Training Lays Groundwork for Pastoral Councils
By Msgr. Vincent J. Grimalia, V.G.

More than 1,020 priests, deacons, religious and laity attended the September sessions on the Directives on Parish Pastoral Councils. At the present time, priests, deacons, members of parish pastoral councils and lay and religious members of local parishes invited by the pastor are attending the second training session.

The focus of the October session is on the process for establishing a council or reorganizing a current council according to the Diocesan directives. These sessions are preparing people to study the Directives and Part I of the Resource Manual. The Directives and Part I of the Resource Manual are available on-line on the Diocesan web site at www.dioceseofscranton.org.

Understanding the mission of the parish is very important for all parishioners to appreciate, because it leads to comprehension of the qualities and characteristics needed when considering whom to appoint or nominate for membership on a Parish Pastoral Council.

It is also helpful to be aware of the role, the activities and the process of a pastoral council as an advisory body to a pastor. The purpose of a Parish Pastoral Council is to foster full participation of the entire parish in the mission of the parish and to advise the pastor on matters brought to it by the pastor for spiritual renewal and pastoral planning for evangelization.

Ongoing formation of a council will help the Parish Pastoral Council to come to an awareness of the mission of the parish as it comes to a deeper awareness of the Church as vocation, communion and mission.

The Pastoral Council will work with the pastor to develop an integrated and comprehensive pastoral plan for evangelization, pastoral care and the cultivation of an understanding of vocation as well as the promotion of vocations to the priesthood, consecrated life and the Christian vocation in general.

Monsignor David Bohr, a priest of the Diocese, once reflected on the Apostolic Letter of Pope Paul VI on Evangelization, and provided a succinct summary of the different aspects of the evangelizing mission of the parish in these words: “Every task and every ministry within the church serves this continuing mission. All ministries, whether in the area of missionary extension or pastoral care, whether in outreach to the un-churched and inactive Catholic, whether in the area of family life, catechesis, preaching, international life, peace, justice and liberation – all ministries converge to serve the one ‘primary and essential mission’ of evangelization.”

These words will help us to integrate the various aspects of parish life as components of the evangelizing mission of the Church and parish. The following insights will help to develop a comprehensive pastoral plan.

From In Verbo tuo: “Vocation is at the heart of the new evangelization … the vocational perspective is the soul and the unifying criterion of all pastoral work. All pastoral work must be vocational, beginning with an explicit intention of placing the believer before the proposal of God.” Reflection on these words will help the pastoral council and parishioners to develop both a comprehensive and integrated pastoral plan for evangelization.

A document from the Vatican Congregation for the Clergy, The Priest, Pastor and Leader of the Parish Community, provides another important insight: “The rediscovery in our communities of the universal call to holiness should be the basis for all pastoral planning and orient that same planning. The soul of every apostolate depends on divine intimacy, on placing nothing before the love of Christ, in seeking the greater glory of God in all things…Training in holiness places pastoral planning under the sign of holiness.”

After coming to an enriched understanding of the mission of a parish, it is important to come to an awareness of what a Parish Pastoral Council is and what it is not. It is an advisory group that is primarily pastoral and not managerial. Its focus is to help the pastor develop and evaluate a pastoral plan through prayer, study, reflection and a process of consultation.

In The Priest, Pastor and Leader of the Parish Community, we read: “The basic task of such a council is to serve, at the institutional level, the orderly collaboration of the faithful in the development of pastoral activity which is proper to priests. The Pastoral Council is thus a consultative organ in which the faithful, expressing their baptismal responsibility, can assist the parish priest, who presides at the Council, by offering their advice on pastoral matters.”

In Novo Millennio Ineunte, Pope John Paul II stated, “To make the Church the home and the school of communion: that is the great challenge facing us … Before making practical plans, we need to promote a spirituality of communion … Let us have no illusions: unless we follow this spiritual path, external structures of communion will serve very little purpose. They would become mechanisms without a soul, ‘masks’ of communion rather than its means of expression and growth.”
A failure to practice a spirituality of communion will lead to frustration and ineffectiveness, and eventually to failure. In The Priest, Pastor and Leader of the Parish Community,, we are instructed: The pastoral council is to be seen in relation to the context of the relationship of mutual service that exists between a parish priest and his faithful.”

Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI have stressed the importance of prayer and the spirituality of communion for the spiritual renewal of the parish as it prepares to develop a pastoral plan for the evangelization of persons and cultures, both within the parish community and in the surrounding culture.

When considering who should be a member of a Parish Pastoral Council, or when someone is considering whether to accept an appointment or nomination, the Resource Manual outlines certain steps and qualities for consideration.
Council members should reflect the diversity of the parish and be people who are able and committed to prayer and study. A member must be able to move beyond any particular bias, agenda or perspective and be able to work for the common good of the parish in accordance with Church teaching. A member must be a good non-defensive listener. Members of the Parish Pastoral Council must meet at least the minimum requirements of the precepts of the Church outlined in the Catholic Catechism: regular participation at Mass on Sundays and Holy Days of Obligation, and living in conformity with the teaching of the Church.

Pope Paul VI, in Christian Joy, stated that joy and realistic optimism is needed in our parishes. “Without departing from a realistic viewpoint, let Christian communities become centers of optimism where all members resolutely endeavor to perceive the positive aspects of people and events…The attainment of such an outlook is not just a matter of psychology. It is also a fruit of the Holy Spirit.”
In other words, a realistic and joyful person can be a great asset on a Parish Pastoral Council, willing and able to work for consensus in a spirit of collaboration and cooperation. Others need not apply, because council members must work to express and promote communion and never cause division in a parish.