Lay-dominated advisory council raising its profile on bishops' issues

Published: 2006-11-17

BALTIMORE (CNS) -- The U.S. bishops' National Advisory Council is taking an increasingly public role in making recommendations about documents the bishops are considering and topics they might address in the future. Made up of more than 50 laypeople, men and women religious, deacons, priests and bishops, the council "could be seen as a national pastoral council," said Bishop David A. Zubik of Green Bay, Wis., in a brief interview with Catholic News Service Nov. 14 at the bishops' fall general assembly in Baltimore. In a report to the bishops the day before, Bishop Zubik said the council members represent "the adult Catholic population by age, occupation, ethnicity, geography, vocation and avocation. ... The council has been called 'the church in miniature.'" The council meets three times a year, immediately before the U.S. bishops' Administrative Committee holds its sessions. Council members receive the same documentation given to the Administrative Committee members and pass along their comments in both written and oral form, Bishop Zubik said.

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