The Pastoral Council serves as a planning and advisory body to the Pastor in matters pertaining to pastoral works. They are responsible for long-term strategic planning and consideration and advisement on pastoral matters.
Council members are known for their spiritual maturity and love of Christ, in addition to special competence in areas of strategic planning, project management, leadership development, etc. They serve as disciples assisting the Pastor and parish staff Leadership Team in the development and management of the parish's long-term strategic plan so that the parish may effectively pursue its vision of building disciples who serve Jesus' mission by their lives. While members of the Council receive input from individuals and ministry groups, they don't serve as representatives of any specific group. Members are appointed by the Pastor and aren't chosen solely for their competence in planning and management. They must, first of all, be persons whose foremost priority is the development of a community of faith and who see their concern with temporal affairs in this context.
The 1983 Code of Canon Law requires parishes to establish Pastoral Councils, to the extent that pastoral circumstances recommend it, to investigate under the authority of the bishop all those things which pertain to pastoral works, to ponder them and to propose practical conclusions about them.