Course Participants Testimony

Giacomo Costa SJ

Fr. Giacomo Costa SJ did studies in philosophy and theology, and he also obtained a master's degree in Political and Moral Sociology at the EHESS in Paris.

He currently serves as Director of Aggiornamenti Sociali. Since 2008 he is also President of the San Fedele Cultural Foundation in Milan, an institution committed since the post-war period in the dialogue with culture and society, articulating faith and justice. Since its inception (2013) he has been vice president of the Carlo Maria Martini Foundation (www.fondazionecarlomariamartini.it). Previously he was a member of the Pedro Arrupe Institute of Political Education in Palermo.

He was appointed by Pope Francis as special secretary of the Synod on Youth held in 2018, and as Advisor to the Secretariat of the Synod since 2019.

 

Mark Ravizza SJ

He is the responsible for Formation at the Society of Jesus.

Previously he was director of Jesuit Mission and Ministry at Casa Bayanihan at Ateneo de Manila in the Philippines. He has also served as an associate professor of philosophy at Santa Clara University in Santa Clara, California. He earned his doctorate from Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut.

Rafael Luciani

Prof. Rafael Luciani received his licentiate and doctorate in theology from the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome and a degree in educational sciences with a philosophical orientation from the Universidad Católica "Andrés Bello" in Caracas (Venezuela). He also studied philosophy at the Salesian Pontifical University in Rome and did post-doctoral work at the Julius Maximilians Universität in Würzburg (Germany).

He was director of theology studies at the Universidad Católica "Andrés Bello" and is currently a tenured professor at the same university as well as an adjunct professor in the School of Theology and Ministry at Boston College (Chestnut Hill/MA, USA).

He is also a member of the Theological-Pastoral Commission of CELAM.

 

Nathalie Becquart XMCJ

Nathalie Becquart serves as Undersecretary of the Secretariat of the Synod of the Bishops since March 2021.

Nathalie is a French, Catholic religious sister and member of the Congregation of Xavières. From 2008 to 2018 she oversaw the National Service for the Evangelization of Young People and for Vocations (SNEJV) within the Bishops' Conference of France.
She graduated from HEC Paris in 1992, with a major in Entrepreneurship. She studied theology and philosophy at the Centre Sèvres (Jesuit seminary in Paris) as well as sociology at School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences. In 2019, she studied Theology at Boston College School to specialize in ecclesiology by conducting research on Synodality.
On 6 February 2021, Pope Francis appointed her an undersecretary of the Synod of Bishops, making her the first woman to have the right to vote in the Catholic Synod of Bishops.

Bob Bies

Robert J. Bies (Ph.D., Stanford University) is Professor of Management and Founder of the Executive Master’s in Leadership Program at the McDonough School of Business at Georgetown University. In addition, Dr. Bies is a co-author of the book, Getting Even: The Truth About Workplace Revenge—And How to Stop It. Professor Bies’s current research focuses on leadership, the delivery of bad news, organizational justice, and revenge and forgiveness in the workplace.