From consultation to co-responsibility: a webinar on councils and pastoral assemblies

A meeting about what the Synod asks of dioceses and parishes: that their spaces for participation exist, meet, and decide together.

The Pastoral Council and the Pastoral Assembly are the spaces where a diocese or a parish sits to look at its reality and decide its path. There, the voices of those who sustain the daily life of the community are heard, and from there decisions are made that everyone later assumes.

That is why the Final Document of the Synod (DF 103-106) established them as mandatory and requested to renew their way of operating. The sixth meeting of the Implementation Itineraries of the Synod, on Friday, August 21 at 6:00 p.m. (Colombia time), translates that request into concrete criteria: how they are formed, how often they meet, what goes into their agenda, and how ecclesiastical authority participates in them.

The criteria for formation depend on whether a council effectively represents all the People of God and not just those who are already close. The frequency depends on whether the work has continuity and does not rely on the circumstances.


Another point is the synodal way in which ecclesiastical authority participates in these spaces. It is not about creating new structures, but rather ensuring that the existing ones function and support shared decisions.

Among the tasks outlined in the Final Document is to clarify the criteria that make the participation of women and men equitable in the composition of these bodies. 

In many communities, women already sustain everyday pastoral life; the pending step is to ensure that this presence is reflected in formation criteria, expressed in an effective voice on the agenda, and has continuity beyond who presides.

The meeting seeks to move from scattered practices to guidelines that each diocese can adopt and adapt.


The presentations will be led by Rafael Luciani, director of the Theological Center of Celam and a member of the Theological Commission of the Synod of Bishops on synodality, and Anarelys Ugas, who has supported the synodal reform of the diocese of La Guaira, structured in a network of zonal, parish, and diocesan pastoral councils.

We will also have the pastoral experiences of Serena Noceti and Pedro Brassesco. Noceti is an Italian theologian, a doctor in Dogmatic Theology, and a full professor in Florence; Brassesco, an Argentine priest and communicator, participated in the XVI Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod from his service in CELAM.

Topic: The obligation, in Dioceses and Parishes, of participation bodies, such as the Pastoral Council and the Pastoral Assembly, and the renewal of their functioning in a synodal key (DF 103-106).

Date: Friday, August 21, 6:00 p.m. (Colombia time)

Speakers: Rafael Luciani and Anarelys Ugas

Pastoral experiences: Serena Noceti and Pedro Brassesco 

You may be interested in: 
Pastoral renewal for the challenges of the present: synodal, interactive, and digital pedagogy

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