Leadership Roundtable

09/01/2026

Last week our team joined the Nuevo Momento annual partners meeting in Boston. The theme was “In Our Own Words.” Leaders from the partner organizations shared their accomplishments, challenges, and what they're building next to serve Hispanic Catholic communities across the country. 🌱

We are proud to walk alongside these leaders as they build the capacity to advance their mission, for the present and future of Hispanic ministry. Thanks to Boston College and the Nuevo Momento team for hosting an incredible meeting!

08/21/2026

Pope Leo XIV has named 12 new consultors to the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development, the Vatican office focused on human dignity, economic justice, migration, and peacebuilding. Three of them are based in the U.S., and all three have ties to the University of Notre Dame: Father Emmanuel Katongole, a theology professor and director of Notre Dame's Ansari Institute; Kathryn Koch, president and CEO of TCW and a Notre Dame trustee; and Clemens Sedmak, director of Notre Dame's Nanovic Institute for European Studies.

Consultors are chosen for their expertise, proven ability, and prudence — a prime example of Church governance drawing on lay expertise alongside clergy for co-responsible leadership.

Pope Leo XIV has appointed three U.S.-based consultors, all with ties to the University of Notre Dame in Indiana, to the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development.

08/20/2026

Two months to go! The 2026 Catholic Partnership Summit takes place October 20-21 in Chicago. This year's Summit takes up Pope Leo's Magnifica Humanitas and what it means for Catholic institutions navigating AI. 🤝

Register today: https://summit.leadershiproundtable.org/register/

08/19/2026

In a keynote on “AI and the Future of Work,” Sr. Raffaella Petrini, President of the Governorate of Vatican City State, called AI a transformative force that carries a shared responsibility. She emphasized that this duty falls on governments, educators, and societies alike to protect the common good. 🤝

https://www.vaticannews.va/en/world/news/2026-05/ai-and-the-future-of-work.html

08/18/2026

ICYMI: A group of Catholic nuns and a New York diocese sued the state in July to stop its new Medical Aid in Dying Act from going into effect. Plaintiffs — including the Carmelite Sisters for the Aged and Infirm, the Little Sisters of the Poor, and the Diocese of Rockville Centre — argue the law would force them to violate their religious beliefs. The court granted a temporary restraining order on July 30 while the case is under consideration.

Read more in our latest First Fridays Newsletter: https://bit.ly/3SeHU1w

08/14/2026

For every one Catholic convert, roughly eight Catholics leave the faith. That math would suggest a steep decline in U.S. Catholics, but the share of Americans who identify as Catholic has held steady at about 20% for over a decade.

Researcher Mark Gray from CARA points to “reverts” — Catholics who left and later returned — as a key part of that story. They're rarely tracked, but a 2012 CARA study estimated 5 million adult Catholic reverts nationally.

More on our substack: https://bit.ly/3S5ueWA

08/13/2026

As AI reshapes how decisions get made and power gets exercised (§71), Pope Leo XIV reminds us of the importance of transparency, accountability and co-responsibility for the common good and for advancing the Church's mission (§86). 🕊️

08/13/2026

Catholics across the globe were clear during the Synod on Synodality: we want a transparent and accountable Church. Recently, in an effort to bring the critical piece of evaluation identified during the Synod into practice, Bishop Pierre Goudreault of Sainte-Anne-de-la-Pocatière in Québec, president of the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops, asked his diocesan team to formally evaluate his leadership eight years into his tenure.

His request models the Synod on Synodality’s call for a culture of transparency and accountability and the importance of evaluation in helping leaders recognize their strengths, understand where they need to grow, and help the Church as a whole discern the movement of the Holy Spirit.

For lay Catholics, his action is significant. The accountability we seek requires more than leaders sharing information. It also requires creating meaningful opportunities for people whom that leader serves and serves alongside to offer feedback and for leaders being willing to hear it. Bishop Goudreault is showing his brother bishops and other leaders in our Church what that can look like. https://leadershiproundtable.substack.com/p/a-bishop-has-asked-for-a-performance?r=4llzam&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true

08/12/2026

Please join us in welcoming two new members to the Leadership Roundtable team: Kimberly DeStefano, Director of Special Projects, and Jessica Madio, Director of Programmatic Grants! 🙌

08/11/2026

Our hearts and prayers are with our colleagues, friends, and the people of Colombia impacted by the powerful earthquake yesterday. Our Lady of the Rosary of Chiquinquirá, patroness of Colombia, we pray you intercede on behalf of all those affected and for those providing aid. For those who lost their lives, we pray eternal rest grant unto them, O Lord.

The death toll in the 7.4-magnitude earthquake has has passed 130, with hundreds injured. Monday's quake also damaged the tallest cathedral in Latin America.