BRIGHTON ? Archbishop SeᮠP. O?Malley has appointed members to the newly reconstituted Archdiocesan Pastoral Council. The council will hold its first official meeting on Jan. 20.

The previous Pastoral Council, a lay advisory group under the Office of the Secretary for Pastoral Services, was automatically disbanded when Cardinal Bernard Law resigned in December 2002. Canon law requires that the body dissolve when the see becomes vacant.

Cardinal Law had asked the members to suggest changes that would make the council more effective, said Frank Angiulo, one of four members of the Pastoral Council?s steering committee. However, that process was not completed before the cardinal?s resignation.

The committee subsequently submitted their recommendations to then-Apostolic Administrator Bishop Richard Lennon, who retained the committee in an unofficial capacity, but the changes could not be implemented until a new archbishop was appointed.

After arriving in Boston, Archbishop O?Malley met with the council?s steering committee and listened to their suggestions before forming the new council.

Based on the recommendations of the steering committee, new statutes were completed in November of last year. The steering committee suggested that the next council have a higher percentage of lay members and a rolling membership.

In the spring of 2004, each pastor of the archdiocese was asked to recommend one parishioner for membership on the council. Those names were forwarded to the vicar forane of the area who selected five to send on to the archbishop. The archbishop asked the steering committee of the previous council to assist in evaluating the recommendations. The committee was asked to consider each nominee?s involvement in parish and Church life, ethnic and cultural background, geographical location and age in order to form council representing a cross-section of the archdiocese, Angiulo said.

?We thought it was extremely important to have the lay membership be the central thrust,? said Angiulo.

The previous Pastoral Council consisted of more clergy and chancery personnel including several ?ex officio? members, those who automatically granted a seat on the council by virtue of their office. In the past, all five auxiliary bishops of the archdiocese were ?ex officio? members of the council.

Now the committee has only two ?ex officio? members ? moderator of the curia Bishop Lennon and moderator to the council Father Arthur Coyle ? and four other clergy members ? two priests and two deacons. The archbishop also has a separate clergy advisory group, the Presbyteral Council.

Although they suggested reducing the number of clergy on the council, members still felt it was important to receive the input of pastors who understand the day-to-day workings in a faith community, said Father Frank J. Silva, a new member to the APC and pastor at St. Ann Parish in Wayland.

?As a pastor, I would hope I would have a vision of the mechanism overall,? he said.

The steering committee also felt it was important for the membership to rotate so that new members could learn from the old, said Angiulo. Previously, the entire council was appointed for a five-year term. Members of the new committee have been appointed for one, two, three or four year terms to create a rolling membership. Those appointed in the future will serve five-year terms. Eight of the council?s 50 members served on the previous council and were appointed for a one-year term.

All but four members of the new council have been appointed. Two representatives of the young-adult community and two youth members will be appointed in the spring.

?The old council went through a great transformation,? said Father Coyle. ?They were part of that transformation to try to make the council a much more vital consultative body within the archdiocese.?

The archbishop sees the APC as a ?vital? group, Father Coyle added.

Archbishop O?Malley expressed his appreciation for those who accepted membership at the council?s organizational meeting on Dec. 2, according to the minutes of the meeting.

The archbishop is looking forward to ?hearing the truth and to hearing all the council?s ideas,? the minutes continued.

?Stating that he is concerned about the Church and the great challenges it faces, he added that more healing needs to be done, but that we must never lose sight of our personal mission: the need to be a proactive, evangelizing, welcoming Church,? it said.

Communication is a high priority for the council members. Members seek to bring what they see from the pews to council meetings, Angiulo said. They hope to relate both the concern and praise Catholics in Boston have for their Church to the archbishop.

Council member Elizabeth Mingolelli said the current changes in the Archdiocese of Boston, remind her of the period of the change following Vatican II.

?It was a feeling of rejuvenation and growth,? she said.

Now in this archdiocese, it?s time for parishioners to help form the new vision of the Church through discussion, she added.

Membership listed on the appropriate link.

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