Concrete lay involvement in pastoral councils and parish decision making is essential to the building and development of parishes, Bishop of Ossory, Dr Seamus Freeman has said.He was speaking at the second round of meetings of the newly formed Deanery Pastoral Councils of the diocese.
The Councils, which consist of a lay representative of each parish, along with priests and religious representing the Deanery, are part of the newly restructured Ossory Diocesan Forum.
Bishop Seamus Freeman said that the structure of the Ossory Diocesan Forum was changed to this Deanery-based structure to promote a more neighbourly context for an effective Gospel response to local challenges.
''A priest without the concrete co-operation of the people cannot build and develop a parish that is the family of God, neither can a people be the family of God without the priest,'' he said.
Bishop Freeman stressed the importance of sharing ideas with a view to reaching consensus on pastoral priorities, implementing pastoral strategies to address those priorities and the sharing of progress or difficulties in their implementation.
Fr Richard Scriven has been given the responsibility by Bishop Freeman to assist all parishes in setting up new Pastoral Councils.
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