church.
We encourage our parishioners and visitors to communicate any ideas, suggestions, or concerns to our Pastoral Council by using the suggestion box in the narthex of the church which will then be reviewed at their monthly meeting.
