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Welcome to the Discerning Leadership Program

The purpose of the Program for Discerning Leadership is to build the capacity of senior Church leaders, including officials in Vatican Dicasteries, General Superiors of religious orders, bishops, and lay leaders, for this mission of discernment, reform, and renewal.

“I dream of a ‘missionary option’, that is, a missionary impulse capable of transforming everything, so that the Church’s customs, ways of doing things, times and schedules, language and structures can be suitably channeled for the evangelization of today’s world rather than for her self-preservation”

Pope Francis (Evangelii Guadium n.27).

In particular, the Program and its Network of experts are dedicated to serving senior Church leaders in the following ways:

Leadership
coaching

Group
Facilitation

Organizational
Development

Spiritual
Accompaniment

Leadership
coaching

Group
Facilitation

Organizational
Development

Spiritual
Accompaniment

Personal and Spiritual
Formation

Personal and Spiritual
Formation

We coordinate a network of professionals who are available to support our participants and their organizations in leadership development and through spiritual accompaniment. These members are from more than 20 different countries and speak more than 15 languages.

Pope Francis calls the Church to discern a path forward as a community of faith, to become a synodal Church that reaches out to the world, especially to those who are outcast or rejected, a Church that joyfully proclaims the infinite, unconditional, and universal mercy of God.

We believe that Church leaders enabled and empowered to lead in this manner will over time transform the Church and enact the synodal ecclesial community that Pope Francis is calling for.

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Discerning Leadership Blog

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Empowering Leaders across Asia

By | 13 March 2023 | 2 min read

In the last few months, the Discerning Leadership Program was offered to over 100 leaders from various countries across Asia. The program had two formations in Bangalore, India, for 70 religious leaders, among whom there were 38 men and 32 women from India and...

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Updates and Alumni Gathering

By | 30 November 2022 | 2 min read

Just a few weeks ago, the Discerning Leadership Team and Faculty wrapped up their residential formation programs for another year. This year, an italian-speaking cohort joined the English and Spanish groups bringing our alumni to just about 200. As a way to end the...

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YouTube Channel

How does Jesus inspire our understanding of discerning leadership? In this video, part of the Boston College Online Course on Synodality, Fr. David brings a Christological focus to the way that leadership in the Church is supported and challenged by the example that Jesus provides in the Gospels. This example that Jesus offers inspires all the baptised to consider their anointing as "priest, prophet, and king," and to discern how we can exercise leadership whether we are in formal roles of authority or not.
Jesus: Our Model for Leadership in the Church - Fr. David McCallum SJ
On the inauguration of the formation on Discerning Leadership for leaders in the Asia Pacific region, Bishop Pablo 'Ambo' David offered a talk on Leadership and Synodality based on Pope Francis' vision. You can find the script clicking here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Q3g_6U1bztMszZJbwA4gQ-_Oo5SB_QbD
Leadership and Synodality - Bishop Pablo 'Ambo' David
Everyone, in every industry, must cope with the reality of too much change, too rapid change, and complexity. And, on top of this, the Catholic Church and its institutions are suffering their own dimensions of VUCA (volatile, uncertain, complex, ambiguous), including the challenges of operating in now rapidly secularizing society and coping with declining membership in many religious congregations among other factors. Chris Lowney will offer his reflections on the lessons learned from his own experiences in Catholic organizations and contexts amidst VUCA conditions, as a one-time Jesuit seminarian, former board member of various Catholic organizations, and current board chair of United States’ largest faith-based hospital system. In the 2nd part of the webinar, the speaker will talk about the importance of building an organizational culture that meets this VUCA times, and he will share elements that constitute and allow to develop a successful organizational culture. Lowney will reflect on how our spiritual traditions include lots of resources for creating the kind of culture we need. About the speaker: Chris Lowney chairs the board of CommonSpirit Health, America’s largest not-for-profit healthcare system with 140 hospitals and more than 150,000 employees. He is a one-time Jesuit seminarian and later served as a Managing Director of J.P. Morgan on three continents. Over the years, he has also taught in and served on the board of Catholic education institutions. He has authored six books, including the bestselling Heroic Leadership, which has been translated into eleven languages; his other works include Pope Francis: Why He Leads the Way He Leads; and Everyone Leads: How to Revitalize the Catholic Church. Chris regularly contributes to Forbes.com on leadership and leadership strategy. He holds a B.A and an M.A. from Fordham University.
Leading Catholic Organizations in VUCA Times - Chris Lowney
Eco-Leadership - Dr. Simon Western
One of the most painful and challenging issues we face within our societies and the Church is the degree to which we have become fragmented and polarized in our perspectives and separated in our relationships. How do we as discerning leaders understand the dynamics that create this current state, and how do we move forward in a way that liberates people from the places we've become stuck? How do we maintain healthy differences of values and identity and yet re-discover our belonging for the sake of the common good? These are the topics of this webinar presentation by Fr. David McCallum SJ for the Ignatian Volunteer Corps.
The Heart of Discerning Leadership_Growing Beyond Polarization - Fr David McCallum
Some participants of the Discerning Leadership Program share their testimonies about their experience.
Discerning Leadership Program - Participants' Testimony
Mark Ravizza offers a talk on Discernment in Common at the Discerning Leadership Program in Rome. He presents different elements that support a process of Discernment in Common, and shares experiences in which some of these elements have been relevant.
Discernment in Common - Mark Ravizza_Part 2
Mark Ravizza offers a talk on Discernment in Common at the Discerning Leadership Program in Rome. He presents different elements that support a process of Discernment in Common, and shares experiences in which some of these elements have been relevant.
Discernment in Common - Mark Ravizza_Part 1
Synodal leadership involves the creation of cultures of trust and collaboration, which is the foundation of discernment in common. In this webinar, Prof. Robert Bies focuses on: (a) identifying common barriers to building a culture of trust; (b) identifying strategies for building and maintaining a culture of trust; (c) identifying strategies for rebuilding trust if it was broken; and (d) identifying strategies for building a culture of collaboration and co-creation.
Creating Cultures of Trust and Collaboration - Prof. Robert J. Bies
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