CENTER SECTION: PASTORAL PLANNING AND COUNCILS
Research on Inter-Parochial Pastoral Councils:
An Emerging Model for Parish Consultative Bodies

by Robert J. Miller

Pastors were asked to describe how their multi-parish council works, its purpose, the role that the pastor assumes in the council, the external support he has for this structure, and how it relates to other parish and diocesan councils and to the parishioners. In this article their answers are summarized.

There are essentially three ways that pastors of multiple parishes set up their pastoral councils:

• Type A, the parallel council: two (or more) parish pastoral councils meeting separately with the pastor present, presiding over, and meeting with each;
  
  
• Type B, the additional council: representatives of the two (or more) parishes are formed into a multi-parish council to coordinate the activities of the parishes represented in it and to complement the consultation continuing to be provided to the pastor by individual parish pastoral councils; and
  
  
• Type C, the replacement council, in which representatives of two (or more) parishes are formed into one pastoral council with the shared pastor presiding, in lieu of a parish pastoral council for each parish.

This study is focused on Type B-additional and Type C-replacement councils. When qualifying the sample, we eliminated Type A-parallel councils since parish representatives do not meet together as a multi-parish council. One exception to this was a pastor currently working with Type A-parallel councils who was in the process of changing them into a Type C-replacement council. The rest of the respondents turned out to be evenly divided between Type B-additional (multi-parish councils that augment the work of the parish pastoral councils) and Type C-replacement multi-parish councils.

Another pastor was in the process of moving his council from a Type B-additional to a Type C-replacement council. Throughout the discussion of the findings the terms “multi-parish pastoral council” and “council” will be used interchangeably. When citing directly from the transcripts, the terms pastors used to describe their version of these councils will be used, including cluster council, partnered council, and joint council. The author will clarify the specific type as required.

Summary and Recommendations for Future Research

This report describes an exploratory qualitative study intended to investigate the development of multi-parish pastoral councils among Catholic parishes in the United States by identifying and describing the pastors’ perspectives on multi-parish pastoral councils. Councils of this type are being employed by 31% of the pastors (1,367) who are pastoring more than one parish. This means that at least 2,734 (13%) of the Roman rite parishes and missions in the United States participate in multi-parish councils. This study suggests that these councils are being employed in a variety of creative ways, but that pastors frequently need to adapt policy and procedures designed for individual parish pastoral councils in order to create the methods that they use for their multi-parish councils.

Further exploratory research could investigate what is happening in this lay consultative parish structure known as the multi-parish council. It could include observing the dynamics of these councils by a researcher present to their deliberations. Salient themes, patterns, or categories of meaning for pastors and multi-parish pastoral council members could be identified and explored.

Explanatory research could attempt to identify the events, beliefs, attitudes, or policies that have served to shape multi-parish pastoral councils. Further research that describes the guidelines specifically established by dioceses to guide the formation of multi-parish councils is needed. The particular literature and church documents used in developing such guidelines would be very helpful to other dioceses that do not have any guiding policy for these lay consultative bodies.

Multi-parish councils may increase, as the numbers of parishes sharing pastors are expected to continue to grow. Periodic follow-up studies to determine the extent of growth of pastoring multiple parishes and the use of multi-parish councils need to be conducted.

In this study, half of the multi-parish councils were described by the pastor as possibly a transition step that may result in the merger of the parishes involved at some point in the future. Further study needs to be conducted to determine to what extent this expected outcome is realized and to identify the differences between parishes whose pastoral councils call for a merger of parishes and those that continue on as separate parishes working together in multi-parish councils.

Studies making more objectivist assumptions, such as a study of the proportion of Type C-replacement multi-parish councils compared to Type B-additional multi-parish councils and the characterisics of the parishes involved in each would be able to triangulate with interview data.

Finally, the strategy of asking pastors to assume responsibility to pastor several parishes is one of several strategies available to the Catholic church in the United States to ensure access to the rich sacramental life of the church. Other strategies currently employed by the church include restructuring parishes into larger, more distantly separated communities and entrusting the sacramental and pastoral care of the parish to someone who is not a priest, in accordance with Canon 517.2. In addition, new strategies not currently in use in the church may come into being. Research needs to be conducted to monitor how the church across the United States employs this range of options and the reasons for the strategy that is employed in each diocese.

With regard to this topic we have much to learn. As we move into the twenty-first century, one thing that is clear is that new emerging models of pastoral leadership, consultative bodies, and staff positions will be developed through the creativity of pastoral leaders and the inspiration of the Spirit.

The full report of the study summarized in this article can be downloaded at http://www.emergingmodels.org/article.cfm?id=29

Robert J. Miller, Ph.D., is director of research for the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, Penn.