Dear Friends,
Recalling our time together over the past year, we know that one of the foundational elements of a synodal Church is the willingness and ability to together discern the unfolding will of God. While these times of such disruption and upheaval may seem inopportune for such process oriented ways of making important decisions, we know that it is in such times that we can be particularly prone to the influence of fears and anxieties, and to making choices that do not necessarily factor in the good of our wider communities of stakeholders. This is due to the fact that stress can undermine our capacity for complex decision making, and can lead us to oversimplify our options.
Through the General Curia Office for Discernment and Apostolic Planning, Fr. John Dardis provides a number of information videos about the topic of discernment that can be helpful for discussion with your teams. We include the link to one of the pages of resources here.
Gratefully,
David and the Discerning Leadership Team
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 is the responsible for Formation at the Society of Jesus.
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).
Nathalie Becquart serves as Undersecretary of the Secretariat of the Synod of the Bishops since March 2021.
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.