Parish Pastoral Council and Mission Fulfillment Discernment Gatherings
/Canon 536 of the Code of Canon Law provides for the creation of parish pastoral councils. At OLMC, our Pastoral Council charter is based on the Diocesan model. Its role is described as follows:
The Parish Pastoral Council is consultative. Its areas of concern include: (1) Education ─ Parochial School and/or Religious Education (2) Liturgy (3) Social Action and Charitable Outreach (4) Youth and Young Adults (5) Marriage and Family Life (6) Priestly and Religious Vocations (7) Ecumenical and Interreligious Cooperation and (8) Parish Activities and Events. Its responsibilities include: (1) Engaging parishioners in the spiritual and pastoral life of the parish; (2) Collaborating with the pastor in providing direction and oversight for all pastoral aspects of parish life; (3) Reviewing the pastoral policies of the diocese for parish implementation; (4) Establishing pastoral priorities with goals and objectives.
Since the beginning of my pastoral service here in 2012, OLMC has had an active Pastoral Council which usually meets four times per year. In the early years, the Pastoral Council discerned the parish mission statement and motto and prioritized evangelization, from which the Good Life retreat came. The Pastoral Council discerned that OLMC should get involved in the Save PQ Village outreach. In recent years, the Pastoral Council conducted a parish survey and discerned the priority of Young Adult ministry which led to a renewed effort by parish staff and volunteers in this area.
Normally, I would invite some involved parishioners to serve on the Pastoral Council based on their qualities of character and spirituality and to represent various segments of the parish. Last year I asked the heads of various ministries to nominate members of their ministry and the process resulted in an excellent group. You can see who they are here: https://www.olmcsandiego.org/pastoral-council-2021
The universal and local Church has, under the name synodality, held various meetings to help the Church become more listening, inclusive, and to engage more of the lay faithful in decision making. We participated in that process and now are taking another step with a series of meetings called Mission Fulfillment Discernment Gatherings. These will take place as follows:
Sat April 20, 2-4pm
Sun April 21 after 1:15pm Spanish mass for Hispanic community
Th May 2, 7-9pm
The questions that will be considered are: How well is OLMC fulfilling its Mission? How have you been blessed here? What could be done better? How can we all take greater responsibility to achieve our mission?
I encourage you to participate in one of these gatherings. The Pastoral Council will be facilitating these meetings. I would like to see the members of the Pastoral Council have a more prominent role in parish leadership. You likely know or at least recognize one or more of them. Please feel free to say hello to them if you see them after Mass. The Pastoral Council can be contacted by email, which is posted at the link above.