Parishes should be close-knit communities, without bureaucracy, people-centred - a place where the gift of the sacraments can be found. They have to become once again schools of service and generosity, with their doors always open to those who are excluded. And to those included. To all. Parishes are not a club for the few, which give a certain kind of social belonging. Please, let us be daring. Let us all rethink the style of our parochial communities. Let us pray that parishes, placing communion - communion of people, ecclesial communion - at the centre, may increasingly become communities of faith, of fraternity and of welcoming the most in need".
Pope Francis says: "Sometimes I think that we should put a sign on the door of parishes that says, "Free admission."
[Instruction: Congregation for the Clergy] The Pastoral Conversion of the Parish Community (in the Service of Evangelising Mission of the Church)
109. The theological significance of the Pastoral Council is inscribed in the constitutive reality of the Church, that is, in her being 'the Body of Christ', that generates a 'spirituality of communion'. In the Christian Community, in fact, the diversity of charisms and ministries that derive from incorporation into Christ and from the gift of the Holy Spirit may never be homogenised until they become 'uniformity, the obligation of doing everything together and all as equals, of always thinking the same thing in the same way'. On the contrary, in virtue of the baptismal priesthood, every member of the faithful is created for building up the whole Body and, at the same time, the whole People of God, in the reciprocal co-responsibility of its members, participates in the mission of the Church, that is, discerning in history the signs of the presence of God and becoming witnesses of His Kingdom.
110. Far from being simply a bureaucratic organ, the Pastoral Council highlights and realises the centrality of the people of God as the subject and active protagonist of the evangelising mission, in the virtue of the fact that every member of the faithful has received the gifts of the Spirit through Baptism and Confirmation ... In light of this fundamental vision, the words of Saint Paul VI come to mind, "It is the function of the pastoral council to investigate everything pertaining to pastoral activities, to weigh them carefully and to set forth practical conclusions concerning them so as to promote conformity of the life and actions of the People of God with the Gospel", in the awareness that, as Pope Francis recalled, the purpose of such a Council "should not be ecclesiastical organisation but rather the missionary aspiration of reaching everyone".
111. The Pastoral Council is a consultative body ...
112. ... it is necessary that the Pastoral Council effectively represent the community of which it is an expression in its membership (priests, deacons, religious and laity). this constitutes a specific setting in which the faithful are able to exercise their right and duty to express their own thought concerning the good of the Parish community to the pastors, and to communicate it to other members of the faithful.
114. Finally, it is considered fitting that, as far as possible, the Pastoral Council should consist for the most part of those who have effective responsibility in the pastoral life of the Parish, or who are concretely engaged in it, in order to avoid the meetings becoming an exchange of abstract ideas that do not take into account the real life of the community, with its resources and problems.