It is the mission of pastoral planning. The New York handbook states that identifying the needs of the people and attempting to meet them is a purpose of councils. This is a form of pastoral planning. When councils today state that pastoral planning is their mission, they hearken back to the Vatican II Bishops' Decree. When their mission is to coordinate committees, they hearken back to the Laity Decree.
Pastoral planning is future-oriented.
Coordinating and administrating attract one kind of council member. Planning attracts a different kind. The differences between the two create tensions which are hard to avoid. If we want to clarify the mission of councils, we must go back to the documents. Clarifying the Mission One such effort to return to the documents was recently made by Father John Renken, Vicar General for the Diocese of Springfield in Illinois.