Parish Council

January 2, 2022

Our Parish Pastoral Council is made of elected members of the Parish who serve as a consultative body assisting the Pastor with the responsibilities of the parish. The Pastor may also appoint some members, up to one-third of all the members, to assure representation for all members of the parish. At St. Francis Parish, interested parishioners are invited to seek election to the Pastoral Council to fill vacancies. The terms of office allow for elections each year for a member to serve a two-year term. A member may serve a maximum of three consecutive 2-year terms. Members should be Confirmed members in good standing with the parish who regularly participate in the life and worship of the parish community. 

The whole Parish Pastoral Council meets every other month and the subcommittees (Sacred Worship, Social Justice, Education, and Family Life*) meet the month between. Each council member is on a committee. These committees meet with interested parishioners and the Council member reports back to the Parish Pastoral Council on activities and upcoming events planned by each committee.  

Detailed information on the function and purpose of the Parish Pastoral Council is found in the Diocese of La Crosse document, “On Consultation in the Parish and Deanery.”
 

*Committees

Family Life Committee: Assist the parish pastoral council in fostering Christian family life in the parish. Among its concerns are the central place of the family in all parish pastoral activities, parish hospitality and social activities, youth ministry, vocations to the priesthood and the consecrated life, pre-marriage preparation, marriage enrichment, natural family planning, and the pastoral care of single adult Catholics, divorced Catholics, divorced and remarried Catholics, and widows and widowers. 

Sacred Worship Committee: Assist the parish pastoral council in fostering, first and foremost, the liturgical life of the parish as celebrated in the Sacraments and other rites of the Church, with special attention to the sick and isolated in the parish. Also of concern to this committee are the devotional aspects of the parish’s life of prayer. 

Catholic Education Committee: Assist the parish pastoral council in fostering the educational aspect of the pastoral mission of the parish, which includes evangelization, adult education, catechetics, the Catholic school (if there be one in the parish), missionary activity, and ecumenism. If a Catholic high school serves the parish, it, too, would fall within the concern of the Catholic Education Committee, without prejudice to any other consultative body which has particular responsibility for the pastoral activity in the Catholic high school.   

Social Justice Committee: Assist the parish pastoral council in fostering pastoral concern and action for justice in the world, especially in all areas of parish life. Its concerns include promotion of the respect for all human life, the pastoral care of the afflicted, the needy, and the imprisoned, the pastoral care of migrants and refugees, just structures in the parish, stewardship, and the greater understanding of the Church’s teaching on social justice.