St. John’s Joins National Network to Empower Catholic Leaders

St. John’s College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at St. John’s University is joining a network of 16 Catholic colleges and universities in a grant-funded effort to strengthen listening, dialogue, and decision making in the US Catholic Church.

The Lilly Endowment Inc.’s $10-million grant to Loyola University Chicago through its Pathways for Tomorrow Initiative creates the Catholic Education Network to Enact and Resource Synodality (CENTERS). The effort is designed to help theology schools respond to the most pressing challenges in preparing pastoral leaders now and into the future.

The effort follows the late Pope Francis’ 2021 call for a Church elevated by listening, dialogue, and shared discernment. CENTERS will help schools renew their internal operations, curricula, and partnerships to better prepare pastoral leaders for an evolving Church.

CENTERS, which will be anchored by Loyola’s Institute for Pastoral Studies, will support this work by funding projects at participating institutions, conducting retreats and training, convening national assemblies, and endowing a ministry leadership formation program for students.

St. John’s College expects to be involved in all aspects of the network’s work, with an emphasis on engaging the University community and Catholic communities in the area in ministry, leadership education, and formation.

“The CENTERS initiative allows St. John’s to contribute to the formation of Catholic leaders who build collaborative networks that protect human dignity and promote the common good,” said Teresa Delgado, Ph.D., Dean, St. John’s College of Liberal Arts and Sciences and Professor, Department of Theology and Religious Studies. “I am thrilled that this partnership will nurture what Pope Francis called ‘a listening church’ that animates us to encounter each other’s humanity as a corrective to societal indifference, social injustice, and ecological devastation.”

Grant funds will be divided among the 16 participating institutions over a five-year period from 2026 to 2030. In addition to St. John’s and Loyola University Chicago, these include the Catholic Theological Union, Gonzaga University, Loyola Marymount University, Loyola University New Orleans, Mexican American Catholic College, Xavier University, Xavier University of Louisiana, St. Joseph’s University, Santa Clara University, the Southeast Pastoral Institute, University of Dallas, University of Dayton, University of San Francisco, and Villanova University.

CENTERS will be collaboratively governed by the participating institutions and will also offer growth opportunities for Catholics not affiliated with any participating institution. 

About Lilly Endowment Inc.

Lilly Endowment Inc. is a private foundation created in 1937 by J.K. Lilly Sr. and his sons Eli and J.K. Jr. through gifts of stock in their pharmaceutical business, Eli Lilly and Company. While those gifts remain the financial bedrock of the endowment, it is a separate entity from the company, with a distinct governing board, staff, and location.

In keeping with the founders’ wishes, the endowment supports the causes of community development, education, and religion, and maintains a special commitment to its hometown, Indianapolis, and home state, Indiana. A principal aim of the endowment’s religion grantmaking is to deepen and enrich the lives of Christians in the United States, primarily by seeking out and supporting efforts that enhance the vitality of congregations and strengthen the pastoral and lay leadership of Christian communities. The endowment also seeks to improve public understanding of religion and lift up in fair, accurate, and balanced ways the roles that people of all faiths and various religious communities play in the United States and across the globe.