The Standard for Excellence

National Leadership Roundtable on

Driven Church.

In June 2014 the National Leadership Roundtable on Church Management convened leaders from the Church and secular fields at Loyola University Chicago Lake Shore Campus to celebrate a decade of service to the Catholic Church in the US and to develop creative solutions for future managerial challenges facing the Church.

Included in this book are excerpts from the panels and presentations, as well as selected questions, answers, and insights from a wide range of participants.

You are encouraged to learn more and continue the conversation online.

Visit www.TheLeadershipRoundtable.org/2014AnnualMeeting for on-demand video presentations of all speakers and panelists, an electronic copy of this publication, as well as supplemental materials including the mirco-biographies of all participants, a detailed agenda, and other information pertinent to the meeting.

The Standard for Excellence: Best Practices for a Mission Driven Church

Copyright 2014 The National Leadership Roundtable on Church Management. All Rights Reserved.

For more information, please email info@theleadershiproundtable.org or call (202) 635-5820.

This publication is a collection of the wisdom, insights, observations, and exchange of ideas from participants at The Standard for Excellence: Best Practices for a Mission

BEST PRACTICES FOR A MISSION DRIVEN CHURCH Loyola University Chicago | Lake Shore Campus | June 24-26, 2014 www.TheLeadershipRoundtable.org/AnnualMeeting

3 Opening Prayer and President’s Welcome Katie Diller, Rev. Michael Garanzini, S.J. 5 Introduction to the Annual Meeting Kerry Robinson 6 Excellence at Work: Stories from the Field Rev. Efrain Bautista, Mary Cornwell, John Deinhart, Susan King 11 Respect, Trust, and a Round of Golf Most Rev. Joseph Kurtz, Brian Reynolds 17 From Rome to Home: Vatican Reforms and the Church in the U.S. Rev. J. Bryan Hehir, Elizabeth McCaul 23 Successful Strategies: Doing Church Differently at the Parish Level Paul Butler, Rev. Joe Donnelly

2014 Leadership Roundtable Best Practice Awards Honoring the Diocese of Knoxville and Rev. J. Donald Monan, S.J.

Opening Prayer on Day Two Rev. Tom Smolich, S.J.

New Evangelization and Execution-Oriented Strategic Planning Most Rev. John Barres, Jim Friend

Accountability: An Element of the New Evangelization His Eminence Donald Cardinal Wuerl

2014 Annual Meeting

The Standard for Excellence:

BEST PRACTICES FOR A MISSION DRIVEN CHURCH Loyola University Chicago | Lake Shore Campus | June 24-26, 2014

www.TheLeadershipRoundtable.org/AnnualMeeting

OPENING PRAYER AND PRESIDENT’S WELCOME

A prayer from Psalms 33. They are happy whose God is the Lord, the people who are chosen as his own. From the heavens, the Lord looks forth and sees all the peoples of the earth. Our soul is waiting for the Lord. The Lord is our help and our shield. Our hearts find joy in the Lord. We trust in God’s holy name. May your love be upon us, oh Lord, as we place all our hope in you.

To each of these invocations, I invite you to respond, “Come Holy Spirit.”

Holy Spirit, Creator, in the beginning, you moved over the waters and from your breath, all creatures drew their life.

Come, Holy Spirit.

Holy Spirit, Counselor, by your inspiration, the prophets bore witness to the word of God.

Come, Holy Spirit.

Holy Spirit, you prepared the Virgin Mary to become mother of the Lord, and you descended upon Jesus on the day of His baptism.

Come, Holy Spirit.

Holy Spirit, Comforter. Christ promised you would always be with us and in us.

Come, Holy Spirit.

Holy Spirit, you continue to unite us, inspire us, and make us a living sign of God’s presence.

Come, Holy Spirit.

Holy Spirit, we praise and thank you for 10 years of creativity and passionate service of the Leadership Roundtable on Church Management. We ask you to bless the proceedings of our annual meeting and be our inspiration as we strive to contribute to a culture of trust, accountability, transparency, and excellence in the Church. We ask all these things through Christ, our Lord. Amen.

Rev.

I want to welcome the Roundtable here because of the great work that you have been doing. I followed the Roundtable and participated in several events and programs and have come to admire and respect the work that people like Geoff Boisi and Kerry Robinson have done, and the fruitful sharing of your expertise with the Church. When the Roundtable began, there was some trepidation and worry on the part of both the organizers and Church leaders. The spirit, or the atmosphere, then was more self-protective and cautious. But the Roundtable, I think, has proven to be not only worthwhile, but a really necessary forum. I think all sides appreciate the eagerness to help the needs of the Church and to facilitate more competent and more skillful personnel in the Church. The leadership of the Roundtable is sorely needed still.

About two months ago, I was in Rome for my other job, and it just happened to be at the conclusion of a meeting of over 650 treasurers of religious congregations. It was called by the Congregation for Religious Life, but it was called at the

insistence of the Holy Father. The Holy Father asked for an open and frank discussion of concerns that he and others had had regarding the use of funds, the use of consulters and advisors, the disposition of Church property and goods, and a host of other material matters. The meeting amounted to what, I think, was a first ever effort of the Vatican to call for transparency and sound decisionmaking, and suggesting to these nearly 650 congregations that we are not there yet at all. That work is sorely needed, and transparency is essential. We probably need a global Leadership Roundtable, an international counterpart to this group, so that the entire Church can benefit from the collaboration among experts and Church leaders. The Church’s work would be more professional and our use of our goods would be wiser and that, again, is sorely needed.

So transparency and professionalism are now the coin of the realm, so to speak. And you have set the way. You have been an example of how that can happen in our Church, and so I congratulate you. I wish you much luck in the two days ahead, and I hope that things go really well for you.

INTRODUCTION TO THE ANNUAL MEETING

Yesterday we had a wonderful and very engaging Board of Directors meeting. Much of it was devoted to an important strategic review which is the happy consequence of 10 years of contribution to the Church in the United States and wanting to be ready to be of maximum, efficient and effective service for the next 10 years.

Later, I had the good fortune to have dinner with four of our trustees: Kevin Carton, Charlie Moore, Geno Fernandez, and Father

Jack Wall. At dinner Father Wall reminded us that as Christians we are called to exercise faith-filled imaginations. That is exactly what our founder, Geoff Boisi, did 10 years ago. He imagined a Church that intentionally invited the contributions and talents of all of the baptized; he imagined the restoration of trust in the Church that he loved; and he imagined making a major contribution to advancing ethics, accountability, transparency, and best managerial practices within and for the benefit of the Church. It was a grand experiment that had never before been done anywhere in the world. Now, 10 years later, we are proud to be gathered here with you knowing that collectively we have

played a meaningful role in assisting the Church toward a mission-centered goal of exemplifying ethics, excellence, and accountability.

In March of this year, the Leadership Roundtable was invited to address the treasurers of international communities of men’s and women’s religious orders who were invited by Pope Francis to meet in Rome. Following my presentation that outlined the manner and ways the Leadership Roundtable serves the Church I was struck by the palpable hunger, across the globe, for what we are offering very intentionally to the Church in the U.S. How we can contribute to the global Church is going to be an ongoing strategic question for us. Which is why I was encouraged by that hunger. It points us to a future of a global Church where ethics, and accountability and managerial excellence are the norm.

I believe the Leadership Roundtable has an important contribution to make in helping the Church reach those ambitious goals, and I truly appreciate and applaud the tireless work of each of you since we launched our effort. I look forward to the next 10 years with great excitement and even greater expectations knowing what all of us are capable of accomplishing together.

2014 Annual Meeting

The Standard for Excellence:

BEST PRACTICES FOR A MISSION DRIVEN CHURCH Loyola University Chicago | Lake Shore Campus | June 24-26, 2014 www.TheLeadershipRoundtable.org/AnnualMeeting

EXCELLENCE AT WORK: STORIES FROM THE FIELD

needs. We now have 10 years of projects under our belt and 10 years of people who have been touched by these experiences. Today we’re going to focus on three areas where we’ve done significant work – the Toolbox for Pastoral Management, ESTEEM and Catholic Standards for Excellence – as seen through the lives and work of people who have benefitted.

REV. EFRAIN BAUTISTA

SUSAN KING

When people ask us, ‘What does the Leadership Roundtable do?’ we start by going through a litany of branded items and various programs that have emerged. But what we’ve really done is carve out a temporal area of the Church and tried to define how we can improve as professionals the running of institutions that have temporal and business qualifications and

I remember being called to the bishop’s office two years into my priestly ministry and thinking, what did I do wrong? Instead, the bishop told me he was naming me administrator – it became pastor a few months after that – of the Church of St. Francis of Assisi, the biggest church in the biggest parish of the Diocese of San Diego. There are 9,000 families registered in my parish. We have 12 Sunday Masses celebrated in English, Spanish and Vietnamese, and an Italian Mass once a month. We also have a parish school.

After a few weeks of settling in, I asked myself, How am I going to do this? How am I going to take on St. Francis? So I began to do some research on methods and tools to help me become the best pastor I possibly could, and came upon the Toolbox for Pastoral Management. I realized how perfect it sounded, and wound up attending the Toolbox session in Tucson, Arizona about a year and a half ago. It was probably the best week of my two years as pastor at St. Francis.

I was struggling in all areas of the parish, and needed all the help I could get, particularly from a human resources perspective. Our staff morale was very low. We were losing families left and right at the school (in a two-month period we

lost 43 students). We were also losing parishioners to neighboring parishes. From an administration standpoint, it didn’t help that the seminary I attended never taught us how to read a balance sheet or profit and loss statement. I knew I needed to do something.

I’m delighted to say the Toolbox for Pastoral Management provided me with tools I could incorporate into my parish, tools that could help me handle challenges like getting the entire parish community engaged, and reforming the parish council. When I went to my first parish council meeting I learned we had about 150 voting members, each with their own opinion on how to run the parish. These meetings would run five to six hours. In addition, I had staff who would come to work at 10 a.m. and leave at 3 p.m. -- who were getting paid over $60,000 a year. I inherited a debt of $180,000 my first year. Things weren’t adding up.

The Toolbox has not only transformed my life, but the life of my parish. Most of the families that left our school have returned. Our parish registrations have increased. And we ended up with a surplus of $68,000 last year. These things couldn’t

have happened without the good work of our people and the support of the Toolbox for Pastoral Management.

MARY CORNWELL

I participated in ESTEEM from 2012 to 2013, while a student at Michigan State University. There were about 14 people in our young adult leadership program. We met every two weeks, learning how to take our Catholic faith out into the greater Catholic community after graduation, and how to use our careers and goals to better the Church, while figuring out our roles.

At our ESTEEM meetings we’d talk about a variety of things, including dignity of life and social issues. We also had a really cool mentorship program in which our mentors were aligned with our career goals. This not only enhanced our learning experience but showed us how our skills and interests might fit into the mission of the Church. We ended the year with a Capstone Conference at St. Thomas More Catholic Chapel and Center at Yale University bringing together all 12 universities participating in ESTEEM. The discussions centered on what we had learned throughout the year and how to become young adult leaders in the Church.

Something that really stuck with me as part of ESTEEM was Catholic social teaching. I believe that many young people when they hear ‘religion’ and ‘Catholic Church’ think of a lot of rules and regulations. So we discussed current issues like birth control and gay rights, euthanasia and abortion, treating them as hot topics that are really important to young adults today. Specifically, we talked

about the Church’s stance on each of these issues so we too could take a stand informed by our faith.

Upon graduating from Michigan State University in the spring of 2013, I was inspired to do a year of service to branch out and put into practice those Catholic social teachings I learned through the ESTEEM. I joined Amate House, which is a young adult volunteer program throughout the Archdiocese of Chicago.

I lived in community with 12 other volunteers for a year and got the chance to live out our Catholic social values, and learn about community. During my time at Amate House, I worked for a nonprofit organization called Girls in the Game, where I coordinated and implemented health curriculums in after school programs in different Southside and Westside Chicago neighborhoods.

“I’m delighted to say the Toolbox for Pastoral Management provided me with tools I could incorporate into my parish, tools that could help me handle challenges like getting the entire parish community engaged, and reforming the parish council.”

“The Toolbox has not only transformed my life, but the life of my parish.”

As for the future, I’ll be going to graduate school in the fall, working toward a Masters in Public Health. And I plan to be active in whatever young professional programs they have at my school. Too often today young adults are uncertain what their role is in the Church. ESTEEM really opened my eyes – it inspired me and showed me that I can make a difference in the Church even in my twenties.

activities I was constantly comparing the Church world to the business world. There was such a disconnect for me as I kept asking, ‘If this is so simple in the business world, why don’t we have a comparable way to do it in the Church?’

JOHN DEINHART

My story doesn’t start with the Church. It starts with beans, Bush’s Beans, specifically. I spent 24 years in sales and marketing, the last 18 with Bush’s Baked Beans. Born and raised as a Catholic, I also became increasingly active in my parish, serving as parish council president for a long time and chair of the finance board, while working on a number of strategic events. And during the course of those

As background, our diocese is the third youngest in the country. We went from 30,000 Catholics when we were formed in 1988 to 65,000 today. As a result, we struggled a bit because we moved from being infants to teenagers, and now we need to behave like adults. How do we put processes together that would allow us to do that? The Catholic Standards for Excellence told us how. I went to their website, started downloading some of the resources, and realized this is simple stuff. It’s not that complicated. You take it off the shelf and if doesn’t fit, maybe something else does in your environment.

We rolled out the Standards in three of our parishes, engaging laypeople, pastors, and the parish councils. The Leadership Roundtable played a pivotal role in the implementation, while I served as sort of a champion and cheerleader. They came to the first meetings with each of the parishes, separately, and helped us to understand their uniqueness, including their struggles and what they were good at and not so good at. Then we brought the three parishes together and, with the help of the Roundtable, went through each of the 55 Standards and how they could empower each parish to meet its goals and priorities.

That process took about a year and a half. I’m happy to say that those three parishes are nearing the end and will soon earn the Seal of Excellence from the Catholic Standards for Excellence program. Even more impressive is what we’ve accomplished in a very short time. We wrote our first strategic plan. For the first time the pastor engaged the laity in the budget process. We’ve done assessments of our Chancery staff and Catholic Charities organization, which have led to a much broader understanding of their needs and gaps. We’ve also done an assessment to ensure we have the right people working on the right things with the right processes so that we’re not stepping over each other and making mistakes. And we’ve created a Pastoral Services team to discuss the things we need to do as a Chancery for the parishes.

Through its advisory role, the Roundtable has been instrumental in all of this. In sum, the Standards for Excellence are allowing us to be effective and to do our jobs better – without reinventing the wheel. The Standards are there for the taking, and they’re easy to integrate into your culture. I’m happy to report we have three more parishes ready to introduce the program. We have a total of 51 parishes in our diocese, and it’s just a matter of time before they all get exposure to the Catholic Standards for Excellence.

“In sum, the Standards for Excellence are allowing us to be effective and to do our jobs better – without reinventing the wheel.”

“For the first time the pastor engaged the laity in the budget process.”

SELECTED QUESTIONS, ANSWERS, AND COMMENTS

JOHN DEINHART

It’s really hard for the first three parishes in our program, but suddenly you have six and then nine. I believe there’s a ripple effect and like any best practice it will continue to grow. But the Toolbox and Standards for Excellence can’t continue being our bestkept secrets. We have to get the word out about what they do and how they transform. And part of that is the responsibility of the leadership of the Church.

REV. BAUTISTA

One of the challenges we face at the Roundtable is maximizing the impact of our successes. Let me give you an example using the Toolbox for Pastoral Management. We’ve had seven or eight sessions, with 30 to 35 men at each. That adds up to around 240 priests. But there are 18,000 pastors in the Catholic Church. How do we engage all the ones we missed? One of the things we’re thinking about experimenting with is distance learning to increase our reach. In your discussion on Standards for Excellence, John, you gave a wonderful example of how it’s impacted three of your parishes, and is now being rolled out to three more. Yet you said you have 51 parishes. If you roll out three every year-and-a-half, that’s an extremely long implementation period. So my question is, how do we put that process on steroids?

I feel that those of us who have participated in the Toolbox need to become ambassadors for the program, and let our brother priests and brother pastors know of the results in our own parishes and what it’s meant to our ministries. I also think there needs to be better coordination on a national scale so that the bishops would support the program no matter what region or what province you’re in.

Part of my job will be taking our directors out to meet the pastors, and being in dialogue with them. And it occurred to me that I need to become very familiar with the Toolbox so that I can take that knowledge to the pastors and educate them about the program so it could possibly be of service to them. To me,

that’s a practical and immediate way to spread the word about Toolbox.

SUSAN KING

I’d like to ask Father, now that you’ve done the Toolbox and seen its results, what about the Catholic Standards for Excellence? Does that need to be brought to your parish, as well?

REV. BAUTISTA

Yes, I think it’s very important that every parish incorporate the Standards. It gives us the opportunity to see how we can best serve those who need us, whether it be parishioners or the community in general. I think we often need to figure out creative ways as a Church to better use the people we have, to channel their talents and their abilities in the right direction. In my parish we have many people who want to volunteer, but their energy is channeled in the wrong way. The Standards for Excellence would give us the opportunity to evaluate not only our parishioners, but the parish staff.

CAROL WALTERS

Director of the Office for Lay Ecclesial Ministry, Archdiocese of Chicago

You’ve talked, Father, about how the Toolbox has helped you when you had to

lay off someone. Can you tell us how the Toolbox has helped you to energize your staff to become more involved in parish life?

REV. BAUTISTA

One of the things I learned through the Toolbox is that it’s not just about ‘this is what Father wants,’ or ‘this is what Father does,’ or ‘this is what we should do.’ We now have at my parish biweekly staff meetings where I bring to the table different options for all of our staff, and I get all of their inputs. I really think it’s about a Father being able to collaborate with them and acknowledging, You’ve been here longer than I have. My approach now is, Let’s talk about a particular program, ministry or practice (like Sunday Mass schedule), even if we have to change it. I ask them, How do you feel? Is this something that’s going to work? What are people telling you in your ministry? As a result, my staff is now able to work effectively together without me being on top and sort of dictating everything.

NICOLE PERONE

Student, Yale Divinity School, the Master of Divinity Program

As far as getting young people involved, I’m super inspired by what the Roundtable is doing for the Church in America.

It sounds like there’s a wonderful revival occurring in the parishes and in the Church. I’d like to ask the panelists what they plan to do in terms of getting young people, the future stakeholders of the Church, more engaged.

REV. BAUTISTA

After participating in the Toolbox, I cut my 150-member parish council to down to 15, and one of the requirements is that we have a young adult member. I also realized the need to meet young adults and youth at their level, so I try to keep up with the technology they’re into, including the latest phone aps. Another thing I did was bring in a much younger youth director, someone who had just graduated from

college. And in just one year, I’ve seen a difference in the way they’ve been able to connect with young people in our parish. I believe that ability to relate to youth as well as adults is very important to any parish. As Pope John Paul II was fond of saying, ‘They’re not the Church of the future, they’re the Church of today.’

FRANK DONIO

Director of the Catholic Apostolate Center, Washington, D.C.

We need to engage people who are postcollegiate, people like those ESTEEM is preparing. And that’s one of the key problems I’ve seen not only in our work as a Center, but in terms of pastoral ministry. That period—after people come out of these wonderful campus ministry programs, or programs like ESTEEM, and move to various parts of the country to find work—is so important in terms of keeping them engaged in the parish community. Our Center, for example, is partnering with the Archdiocese of Washington, D.C., to develop a post-collegiate program not only for evangelization, but for engaging young adults in meaningful ways in leadership roles and in the ministry, both within and beyond the borders of the Church.

National Leadership Roundtable on Church Management 2014 Annual Meeting

The Standard for Excellence:

BEST PRACTICES FOR A MISSION DRIVEN CHURCH Loyola University Chicago | Lake Shore Campus | June 24-26, 2014

www.TheLeadershipRoundtable.org/AnnualMeeting

RESPECT, TRUST, AND A ROUND OF GOLF

Most Rev. Joseph Kurtz, Archbishop of Louisville and President, U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops Brian Reynolds, Chancellor and CAO, Archdiocese of Louisville

ARCHBISHOP JOSEPH KURTZ

Brian and I have worked very closely over the last seven years. And what we’ve tried to do is to present our relationship as a model, though certainly not a perfect one. It’s a model that we ask pastors and lay leaders who are working together on a parish level to examine and to provide feedback so we can improve.

Some of you may know I was involved for many years with Catholic Charities. That experience reinforced the importance of looking at leadership, not just from the standpoint of the kinds of talents, skills, and abilities a person brings to the table, but at the relationships they’ve cultivated with other professionals. In the Archdiocese of Louisville, we’re fond of saying that if we want a healthy Archdiocese, we need to support healthy parishes. And we talk about the relationship between Brian and me as a model of healthy interaction that can be communicated to others.

We’d like to focus on healthy, productive relationships today. Our vehicle will be five specific points – none of them shocking revelations – which we hope will inform and stimulate the conversation.

BRIAN REYNOLDS

First, is the importance of having noncrisis interaction to build trust and respect. In other words, don’t wait for a crisis –whether it’s a priest problem, a financial problem, a parish merger, a school closure, a media misunderstanding, whatever – to figure out how you’re going to work together. You need to have some non-crisis activity. And hence the topic of our talk: Respect, Trust, and a Round of Golf.

Respect and trust occur when we take steps to intentionally build them. We don’t wait to see if we can trust each other. We go about building trust by talking things through before a crisis develops. And the round of golf was thrown in simply because it’s important to do things that you both have interest in.

ARCHBISHOP KURTZ

I’d like to add something about that noncrisis model of relationship-building. I have observed, even as a pastor and in my Catholic Charities work, that people often don’t give priority to spending the time to develop professional relationships or interactions with one another, so when a crisis occurred and they had to quickly find a solution, they had no foundation on which to build.

“Don’t wait for a crisis - build trust and relationship as standard practice.” @mycatholicvoice #CatholicSFX

the final word. If the other person shares my view, then it helps to build a sense of trust and the chance for collaboration.

My own relationship with Brian over these last seven years has been strengthened through several mutually applied principles. The first is giving the other person the benefit of the doubt. No matter who you’re dealing with, that person is going to have a perspective that at times makes you think, “Gee, I wouldn’t have done it that way.” And that’s a healthy place to start because it rests on a trusting attitude of giving the other person the benefit of the doubt.

A second principle that’s enhanced our relationship is giving each other permission to raise questions. For example, if I’ve done something and Brian says, “I’m not sure that’s really the right way to do it,” or vice versa, we give each other permission to raise that question without thinking the ceiling is going to cave in on us. And that goes a long way toward building trust – when we know we don’t have to be perfect and can give permission to question each other’s actions.

A third principle that’s particularly important to me is sharing my initial stand on an issue or matter. If there’s a question on anything – Catholic schools, ministries, finance, development, vocations, choice of pastors – I think it goes a long way for me to share my initial stance, knowing it’s not

The second of the five points we’d like to discuss today is effective methods of communicating with one another. I have what I call my Jell-O theory. When you pour JellO into a mold, there’s the “one-third” and the “two-thirds” of the way effect – where the one-third is still warm and able to shift, while the other two-thirds is starting to jell and not conducive to change. Likewise, Brian and I have given ourselves permission, in cases where something is of great importance, to bring another person into the conversation for the critical one-third where there is a chance to mold the decision and to prepare ourselves for what, in a sense, is coming down the pike. That’s in contrast to eleventh-hour planning.

Another pathway toward effective communications is what I call the strategic triad where if Brian and I are speaking and working together, I ask about the third person that we may need to bring into the conversation. So, in a given year, we might have 15 conversations with one other person where we’re all trying to get on the same page. I’ve tried to use that model, for example, with our Bishop’s Conference. What we’re trying to avoid is an unhealthy triangle where there’s two people in and one person out. That’s a common relationship problem in parenting where you might have a mom and a dad on one page and a child on the other. We’ve especially tried to avoid that triangulation with new staff members. If a person is coming on board in a clearly strategic area, Brian and I will work closely with them to ensure we’re all on the same page.

BRIAN REYNOLDS

We’re also always looking for new meth-

odologies to enhance our communications and promote dialogue. The Archbishop is very effective at using electronic communications. We use a lot of e-mail and messaging – they’re an important part of how we build trust and how we communicate. Good and open communication also carries over into some of our pastoral activities. For example, the Archbishop does a local television show, which some other dioceses carry, called Conversations with Archbishop Kurtz. It consists of 10-minute segments where I usually interview him for two segments, while another is devoted to the Archbishop interviewing someone else. So here, too, we exhibit good conversation that goes back and forth.

Recapping the points we’ve discussed so far in terms of building respect and trust, there was non-crisis interaction, followed by effective communication. The third point is being publicly accountable. This obviously applies throughout the year, but it’s particularly important in the fall when there seems to occur within the Church a sense of “let’s get everything started at once.” We do a lot of public accountability sessions where the Archbishop and I meet with the Priests’ Council, the Pastoral Council, and small groups of priests. All priests are invited to these meetings to hear the two of us give a report on the state of the Archdiocese. We also meet with major donors and with parish staffs and leaders. That adds up to a pretty heavy workload of about a dozen to 20 meetings over the course of a single month, so that people are getting a sense of accountability from both of us.

“Doing consultation builds a practice of others doing consultation.” @mycatholicvoice

“Good and open communication also carries over into some of our pastoral activities.”

ARCHBISHOP KURTZ

There are some side benefits from these public accountability sessions. One is that it’s actually helpful for me to hear how Brian is presenting to others and for him to hear how I’m presenting. Plus, these sessions allow us to listen to people we work with, particularly those in leadership roles. The other thing is how important it is for me to speak well of Brian publicly and for him to do the same for me. People will be able to see if there’s a hollowness to it, so we have to be transparent and speak the truth at all times. Sometimes I observe that in the name of joking, people can subtly tear the other person down –unintentionally. We only have so many opportunities to present ourselves publicly in leadership roles, which is why it’s important to take advantage of each of these.

BRIAN REYNOLDS

Here’s another small example of how we divide our roles. When Archbishop Kurtz arrived, we had three seminarians, a number we wanted to increase. A couple years later, we had 17 seminarians. So when we did these accountability reports, the Archbishop would stand up and say, “I’m very excited to tell you we had three seminarians three years ago, and today we have 17.” People would cheer, but I’d inject a note of reality by saying to the group, “Stop! When he came here my seminarian

budget was $150,000; now it’s $700,000. Let’s talk about donors.” So, it’s that back and forth with divided roles that adds a useful dimension to the conversation.

ARCHBISHOP KURTZ

The fourth of our five points is determining the best person to address a particular issue. We have a team of about five people who work especially well together, just like many of you have a core team that works closely together. In our case, I was always amazed at how well we’re able to determine the best person to solve a problem when it comes to raising money. We always seem to say, “Okay, we have this particular donor; who’s the person most likely to positively influence them?” But we don’t always apply that approach to other situations.

One of the other things we’ve tried to work on over the last seven years is nailing down the best person to reach out to someone in need. It might be a particular pastor, but sometimes we’ll determine that the best and only person is the Archbishop – I need to call that person or go out and visit them. In other cases I might be, for a variety of reasons, the worst person to take on that responsibility. But instead of saying, “We always do it this way;” it’s more important to give ourselves flexibility by saying, “Okay, who would be the best person to do it?” What that does for the group of five or so

working together in our Chancery is to build a sort of creativity, a sense of investment and accountability, because we’re collectively saying, “This is not the Archbishop’s problem – let’s see who the best person is to handle it.”

BRIAN REYNOLDS

This concept of designating the best person to handle something is really a distilling process. It’s built into our language. When we’re dealing with a question or a problem, we expect any number of people who might be part of the conversation – the Vicar General or the Vicar for Priests, for example – to consider not just the next step but also who is the best person to handle the next step? And the answer isn’t based necessarily on personality or skills. Rather, the key question is, “Who is most likely to achieve the results we’re looking for?”

The last of our five points actually consists of two parts. The first is that we believe it’s really critical in our daily work to employ careful consultation and the use of what we call the critical question approach. Careful consultation is a regular part of our listening process. It doesn’t mean voting on how many people are in favor of this or how many are in favor of that. It means actually taking the time to gather the right people around the table so they can be part of the listening process.

Over the past few years, we’ve used that approach to totally redesign our Finance Council, create a new Development Council, and name a new editorial board for our newspaper. It boils down to consultation through listening – particularly how we listen. Where it works best is using what we call the critical question approach. In our Priests’ Council, Archdiocesan Pastoral Council, and other consultative meetings, we try to never have more than two questions, maybe three, on the table. There’s always some reporting that

from

needs to occur. But when it comes to what conversations to have, if a small number of topics are on the agenda – not eight, nine, or ten – and you make sure everybody knows about them in advance, then that’s an effective use of our councils’ time. To our minds, just asking “anybody have any questions?” is not consultation. Consultation is where we have two or three focused areas we need to address before we leave today, and we need to hear from everybody who’s here about those things.

It’s interesting to note that the critical question approach enabled us to dramatically redesign our Pastoral Council a number of years ago. The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops did a study about the effectiveness of Diocesan Pastoral Councils and discovered that in dioceses where they exist, they’re not particularly effective. We read that study and realized it was true for us as well, so we decided to undertake a redesign. Today, our Archdiocesan Pastoral Council is a convocation model. Every chair of a parish council has a seat on the Pastoral Council. The group convenes twice a year for a full day with the Archbishop and me. This model has given us a valuable tool to get data directly from every parish. And it’s certainly worth noting that Pastoral Council

meetings are an opportunity to delve into the two critical questions on the mind of the Archbishop. We may tell the Parish Councils that we’re doing our strategic plan, for example, and we have a couple of issues we need feedback on or perhaps something to do with young adults or with growing cultural diversity in the diocese. So we pose the critical questions to them well in advance of our Pastoral Council meeting and ask the Parish Councils to have that conversation at their next meetings. That typically results in feedback within about 30 days from 60 Parish Councils. It’s a quick and effective process. Plus, the Parish Councils become conditioned to practicing consultation as opposed to discussing what color to paint the lines in the parking lot. It moves them to a conversation on the critical issues that parishes should be addressing.

ARCHBISHOP KURTZ

When I arrived seven years ago, I frankly had reservations about the new model of the Archdiocesan Pastoral Council. That’s because I knew that canonically and pastorally the Parish Council is meant to be advisory to the pastor. So I wondered if the Diocesan Pastoral Council was going to create a triangle, which would be perceived by the pastors as the Archbishop intruding

into their lives and becoming, in a sense, an indirect way to talk to the pastors. I have to say, though, this has never been an issue. If anything, those priests who are pastors perceive the Pastoral Council as a way of assisting them so they don’t always have to be the funnel for communicating every decision or every issue to everyone. Whenever Brian and I meet with them, we’ll ask, “Who’s new here?” and invariably a third to a half of the attendees are new. So it’s becoming a much wider gathering than just 60 or 70 people, and that’s a very welcome development.

While we’re on the top of consultation, I’d like to point to two important ways I’ve found to be on the receiving end. There needs to be some point in a leader’s life in which he or she privately has an opportunity to mull over what’s happening in their organization. Thus, I prize greatly the one day every month I have to reflect. This personal day allows me to step back and take stock of what’s going on.

During the Pope’s recent message to us on World Communications Day, he stressed that in an increasingly hectic and fast-paced world, we need to create a sense of calm and serenity. And so it would seem to me that consultation, if it’s done right, needs to create an opportunity for us to privately take in that information and, no less importantly, be able to use it. In other words, to begin to see how we can apply the things we’ve learned –perhaps at our next meeting to report back to people and give them an update on timely issues. That helps to build a level of dialogue and communication.

Those are the five key areas around which we believe respect and trust are built. We hope we’ve given you some helpful insights into the small effort in our diocese to build what you might call healthy, productive, and professional relationships.

“Consultation is where we have two or three focused areas we need to address before we leave today, and we need to hear from everybody who’s here about those things.”

SELECTED QUESTIONS, ANSWERS, AND COMMENTS

like many organizations, with a key group of five or six people. My first question is: How does that leadership decision-making group interface with your consultative bodies? And my second question is: How did you deal with the fact the Archbishop has two full-time jobs at this point?

ARCHBISHOP KURTZ

As we begin our tenth year of operations, what do you think the Roundtable should do next?

BRIAN REYNOLDS

Your question brings me back to the notion of building relationships. I don’t know if the Roundtable has enough ambassadors yet. But to tell everybody at your conference to go out and spread the word about the Roundtable won’t get you anywhere, because people will think that others are going to do the job. You need a select number of people to be your initiators, your ambassadors. That will empower them.

The leadership organization you’ve described in the Archdiocese functions,

The second question might be the easier one, so I’ll start with it. Brian and I and our staff presumed over the last year or so I would become president [of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops] since I had been vice president. So, if we weren’t prepared, it would be our own fault. We began to look early on at areas that would free up some of my time. A metaphor that comes to mind is elastic borders – the notion that it actually is to our benefit as a diocese to have not only a bishop but other people involved in the larger Church community. We’ve had a very glorious experience in Louisville with people who have taken lead-

ership roles beyond the Archdiocese. To be able to cite those and say we anticipate deriving the same benefits is a strong statement. Of course there will always be challenges with travel and so forth, but overall we see my national role as a benefit. It gives us an opportunity to have some input, and hopefully some impact, on decisions beyond the Archdiocese. And it certainly gives us the opportunity to learn from the experiences that I and others bring back.

BRIAN REYNOLDS

I’ll try to address your first question. When our leadership group meets with the Pastoral Council of the diocese, the critical question or two might dictate who else has to be there. The Archbishop always addresses them first, and they get to dialogue with him. My focus is to get to the critical questions. And if it’s a question that relates to communication at the diocese, say, we’ll have our communications director with us. So it’s not just the two of us

meeting with the Pastoral Council. We involve in the consultative process whoever the key players are.

ARCHBISHOP KURTZ

I would add that the pressure is on us to ask the right critical questions. And that may mean bringing in people ahead of time to consult with us on how to ask the right questions. There may be cases where it’s as important to have a consultant help you to identify the question as it is to moderate the conversation. So, we often front-load our involvement by spending as much time as we can on that critical question. There should be no surprises at the actual meeting. People shouldn’t be able to say, “You just sprung that on me.”

CAROL FOWLER

This may be the elephant-in-the-room kind of question, but we’ve all noticed that one of you is a bishop and the other is a lay person. It couldn’t have been automatic that this kind of partnership would work. How did you manage to work that out?

ARCHBISHOP KURTZ

After I got my degree in social work, I became the Director of the Social Action Bureau in the Allentown Diocese. And that was really the first time I interacted with not just lay people, but with lay women. That was a very good and instructive experience for me, followed by my work with Catholic Charities. So maybe coming from a social work background where there has traditionally been less priestly and more lay involvement better prepared me to work with a lay partner like Brian. When I first arrived at the diocese, we had no idea what the outcome would be. But we decided to give it a good faith effort, and I’m very grateful that we did.

BRIAN REYNOLDS

I’ve been in the diocese for 25 years. I did strategic planning and HR work before I was named Chancellor in 2002 by Archbishop Kurtz’s predecessor, Archbishop Kelly. When Archbishop Kurtz came, I said to him, “I love our diocese, but I defer to you, Archbishop. Would you prefer a new Chancellor?” And he said, “We’re not going to have that conversation now. Let’s give each other six months. You may learn you don’t want to be here!” So, the assumption we started with was the need to work together for the sake of the mission and build from there.

National Leadership Roundtable on Church Management

2014 Annual Meeting

The Standard for Excellence:

BEST PRACTICES FOR A MISSION DRIVEN CHURCH

Loyola University Chicago | Lake Shore Campus | June 24-26, 2014

www.TheLeadershipRoundtable.org/AnnualMeeting

FROM

ROME

TO HOME:

VATICAN REFORMS AND THE CHURCH IN THE U.S.

Rev. J. Bryan Hehir, Professor of the Practice of Religion and Public Life at the Harvard Kennedy School, and Secretary for Health Care and Social Services, Archdiocese of Boston Elizabeth McCaul, Partner, Promontory Financial Group, LLC

It is my great pleasure to introduce two experts in their fields who are prepared to give us some insights into a topic on everyone’s minds: Pope Francis and Vatican reform. Father Hehir is a founding trustee of the Leadership Roundtable, a close personal advisor to Cardinal Séan O’Malley, and an expert on how the Catholic Church operates. Elizabeth McCaul is a partnerin-charge of Promontory Financial Group where she provides a broad range of financial and regulatory advisory services to clients in the U.S. and Europe, including assistance with matters related to safety and soundness, risk management, corporate governance and capital markets. Among Promontory’s prestigious clients is the Vatican Bank, in which Elizabeth is playing a leading role.

REV. BRYAN HEHIR

I’ve been given nine minutes to summarize Pope Francis. What I can give you in that space are snapshots meant to help you evaluate him over the long-term.

First snapshot: what are the sources that move him? We already know he’s a Jesuit and a Latin-American bishop. Those are deep, powerful influences in his mind. When he analyzes the world in his Letter “Joy of the Gospel,” he doesn’t say, “I’m going to analyze the world.” He says, “We need to discern what’s happening in the world.” Classic Jesuit language. He’s a bishop who lived through the Dirty War in Argentina. And if you lived through the Dirty War, you’re not going to be surprised by Iraq and Syria and other hot spots around the world. And he’s a bishop of the Second Vatican Council. He’s reviving collegiality, the local Church, and the collaboration of popes, bishops, laypeople and religious.

Second snapshot: the way he manages symbolism and substance. He’s a man of instinctive symbolic action. We’ve got to ask, What is the substance behind the symbolism? Where he lives, what he drives, how he dresses. All of those, in a sense, are symbolic. All of those have transformed the image of what a Pope is in the minds of people.

Everyone knows that a key question for any executive is where you spend your time and how you plan your day. In the case of Pope Francis, he spent time his first three months at Lampedusa, the refugee island in northern Africa, and at the Jesuit Refugee Center in Rome. He went to Assisi to do a walk-through of the clinic where children with multiple physical and psychological problems are treated. He stopped and visited 100 children there -- one by one. It was symbolic and substantive.

Where does he go on trips? Brazil was arranged ahead of time. He’s going to Korea, Sri Lanka, the Middle East, and Albania. This is a man who says the fundamental problem today is that we have an economy of exclusion, or a world of exclusion. That is to say, some people don’t count as one. And in the world of international relations, clearly, not everybody counts as one. So he chooses to go to places that oftentimes don’t count, not even as half of one. Albania as a centerpiece of international politics? Nobody’s talked about that. His choices are symbolic and substantive. So you kiss the Western Wall. Other Popes have done that, I think. But kiss the wall that divides the Palestinians and the Israelis and don’t tell anybody ahead of time you’re going to do it? These are symbolic actions with substantive consequences.

Next, a long term snapshot: justice and mercy. Theologians have asked for centuries, How do you have a God that’s all-merciful and all-just. Pope Francis talks about mercy in the Church and justice in the world. That’s his combination. He asked, “What should the Church be like?” and responded, “The Church should be a house of mercy.” And that confessions, for example, shouldn’t be a torture chamber, as he put it. Mercy in the Church, justice in the world. ‘No’ to an economy of exclusion, ‘no’ to the marginalization of

some people over others. Want to run that through the IMF and the global economy and budgetary planning? You have to do those things. He hasn’t, though he’ll have to do some of them (or at least get some help doing them). But the point is justice, structure and fairness in a world marked by enormous inequality -- politically, economically, legally.

Finally, in a way that intersects with what the Leadership Roundtable has developed, I believe what he’s really trying to do is to build a practical ecclesiology. Ecclesiology is the study of the discipline, the nature and the function of the Church. He’s trying to build a practical model of the Church, and so he uses language about the Church that no other Pope has ever used. The Church as a “field hospital,” for example, that in a conflicted world we ought to be like a field hospital. The Church ought to be a house of mercy again. The Church ought to have its eye at every level -- national, global, on what he calls the existential peripheries.

Existential peripheries? What he really means is where suffering goes on. We

need to have our eye on the edge of the circle of light, where the vulnerable live and suffering occurs – and not just because they are poor, but because they are humans and need support and sustenance in different ways. To the Pope, that is symbolically significant, and he is determined to be substantively empowered. He proclaims that those who live by hope of the Kingdom of God are meant to make history, to generate history. In other words, he wants a Church that lives in the world and generates history in a way that calls attention to what it means to believe in God.

ELIZABETH MCCAUL

I’m a banker and a regulator by training. I spent 10 years at Goldman Sachs, then became a banking regulator, serving for sixand-a-half years as Superintendent of Banks of New York. Now I’m a fixer of banks. I started as a banker at a time when being a banker was a noble thing. We were facilitators to the financial markets that would allow hospitals, power plants and roads to be built, and people to buy a house and enjoy their lives. Unfortunately, it’s gotten far off-track.

“He’s trying to build a practical model of the Church, and so he uses language about the Church that no other Pope has ever used.”

Against that backdrop, the work that’s taking place under the direction (in a substantive way) of the Holy Father is extraordinary because it’s meant to change that culture, to return finance to being the kind of service -- even respected service -- it once was.

“The extraordinary thing the Holy Father is now doing –is recognizing that this risk culture needs to end.”

The Vatican Bank has had a series of terrible setbacks largely because there hasn’t been a structured place to transcend a culture of secrecy. It’s a bank that operated in a culture of obedience which, in a way, was not appropriate -- comparable to a priest telling you to follow his instructions without allowing any questions or independent controls. The extraordinary thing the Holy Father is now doing – in the wake of the global financial crisis – is recognizing that this risk culture needs to end. That something needs to be built. We’re seeing laws and regulations all around the world that mention the word “culture.” So part of the work we’ve been doing hinges very closely on building controls that ensure transparency. And that means looking at every single account, getting references in order to make sure they’re appropriate, doing investigations and forensics, and reporting to the proper authorities.

All of that is just a backdrop for what the Holy Father intends to achieve -- which is allowing financing to move to any place on earth where it needs to be to ensure money is being spent on the poor. You

have to have a way to get it there, a way that’s compliant with international law and regulations. And to that end, risk culture is being cited, along with the responsibility to challenge and oppose management decisions. In plain language, the Holy Father is saying that transparency and honesty in finance are essential. And to me, seeing this discussion take place at the highest levels of the Church and in furtherance of the Church’s mission to the world is simply amazing.

Bankers and regulators are now feeling an urgent need to look to a higher authority, to make decisions about leading in the right direction and putting the right internal controls and processes in place. So if you leave this room with one takeaway today, I hope it’s that what’s happening in Vatican is very real. I wouldn’t continue to do the work I’m doing if I didn’t believe it was up to international standards. We have had 25 people on site plus 10 people staffing the Pontifical Commission working six days a week, sometimes 18 hours a day, going through thousands and thousands of accounts, making sure that the right accounts are in the bank, that they’re being used by the appropriate people, and that they’re being spent in the proper way. We’ve been building risk-management functions with direct internal controls and direct reporting to a board of lay directors embedded in but independent of ecclesiastical structures.

The other piece we’re doing is working with the Pontifical Commission to develop a new economic and financial architecture. The Holy Father put in place the Pontifical Commission for Reference on the Organization of the Economic- Administrative Structure of the Holy See (COSEA) with a

“ In plain language, the Holy Father is saying that transparency and honesty in finance are essential. ”

group of international experts from around the world, and we’re serving as an advisor to help build a central bank and an appropriate governing structure to ensure separation of responsibilities for spending and budgeting money, and creating transparency around where the money is coming from and what it’s being used for. What I never lose sight is that we’re putting in place the strongest possible controls, meeting international best practices, and exceeding regulatory expectations.

SELECTED QUESTIONS, ANSWERS, AND COMMENTS

SUSAN KING

Dean, School of Journalism, University of North Carolina Chapel Hill

I’d like to ask Elizabeth about the culture of resistance to the significant changes she’s described. I can’t imagine this happening without some kind of pushback.

ELIZABETH MCCAUL

It’s true that with any reform effort you see resistance. It’s human nature to resist change. The Holy Father said on the banking issue, “Pray for me.” I’m very optimistic. I see that the major recommendations coming out of the Pontifical Commission for Reference on the Organization of the Economic- Administrative Structure of the Holy See (COSEA) have come to life with Cardinal [George] Pell [named by Pope Francis to the position of Prefect for the Economy of the Holy See with responsibility for reforming the Vatican’s finances and administration], and that he thinks like a Minister of the Economy -- in our language -- and in a way that was never structured before. So, having a senior leader like Cardinal Pell as a Minister of the Economy responsible for budget, regulation, transparency and integrity of financial systems is a huge first step. And he’s off to an incredible start. But it won’t be easy.

GEOFF BOISI

Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Roundtable Investment Partners, LLC.

The way the Pope has articulated some of his thoughts on capitalism has raised ques-

tions in the minds of philanthropists who, as we all know, are so important to the Catholic Church in the U.S. and around the world. Can you enlighten us on what he’s really thinking? Where is he coming from on this issue?

REV. HEHIR

He has adopted the style of the interview. And I think partly out of his pastoral style and his experience as a Latin American bishop he speaks very directly to questions of justice and injustice. In other words, he has a very profound sense of how much suffering there is in the world, and a lot of it is couched in economic terms. But he doesn’t play out the implications of his direct statements. For example, he says that inequality is the source of every conflict in the world. To be honest, I have a lot of colleagues at the Kennedy School who would take him up on that. They’d say, ‘That’s too broad a statement. There are other things that feed into the conflicts in the world,

and inequality is just one of them.’ So you need to contextualize.

ELIZABETH MCCAUL

The Pope recently gave a sermon about the evils of speculation. And he spoke especially about speculators in Catholic society and the commodity markets,

especially food. He was very specific in saying this is a force that needs to be undone -- that food speculation is causing even greater hunger among the poor because it’s causing the price of food to rise exponentially. So he’s carving out a place in the definition of what an economy should be and what’s acceptable. It doesn’t matter if you’re a capitalist or not. He’s challenging us to think about our form of capitalism differently, and I believe it’s time to do that.

I have several questions around Cardinal Pell and the new Council for the Economy. Will there be an internal audit function at the Vatican; what are they learning insofar as accountability and standards; and will there be investment guidelines?

ELIZABETH MCCAUL

There’s definitely an internal audit function being developed as part of the new economic and administrative structure in the Vatican, and the intention is to give it

access to the books. The balance sheet that’s been published has been very controversial, as I think most of you know. So, there is definitely a very strong mandate to do a full internal audit and then create an overall budget for the Vatican City State and the Holy See.

Your other question was on accountability. It remains to be seen whether the Council for the Economy will have operational oversight. My personal view is not to make the Council for the Economy operational over foundations, the dicasteries, et cetera, but rather to set the standards and then empower other operational agencies, not unlike the way the GAO functions in this country. The Treasury itself sets policy; it’s not operational. If it gets involved in procurement or the management and maintenance of real estate it ends up being a mess.

On the subject of investments, I think we’ll have to pay close attention to what the Holy Father has to say about what are proper investments for the Church to hold. And my hope is that you’ll see the Vatican leading the way.

MOST REV. JOHN BARRES Bishop, Diocese of Allentown

Could you comment, Father Bryan, on Pope Francis’s style and substance during his trip to the Middle East?

REV. HEHIR

Popes come to office like presidents, with a background and a focus. My sense is the Pope’s passion is poverty and socio-economic issues. So that’s what you’re getting. But I think every Pope has to be a good pastor, a good administrator, and a good diplomat. There’s no way you can escape the third characteristic because you’re runFROM

ning a diplomatic tour around the world. So when he went to the Middle East, I figured this is really not his strong suit. I mean, Pius XII was a diplomat all his life. Paul VI was a diplomat. John XXIII was a diplomat. They all spent their lives in the Vatican diplomatic corps. And John Paul II had been a political Pope in Poland. But I think what Pope Francis did was move away from the practical specifics of diplomacy.

I know the United States Government and a lot of other people wanted him to endorse the two-state solution. He might have done something in private, but in public, it was all symbolic. So, he kissed the Wall, and then balanced that with going to the graves of Mount Herzl in Israel. And then, quite unexpectedly, invited the president of Israel and the president of the Palestinians to Rome, not to do diplomacy, but to pray. Those three things are not going to solve the problems in the Middle East, but they did make an effort to shake loose a situation that’s now frozen.

National Leadership Roundtable on Church Management

2014 Annual Meeting

The

Standard for Excellence:

BEST PRACTICES FOR A MISSION DRIVEN CHURCH

Loyola University Chicago | Lake Shore Campus | June 24-26, 2014

www.TheLeadershipRoundtable.org/AnnualMeeting

SUCCESSFUL STRATEGIES: DOING CHURCH DIFFERENTLY AT THE PARISH LEVEL

Paul Butler, President, GlobalEdg

Rev. Joe Donnelly, Pastor, Sacred Heart Church, Southbury, Connecticut

REV. JOE DONNELLY

What we’re going to address today is how we approach our strategic planning process, what the process consists of, and what are some of the results. We’re a suburban parish of about 2,200 households in the western part of Connecticut. I came to the parish about 11 years ago and immediately dove into a few things, in-

cluding what I like to call big projects. We twinned with a parish in Haiti. We left CCD and went in favor of intergenerational catechesis, which we’ve been doing for about seven or eight years now. We tried to expand the staff. I followed a very talented and gifted guy, who was a classmate of mine, but he was a bit of a one-man show. One of the first things I did when I got to the parish was to spend some time with each of the committees or groups or ministries, and I kept hearing the same refrain. I’d say, “Tell me, how do you do this in the parish?” and they’d reply, “Well, we do it that way,” and then inadvertently they’d say, “But you’re the pastor, Father, you can do whatever you want.” That could have been the response to the prayer of the faithful on Sunday.

Clearly, there was a need to expand the leadership on the staff, which, in fact, we did. But when I came to the end of my first six-year term and was ready to begin

a second, I asked the question, “What now? What are we going to do?” After some conversations with Paul, who was on our Parish Council, we came up with the idea of doing a strategic plan. Maybe we needed to think strategically about the next six years in terms of continuing the mission and ministry of our parish.

The Parish Council was a particularly appropriate place to have this discussion, since it was one of the most visible ways to involve different people in the work of the Church. I say this really respectfully, but the Church has wrestled before with working collaboratively, and democracy is not our strong suit. Pastors and even parishioners in different parishes know that the Pastoral Council and the Parish Council have not always gone as smoothly as they should. We’re still looking for that model that works, that draws people in, that taps into the energy of the community and the many gifts of our members.

Early on, parishes would have a Parish Council -- sometimes called the Council of Ministries – where the various ministry and committee heads would come together each month and talk with the pastor about what they were doing. This group would also be in charge of the fundraising for the parish. But the problem with this model was that it became very boring after a while and difficult to keep people engaged. After all, why did they have to attend a meeting listening to somebody review what they were doing when they could just read a memo. But the bigger flaw was that there was no vision. There was nothing to move the council forward, so many parishes turned to what then became known as Pastoral Councils. A Pastoral Council would either elect representatives on behalf of the parishioners or, as in our case, create a discernment model where we brought people together who were interested in being part of the group. We’d then go through several weeks of discernment with a facilitator, and determine who should serve on the Pastoral Council.

with that ball and how are they going to be held accountable?’

So, we began talking about a strategic plan and process, and formed a Strategic Planning Committee to drive the project. One of the things we wanted to do was select people to become part of the process not because they were the best known in the parish or had been there the longest, but because of their background, skills and interests could really bring something to the process. So, we were very purposeful about who we drew to these committees. We consulted widely and ended up with a wonderful group of people to undertake the strategic planning process.

PAUL BUTLER

My own planning world had consisted of 30 years with companies like Proctor & Gamble and Gillette. That proved useful when we brought these members together and began fine-tuning a set of three strategic planning goals. The first was to make strategic choices about where to invest our time, resources and energies.

So, we wanted our people to start thinking along those lines – about “choices,” about “ongoing,” and about “future and disciplines.”

This group would brainstorm various topics. For example, ‘How do we keep young people in the Church?’ Its ideas would then be sent to the appropriate parish committee, like the Faith Formation Committee or the Evangelization Committee, for further consideration. We did that for a while, maintaining an emphasis on prayer and consensus, rather than actually voting on anything. The flaw in this model was that there was little accountability. It was like, ‘We want to do this and that for our young people, but who’s going to run

The key word here is “choices” – strategies are about choices, what you choose to do and not to do. The second goal was to address ongoing financials, and the key word here is “ongoing.” We were in a pretty good place with our parish financially. We were known as a parish that people wanted to come to, and where they became engaged. So, how do we really protect our finances for what we needed to do in the future? And the third goal was to determine future direction and operating disciplines for the organization. In the case of our planning process, this could be as simple as asking, “What’s going on?”

“What do you recommend?” and “What will the results be?”

The other key development is that we began working with the Leadership Roundtable. And what I’ve learned, and would recommend to anyone on a path similar to our parish, is to follow the Standards for Excellence. If you’re going to bring an outside group in to help, use the Standards as your checklist. There are a lot of people out there doing consulting work, but it’s not grounded in what we (the Roundtable) believe is important. Personally, I had to learn how to speak the language of the Church, and it’s been quite an education for me.

We also focused our team on a strategic thinking methodology as seen through five key principles. First, we gave everybody the ability to “Challenge Assumptions.” Secondly, we asked them to “Scope the Issue.”

We had a lot of stuff we had to think about, so we made it clear the scope was really the parish and the surrounding communities, not their faith formation team. How big is our parish compared to the community? Are we the largest faith? The third principle was “Focus on the Vital Few.” What are the

“We also focused our team on a strategic thinking methodology.”

“We began talking about a strategic plan and process, and formed a Strategic Planning Committee to drive the project.“

most important things this group needs to focus on? We had 55, 60 ministries, and we were all over the place. Fourth was “Facts Inform Outcomes.” When we started looking at some data, we said, “We’re a vibrant parish.” But what does vibrant mean? We did an engagement survey so we could measure what we meant by vibrant? And fifth was “Linkage: Connect the Dots.” As part of our project, we did an internal and external analysis, looking at strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. These informed the key issues we needed to address. We didn’t have 30 or 40 key issues, but a list of eight on which to focus our energies. They became the mainstays of the three-year strategic plan we developed. We don’t see five-year plans in our business much anymore, by the way. Instead, we see three-year rotating plans. Every year we take a look at our SWOT analysis and at our internal/external analysis and ask, “Where are we?” And that sets the stage for what we call key issue sessions, which are held over a four or five month period. From these, our key issues emerge.

REV. DONNELLY

The first key issue was Evangelization. We have a large 55-and-over community in our town with a lot of retired people, as well as an abundance of young families moving in. So we needed a way to actively engage both ends of this age spectrum.

We noticed there were many concerns around families in crisis, as we called this group. So, our second issue was how do we identify and address and support families in crisis? What do people have a right to look for from their parish community when they face some kind of difficult issue in their family life or their individual life?

The third key issue was how do we communicate the new model of the Church? It

may sound kind of hackneyed, but this is not the Church that most of us grew up in. This is a whole different moment of grace, and we need to be aware of that. I think those in leadership are pretty aware of it, but how do we make the larger community aware of it? How do we move people beyond, “Oh, I go to church,” to “I am the church.” And that gets into areas like the role of the laity, a non-pastor-centric model (“You’re pastor, Father, you can do whatever you want”), a collaborative style of leadership, and the introduction of nonordained people to leadership, like pastoral associates. So, we needed to get people more comfortable with that model.

The fourth issue was human resources: how do we ensure we have the right human resources to meet the needs of our parish, whether that’s structuring the staff or rethinking the types of jobs. And fifth, communication: how do we promote and enhance the image of Sacred Heart and the Catholic Church as a positive force in the community and beyond? One arm of evangelization is obviously nourishing faith in the people of the community, but the other is the public face the Church has, both in a small town like ours and much larger. People tend to have all these bizarre ideas of what Catholics do, often fed by the secular media. So, how do we work that? Next issue was Haiti. We established a relationship with a parish in Haiti about seven or eight years ago, and we did it

not just to do something for all those poor people in Haiti. We did it knowing they had something special to bring to us, and we’ve attempted to get to know them a bit, which sometimes has meant going down there (unfortunately, they couldn’t be brought up here). Bridging that gap was really important to us.

Outreach was another key issue. We had a lot of social ministries, so how do we continue them and keep them vibrant so they’re not relying on the same handful of people. And finally finance: how do we pay for all this future growth?

PAUL BUTLER

We had these key issue meetings with the parish staff, and we invited people to come weigh in. And for each key issue we asked, “So what? What’s the implication? What should we be thinking about?” And the key issues informed what we call our strategic options, or our priorities. Originally we had a list of 10 to 15. We got it down to seven, where probably two of the seven are what we call enabling priorities: finance and communication. In the end, we had five core priorities, and two enabling priorities. We then decided which of those were feasible. “If this is what’s possible, what can we really do based on the talent and resources we have?” Just as important, though, was what we chose not to do.

REV. DONNELLY

These were the seven priorities we came up with once we zeroed in on the key issues: Evangelization; the idea of today’s Church; people in crisis; social outreach; public relations; our commitment to the

“ It may sound kind of hackneyed, but this is not the Church that most of us grew up in. and we need to be aware of that.”

“How do we ensure we have the right human resources to meet the needs of our parish, whether that’s structuring the staff or rethinking the types of jobs.”

people of Haiti; and the financial stability to sustain all of these. The overall umbrella – and the value that I personally found –was the ability to think strategically, to be purposeful about what we did as opposed to just taking the approach, ‘Well, it’s Lent again, do we have any ashes left over from last year?’ These priorities are what led us to a unique way, a different way, of structuring our Parish Council, which we’ll describe in a little bit.

members? What was their scope and objectives? We also asked each team to give us some measurements, and list their interdependencies? Some teams, like Financial Stability, touched multiple teams. The team charter also asked: ‘What are you focused on over the short-term, and over the course of the three-year plan?’ By the way, the plan was started in 2010, and by the end of the year we had largely finished it. We renew it each year; we don’t start over, but simply ask, “What’s changed? What data is different from what we had earlier in the year? What’s the data telling us about our community? About our finances?”

REV. DONNELLY

The movement from, “Okay, these are our priorities,” to “Okay, what do you do with them?” was a major step. We set up seven teams, a team for each priority. Each team had a staff liaison or a sponsor -- one of us on the pastoral staff – to work with them. There was also a team leader, and here we sought out people with backgrounds and experience to draw into the ministry of the Church. One of the things I think that parishes sometimes suffer from is having the same people doing the same things all the time. Our approach meant reaching out to people we saw at Mass all the time, people we knew were committed to the Church, but never came forward to do anything, and invited them directly? “We need somebody with your skills to work with our evangelization group, would you be willing to do that?” Each team had about four or five people, in addition to the staff liaison and team leader, and they met three or four times a year.

PAUL BUTLER

Each team was asked to fill out what we called a team charter. Who were their

The model we came up for the Parish Council is something we’ve come to call the Pastoral Advisory Council. It’s consists of myself as pastor, three pastoral associates, and Paul as the facilitator. And there are the chairs of each of the seven priority teams. We meet about three times a year, though we try to stay in touch throughout the year, and once a year we reassess the plan to determine how we roll it out in the coming year.

What we found is that the strategic plan offers us something to focus on. It calls on us to not just manage things, or repeat what we did last year, but to move forward as best we can. I’ve found it to be much more effective than the models I used in other parishes where I served. It’s worth noting that unlike the Parish Finance Council, which is mandated by Canon Law, the Parish Council is recommended by the Church. So there’s not really a universal model that works for everyone.

month at our Vigil Mass, and in little more than a year has turned into the most highly attended Mass of the month.

We’ve also undertaken five major service projects, especially outreach to the poor. For example, once a year we have a group of our young people go down and minister in Haiti at our twin parish there. Today’s Church has been trying to get people to talk about their faith, because we Catholics are notoriously shy, we don’t talk about politics, we don’t talk about our religion. Can we get people to talk about their faith? Because when they talk about it, they’re able to be reflective, they have to wrap words around what they believe, and that sometimes is a real challenge for people. So we initiated what we call Sacred Hearts to Hearts, where a dozen parishioners are invited into someone’s home, with a pot of coffee going and a member of the pastoral staff on hand to start the conversation, and we delve into subjects such as, “What’s your experience like being a Catholic?” “Is your life better because you’re Catholic?” The approach is, let’s start a conversation and see where it takes us.

What are the results from all this work? As one small example, out of the concern we had for engaging young people, we initiated what we call ROC Mass, for Rely on Christ. It’s held the first Saturday of every

This summer we’re actually doing some thematic conversations, because people have particular issues that are very controversial and oftentimes confusing. For instance, “After the sexual abuse crisis, I don’t believe in the Church anymore.” That was the topic for our first thematic conversation. Others have included: “I raised my kids Catholic, but none of them go to church anymore. I feel like I’m a failure as a parent.” And “I’m gay, or my child is gay, and they don’t feel welcome in your Church.” Thematic conversations like these are getting people talking.

Because the communication and PR areas are so vast, we decided to actually hire someone to be our communications and

“One of the things I think that parishes sometimes suffer from is having the same people doing the same things all the time. ”

information manager. They now oversee our bulletin, website and quarterly newsletter -- all of which needed work – and also write press releases to try and get the story out to a wider audience of not only our parish, but the Catholic Church – a task that was difficult at times.

Another encouraging result of our planning work is that finances have gone up, which is always a great measuring stick for the bottom line, and something pastors like myself love to hear. We made a simple little appeal about a year ago and found that the last two months, April and May, set a new record for revenues. Which reminds me of what Kerry Robinson taught me about Catholic philanthropy: when people see what’s going on, they want to invest in it, they want to be part of it. So that’s what we did.

As a final thought, there have been flaws in our program -- it hasn’t been without difficulties, it hasn’t been without some struggles, and there are some pieces that haven’t been put in place yet. But we’re proud of what we’ve accomplished so far, and proud that we are Partners in Excellence with the Leadership Roundtable on Church Management.

SELECTED QUESTIONS, ANSWERS, AND COMMENTS

ers saw the results -- helping to rebuild the Catholic school system down there -- they started seeing you as an effective organization and began to say, “Okay, maybe these Standards for Excellence are worth adopting.” I think the word has to get out, though. That’s where that the PR piece is so important, whether it’s directed at other priests or at the bishops themselves. I think it’s wonderful that Archbishop Kurtz is so committed to this effort.

Financial

Life Planner Ameriprise Financial

From your perspective as a priest and what you know about bishops who run dioceses, what do you think might be the reasons they would resist being open to adopting The Standards for Excellence, either at a diocesan or parish level?

REV. DONNELLY

If memory serves me, one of the real challenges the founders of the Leadership Roundtable faced when they started was the wariness of certain Church leaders that you were trying to tell us how to “do church.” If human change is difficult, imagine change within a 2000 year institution that has prided itself on “we’ve always done it this way.” I believe it was the work the Roundtable did for the Archdioceses of New Orleans [after Hurricane Katrina] that helped to turn the tide. Once Church lead-

I think many of us would be interested in understanding how you discerned, or distilled, your priorities. I think my own trepidation in entering into a process like this is that you get a bag full of every good idea that very well intentioned people have.

PAUL BUTLER

We went back to the data and basically looked at everything, including finances, number of committees, number of parishioners, and what’s going on outside in the community. For example, What’s the biggest crisis we have in our community? At the time, there was a rash of young people dying from drugs and suicides. So we linked all our decisions back to the data to determine what were the most important things we should really be focusing on. And we let that guide our decisions.

REV. DONNELLY

The presupposition, too, was that we can’t do everything. We have limited resources, we have limited time, and we have limited energy. What do we want to really commit ourselves to if we’re going to stay faithful to the mission of the parish and the mission of the Church? And that’s tough. I was grateful we had somebody as skilled as Paul to talk the language and guide the process.

KEVIN KILEY

Director of Strategy and Financial Planning, Archdiocese of Boston

Do you have a finance committee in addition to the financial stability group and, if so, how do they interact? And secondly, more in the form of a comment, I’ve never understood why we mandate Finance Councils but not Parish Councils. At the parish level, you have the Finance Council, or the Finance Committee, that sort of runs the show, and the Pastoral Council, that sort of sits off to the side, basically looking at adding mission types of things, to which the Finance Committee typically says, “No, we don’t have the budget for that,” or “We’re trying to save money.” I don’t think it’s a good way to run a parish.

REV. DONNELLY

A couple of members on our financial stability team are Finance Council members, as well, so there’s that automatic link. And while the Finance Council creates the budget and stays on top of spending, buildings and grounds, it’s our financial stability team that’s connected with the vision of where we’re going with all this. Their role is to keep the financial piece connected to the plan.

Congratulations on all your success. Fantastic. And to see a pastor quoting Larry Bossidy is just a game changer, I have to say. My question is about finances. How did your effort in this area impact stewardship or your weekly offertory? Did you see a dramatic uptick after doing such a great job engaging the laity, their time and talents? I would assume that the treasury followed naturally.

REV. DONNELLY

It did, because one of the pieces that came out of a suggestion from the financial stability team was to get people to think in terms of monthly contributions, as opposed to paying for going to Mass, or not paying if they didn’t go the following week because of a snowstorm or because they were sick. We had our people think about that, and we decided to initiate online giving, as many parishes have done. A number of our parishioners took advantage, but others were very wary.

PAUL BUTLER

On the issue of finances, our Haiti team is more or less self-funded. So if somebody

sees a part of this plan they want to invest in, they can choose to do so. We have a commitment of $56,000 for building schools and health clinics down there, and that’s been made clear.

MALE SPEAKER

Where have you seen the greatest impact in your parish from using the Standards for Excellence?

REV. DONNELLY

I’d say the whole area of accountability, for starters. Accountability to the larger group when it comes together. We saw an example of that at the end of May when we had our third meeting of the Pastoral Advisory Council, and people around the table – the chairs of each team -- told us what they had done. The idea was that they were accountable to the rest of the group, which really symbolized the larger parish. So definitely a sense of accountability.

The Standards have also had an impact on financial transparency. We’ve done a lot with that in our reporting to the parish, keeping them on top of it. And the idea, too, of tapping into the skill sets of our people, looking for them to take leadership in different ways.

PAUL BUTLER

We passed out the Standards for Excellence booklet when we first started. Everyone read it and said, “What ideas or thoughts can we take from it to make sure that it informs our work as well as the operational management structures and disciplines we need in place to run a parish? And it’s also served as a checklist when we go back and ask ourselves, “Are we still adhering to this and that.” It’s almost shifted the discussion from ‘who’s accountable’ to ‘what we’re committed to.’ And that’s a fine line because you’re accountable for delivering on what you have to do as a team leader, but you’re committed to the other seven members of the Pastoral Advisory Council -- you commit to not let them down, and to help each other out. It’s magical the way it’s transformed the way we work together.

MALE SPEAKER

Before you did the plan, how did you operate? Did you have to unlearn anything as pastor to work with your parish communities this way? And what have you learned about why this is an important way to work?

REV. DONNELLY

I like to think I’ve always operated collaboratively. I worked in seminaries for a long time, and lived in small communities with guys, and there was this idea of personal accountability, one to another, and I like to think I carried that over to the parish. The big difference for me comes from two directions: one is being a part of the Roundtable over the years, and the second is working with a skilled professional like Paul with insights on what we need to do make this happen.

Chair, The Leadership Roundtable

I’d like to ask Paul the same question, but from the parishioners’ viewpoint: what have they seen that’s different?

PAUL BUTLER

One of the biggest things is that we now have a collaborative model to ‘do church’ differently. The role of the laity in our parish was a big ‘aha!’ moment for many people, even those on the planning committee – the realization, “It’s our Church.”

Another big thing has been these conversations: Let’s get people talking about their faith. Let’s not avoid some of the dicey issues about our Catholic faith. Let’s talk about those and come to understand some of these things a little bit better. Let’s talk to our neighbors. Geographically, we have a lot of people who have come to Southbury to retire, people who are by and large Northeasterners. And we Northeasterners, especially we Irish Catholics, don’t talk about our faith a lot. So it’s really bringing that out in the open and making it more normal.

A good example of conversations is that at the height of the economic recession, we had a lot of people out of work in our parish, and they’d run to Father for counseling – “What do I do?” So we set up, as part of the Pastoral Care Committee, a career transition ministry. I got it up and running along with another individual who had worked in HR. We have 10 to 15 people who’ve attended every month for the last two years, and now they don’t have to go to Father, unless it’s for another matter. We help them network, and have an 80 percent success rate placing people in jobs. It’s worth noting we also do this

for people who are not members of our parish. We want to be known for what we do for our community.

Father Joe, what happens to this model when another priest comes in as pastor? Isn’t there a risk of it either falling apart, the next priest not liking it, or just confusing people?

JOE DONNELLY

There’s certainly a risk, but that’s an issue that faces all parishes and dioceses. My hope is that more and more, people can take on this model, this image, this role they have as the people of God, and try to really embody it so if somebody came in and tried to radically change things, they would take the position, ‘This is the way we’ve been doing it, and it’s the way we truly believe in.” One of the saddest parts of priesthood is knowing you could pour out your life’s blood for a parish or a ministry somewhere, and the minute you’re gone, it could all change because, by and large, the priest has all the power in the Church. I think that’s changing, at least I hope it’s changing.

National Leadership Roundtable on Church Management 2014 Annual Meeting

The

Standard for Excellence:

BEST PRACTICES FOR A MISSION DRIVEN CHURCH

Loyola University Chicago | Lake Shore Campus | June 24-26, 2014

www.TheLeadershipRoundtable.org/AnnualMeeting

2014 LEADERSHIP ROUNDTABLE BEST PRACTICES AWARD

Honoring The Diocese of Knoxville

JIM LUNDHOLM-EADES

Director of Services and Planning, The Leadership Roundtable

Tonight we are honored to present the 2014 Leadership Roundtable Best Practices Award to the Diocese of Knoxville. And I’m honored to welcome Bishop [Richard] Stika who is with us today.

About two years ago the Diocese of Knoxville started its journey toward best practices, and has remained faithful to that goal ever since, even if it’s been complicated. One of the highlights is that the diocese undertook the journey as a team –a leadership team that made things happen. And among the drivers of their commitment to best practices is execution. It’s easy to create a plan, but they’ve taken it to the next step of execution. One of the first things Bishop Stika did on the road to best practices was to assemble the right people. They include Paul Butler, who’s been with the Diocese of Knoxville for several years; Fr. David Boettner, who would always ask pragmatic, down-to-earth questions; and two brand new diocesan staff members, Sister Mary Charles and Dr. Elijah Martin, both part of the commitment to best practices and to assembling the right people.

The Diocese of Knoxville took action from the bottom-up and the top-down, not quite concurrently, because Bishop Stika was smart enough to not get too far ahead of

his priests. He actually slowed the process down, and in doing so allowed them to catch up. He assembled the priests, talked to them about what was going to happen at the Chancery, then met with his leading priests and brought them along. I actually advised them to increase their staff as there were some gaps in their administration they needed to fill, and they waited until the right people surfaced.

What the leadership team also did was go away together to take a deep breath, be reflective, and align their thinking before they took it outside of their team. It was smart thinking on the part of the Bishop to say, “We’ve got a plan. Now let’s step back from it and see what makes sense.” So they assembled the right people and aligned the thinking of the leadership.

Their plan involved organizational and structural change. It involved, from the bottom up, patiently assembling a group to begin a pilot of the Standards for Excellence, then, quietly take it to the next

group. The idea was to create lasting cultural change toward best practices. They’re doing it at a pace and in a way that the whole organization can.

Commendably, the diocese under Bishop Stika’s leadership has moved toward best practices in a careful, measured, thoughtful, prayerful, reflective way with attention to structure, culture, and how they use their resources. They’ve kept uppermost in mind the need to bring not just the priests, but groups of laity along. They’re just launching a capital campaign that’s smartly timed to the introduction of best practices. That approach will undoubtedly serve them well as they go forward.

The Diocese of Knoxville isn’t just here tonight because they adopted Standards for Excellence, or because they restructured their Chancery, or because of other individual pieces. They’re here because of the thoughtful adoption of best practices across the whole diocesan system. They’ve begun the journey, but know it’s far from over. The prize is at the end. So, Bishop, I’d ask you to bring your team forward to receive the Leadership Roundtable’s 2014 Best Practices Award.

MOST REV.

Bishop, Diocese of Knoxville

I just want to thank all of you for recognizing what I consider an exceptional diocese in the United States. I’m sure every bishop would say that about their diocese, but I mean it from my heart. I left an area five years ago that was about 27 percent Catholic, and traveled to a diocese that is about 2.5 percent Catholic. We’re in the middle

of the deepest part of the Bible Belt in East Tennessee. And when I arrived, I saw an exceptional group of people in an area that sometimes sees the Catholic Church as a foreign institution, like so many places in the United States and the South.

I’d like to tell you a little bit about my diocese. We just celebrated our 25th anniversary with a Eucharist Congress; our keynote speaker was Cardinal Dolan. Upon our founding, we were only 30,000 Catholics. Our original mother diocese was Nashville, as was Memphis at one time. Now we’re around 65,000 Catholics, and if you count a lot of undocumented, unregistered people, there could be as many as 100,000 in our diocese. A couple of weeks ago, we were recognized by Boston College as being number ten in terms of people converting to the Catholic Church. We were tied with the Diocese of Memphis, and Nashville was number eight. So Tennessee is doing quite well in terms of conversions.

Vocations have been a blessing for us, too.

Last year, I ordained two priests. This year, I ordained four priests and next year will ordain four more. Currently, we have 19 in the seminary. I believe that vocations come from families that are really focused on the Lord. They always talk about a seminary or a family. The family home is the first seminary, and that provides an example to the faith-filled people of East Tennessee. It shows that there’s something stirring in our diocese.

In my five short years here, we received two new religious communities of women: the Sisters of Mercy of Alma, Michigan, with seven sisters, and a community from

Africa, the Evangelizing Sisters of Mary, with four sisters working in a parish. And this last year, a contemplative community called the Handmaids of the Precious Blood is relocating their monastery from New Mexico to Knoxville. So again, it shows the vitality of what’s going on in our diocese.

We’re also getting ready to do a capital campaign and hopefully to soon build a cathedral. When the diocese was created, the Holy See asked, “What’s the biggest church in Knoxville?” and they said, “Sacred Heart. That’s a cathedral.” Well, it’s no longer the biggest church in Knoxville, and it’s beyond its capacity in terms of what it can handle.

I have to tell you, the Leadership Roundtable has been wonderful. When I called on them two years ago, the original curia was the bishop, his secretary, and Monsignor Mankel, the Vicar General, who also served as Chancellor for the schools. He also was a parish pastor and, I’m sure, also shoveled snow. We’ve grown, but I still think of us as a brand new diocese. And so many of our people are so committed to the work of the Church that they’re toiling way beyond what they should be doing. When the Roundtable came in, it was a marvelous chance to introduce a bit more justice in terms of my co-workers in a growing diocese.

“The diocese under Bishop Stika’s leadership has moved toward best practices in a careful, measured, thoughtful, prayerful, reflective way with attention to structure, culture, and how they use their resources.”

To date, three of our parishes have piloted the Standards for Excellence, and three additional parishes will soon begin the process. That means we have a variety of ambassadors within our clergy who are reaching out to other pastors and asking the question, “What are the best practices in terms of bringing Jesus Christ into the lives of people -- not so much in theory but in practice -- and into their hearts so they too will be ambassadors. Not so much for the diocese, but more to be ambassadors for Jesus. And I think that’s been an exceptional thing.

Jim [Lundholm-Eades] has been extraordinary. He came in and interviewed all the members of our staff, and it was marvelous to see his honesty, and the honesty of my co-workers toward him, because they trusted him. I think that’s a reflection of this organization.

“ when the Roundtable came in, it was a marvelous chance to introduce a bit more just in terms of my co-workers in a growing diocese.“

So we’ve restructured the Chancery, and brought in some new people. Jim also worked with Catholic Charities, which was at a point of growth. Catholic Charities in East Tennessee last year served 27,000 people, 95 percent of whom were nonCatholic. So again, it shows our mission in terms of reaching out beyond who we are as the Catholic Church. We’ve also launched a strategic planning process that looks for the right mixture of how we can serve people through Catholic Charities so we don’t overextend ourselves, but ensure we don’t shy away from the work that needs to be done. Since I arrived in Knoxville, my mantra has been, “To be the hands, to be the face, to be

the feet, to be the smile, and to be the heart of Jesus.” And if we do that, then we’re authentic in who we are as Catholics and as Christians in an area that still, in many ways, doesn’t understand the Catholic Church.

I can give you all kinds of descriptions of the Diocese of Knoxville. For one things, it’s surrounded by great beauty. East Tennessee has the Smoky Mountains and all these lakes created by the Tennessee Valley Authority. But let me tell you the secret of a successful diocese: They love Jesus. They’re not afraid to talk about Jesus. They know the Scriptures. They want to know about Jesus. We can have the best practices and we can have the most efficient organization -- which is important because it’s a reflection of stewardship -- but if we don’t know Jesus, we’re just another organization.

When I travel doing confirmations and when I celebrate with the parishes, I ask the young adults three questions. First, do they know that Jesus loves them? Second, do they love Jesus? And the third part, what are they going to do about it?

In some ways, I think what Pope Francis is asking all of us as a universal church is to reevaluate our relationship with the Lord. Because if we know Jesus, we know the Father; and if we know the Father, we know Jesus. If we’re afraid to do what they ask us to do, He even gives us a greater gift in some ways – the gift of the Holy Spirit so that we might not shy away from the invocation of the Lord to go out and to build his Kingdom.

As I travel to different states, people always ask me what Tennessee is like. I tell them I have a sign outside my bedroom door that says, “Another Day in Paradise.” Because, after all, wasn’t Paradise the presence of God? And whenever I travel throughout the diocese -- and it seems each year I put in

about 35,000 miles -- I see in extraordinary ways the presence of Christ. Recently, we purchased a mobile medical clinic, and through the generosity of the Sisters of Mercy of Alma we have a sister who’s a physician and another who’s a nurse, and they’ve put together an organization of people with backgrounds in medicine that numbers over 150 volunteers. That’s meaningful because there are parts of East Tennessee that are completely underserved. No hospitals, no clinics. Our mobile clinic and team of volunteers is a totally free service that reaches out to people in need. It’s just getting off the ground, but it’s already done a marvelous job showing people -especially those who don’t understand the Catholic Church -- that we are the hands of Jesus reaching out to others.

Finally, I just want to give a big thanks, in the name of all the wonderful people I’m privileged to work with, to the Leadership Roundtable, which does so much good, and to Jim and all the people he represents. We’re a diocese that’s trying to get off the ground, but I know with your help we’ll be successful. And I think any institution, any entity of the Catholic Church, is successful when we remember that it’s Jesus who’s a part of our roots. That the reason we do all of this is because of Jesus, because we want to know the Father, the Creator, who has given us that which surrounds us. And we never should be afraid, for Saint John Paul tells us, “Be not afraid.”

I also want to express our thanks to the Catholic Extension Society and to Father Jack, because without them we would sink, we would have to withdraw from so many things. I’m eternally grateful to them.

National Leadership Roundtable on Church Management

2014 Annual Meeting

The Standard for Excellence:

BEST PRACTICES FOR A MISSION DRIVEN CHURCH Loyola University Chicago | Lake Shore Campus | June 24-26, 2014

www.TheLeadershipRoundtable.org/AnnualMeeting

2014 LEADERSHIP ROUNDTABLE BEST PRACTICES AWARD

Honoring Rev. J. Donald Monan, S.J.

GEOFF BOISI

Founding Chair, The Leadership Roundtable

Father Monan became a Son of Ignatius 72 years ago, and he’s been a priest for over 60 years. And he’s been one of my closest friends for almost 37 years. I’ve had the great fortune to have some pretty interesting positions in my commercial life and not for profit endeavors. But there is no individual I’ve come in contact with who I admire more, and hold in higher esteem, than J. Donald Monan. Not just because he’s a terrific intellect, and not because he’s a priest (and I’ve met some great, great priests) but because: He is a true “gentle” and “holy” man of tremendous character. He is one of the smartest and wisest executives I’ve ever known, and I’ve literally worked with thousands of CEOs all across the world. He’s on my top 10 list in that regard. There would be no National Leadership Roundtable on Church Management without Don Monan. He’s had more influence on our thinking as we

developed this organization than anybody else. And for that alone, I believe we owe him a great debt of gratitude.

For those of you who have never met him or don’t know his background, I’d like to reveal a few things. First of all, he’s a philosopher by training. A man of logic and deep insight. He taught at and led Le Moyne College in a variety of capacities for many years. He became President of Boston College in 1972. BC had fallen on hard times. Virtually bankrupt financially and very troubled from a morale standpoint, and if no change occurred probably would have been absorbed by Harvard University. The Jesuits had the wisdom to ask Father Monan to come down and take a look. He had the courage to accept the

“There would be no National Leadership Roundtable on Church Management without Don Monan. “

challenge and the insight to incorporate something (that we’ve been preaching at the Leadership Roundtable for the last 10 years, and which he had been preaching to me for a much longer period): the notion of marrying lay professional talent and leadership with the mission of the Church and the educational mission of the University. He and Father Ted Hesburgh, who was serving as President of Notre Dame at the same time, were communicating a lot during the late 60’s and early 70’s, and they both decided to bring lay leaders and their expertise into positions of leadership and re-charter their respective Universities by transferring their institution’s governance to boards of lay and religious trustees and empower them with real responsibility which inspired their commitment and investment toward a vision of “excellence” in Catholic higher education. That wasn’t just a courageous act, it was

and Father Hesburgh and their followers in professionalizing the administration of these great institutions that their mission has blossomed to the fullest.

revolutionary. It’s not by accident that Catholic higher education has been as strong as it’s been. It’s not by accident that the Catholic healthcare system has been as strong as it’s been. And it’s not by accident that many parts of the social welfare system in the Catholic Church have been so progressive. It is because of the visionary leadership of Father Monan

The extraordinarily inspiring relationship between Brian Reynolds and Archbishop Kurtz, which was driven home in their presentation earlier today, is the kind of relationship that Father Monan and I have enjoyed for such a long time. For years we spoke every couple of days working through issues related to BC. But it didn’t stop there. He was my go-to person 25 years ago when we started Mentor, the National Mentoring Partnership. Father Monan was not only President of Boston College but a ‘major leader’ in the world of Higher Education and in Massachusetts at that time and he took a risk both personally and institutionally in being the first member organization and regional partner of the “mentoring movement” we started. At the time there were just 150,000 quality-mentoring relationships in the country. Today we’ve now grown to 4.5 million. He was the first person to believe in and see the vision of the program. He also rose to the occasion years ago when the judicial system of Massachusetts stopped functioning effectively from a bloated bureaucracy. “The powers that be in Boston” called on Father Monan, and he brought in professional help to successfully reorganize the entire system. Just one more example of his impact on society and his life of service.

them were killed in San Salvador. And it was Father Monan who went down to Washington on behalf of the Jesuit community and said that this wasn’t right, that the United States should stand up and find the perpetrators of this atrocity. And he, along with a group of others, basically cajoled the Congress of the United States and the Government of the United States to bring those people to justice. He did things like that, big things. He was a founder of the Big East Conference. He was President of the Jesuit Conference of Higher Education leading the 28 Jesuit Colleges and Universities in the United States. He was President of the National University Presidents’ Association. In fact, every position Father Monan ever held turned into a top leadership position. And I can’t tell you how thankful I am that he chose to help us think through what we have accomplished over the last 10 years.

The Jesuits have a motto -- Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam – For the greater glory of God – and Boston College has the motto -- Ever to Excel -- and there’s no human being who’s been associated with either of those institutions who better personifies those credos than Father Monan. When he retired as President and became Chancellor of BC, I publicly commented that “the spirit of J. Donald Monan will thunder through the halls of BC forever.” And I’m proud to say the same thing today: “The spirit of J. Donald Monan will thunder through the virtual and extended halls of the National Leadership Roundtable on Church Management forever.”

I can’t emphasize enough Father Monan’s immense courage. He has “spoken truth to power” in ways that most people haven’t. It’s been 28 years since six Jesuit priests and two women who worked with

With that, I’d like to ask Father Bryan Hehir to come forward to accept on Father Monan’s behalf the 2014 Leadership Roundtable Best Practices Award, honoring, and I quote, “His lifelong commitment to public service, higher education, and the Catholic Church, and his vision as a founding board

“He has “spoken truth to power” in ways that most people haven’t. “

member of the Leadership Roundtable.” It’s dated June 25th, 2014.

REV. BRYAN

on behalf of Rev. J. Donald Monan

Professor of the Practice of Religion and Public Life at the Harvard Kennedy School, and Secretary for Health Care and Social Services, Archdiocese of Boston

It’s my privilege to read to you the remarks from Don Monan in response to this award:

“My deep commitment to the importance of the National Leadership Roundtable’s mission grew from my experience with the dramatic improvements that have taken place in Catholic higher education in the past 40 years. Suffering seriously from dangerous inadequacy in meeting their business needs, colleges at that time began to reach beyond their traditional source of leadership, among our ordained and religious, to seek out line officers and trustees possessed of formal business training and experience. The results were always positive, at times transformative. Parallels to the Church’s managerial situation are striking. God did not have to become Man. Christ did not have to found a human Church with all the weaknesses of a being human. But He in fact assumed a human body susceptible to weakness and wounds, and He established the Church to carry out His mission through the imperfect but perfectible judgment and acumen of its leaders. Given its place in today’s rapidly changing cultures, the Church itself has not only a widespread and compelling need, but a willing and available resource of business experience and expertise among its Catholic men and women laity. What an admirable mission to host the meeting of the two.” Signed, Donald Monan.

KERRY ROBINSON

Executive Director, The Leadership Roundtable

Thank you Father Bryan for accepting this award on behalf of Father Monan. And thank you Geoff for your extraordinary reflections, not only on behalf of someone so integral to the Leadership Roundtable, but on the long history of contributions and impact on everything he touched. Your personal testimony of friendship with him was also very poignant. You have a remarkable knack for deflecting attention away from yourself and bestowing it on others, which is a hallmark of excellent leadership. I’m so deeply grateful to you, and to Father Monan.

2014 Annual Meeting

The Standard for Excellence:

BEST PRACTICES FOR A MISSION DRIVEN CHURCH Loyola University Chicago | Lake Shore Campus | June 24-26, 2014

www.TheLeadershipRoundtable.org/AnnualMeeting

OPENING PRAYER DAY TWO

celebrated the 50th anniversary of Vatican II, and so in these days we are celebrating the 50th anniversary of many documents. 2014 is the 50th anniversary of three documents from Vatican II: one on the Eastern Churches, one on ecumenism, and one on Lumen Gentium, the document about the structure of the Church which, in a way, has set us on our course, identifying the Church as the people of God, stressing the collegiality, the participation that all of us share by baptism in the future and in the growth of the Church.

International Director, Jesuit Refugee Services

Member of the Board of Directors, The Leadership Roundtable

These days we’ve been celebrating the 10th anniversary of the National Leadership Roundtable. A couple of years ago, we

I’d like to start with the prayer that began every session of Vatican II, the Adsumus, as it was called in Latin. So let’s put ourselves in God’s presence and pray the prayer that those at the Second Vatican Council did each day.

Here we are, Oh Lord, Holy Spirit. We stand before you hampered by our faults, but for a special purpose gathered together in your name. Come to us and be with us and enter our hearts. Teach

us what we are to do and where we ought to tend. Show us what we must accomplish so that with your help, we may be able to please you in all things. May you alone be the beginning and catalyst of our judgments, who alone with God the Father and His Son possess a glorious name. Do not allow us to disturb the order of justice, you who love equity above all things. Let not ignorance draw us to what is wrong. Let not partiality sway our minds or respect of riches or persons pervert our judgment. But unite us to you effectively by the gift of your grace alone that we may be one in you and never forsake the truth. Inasmuch as we are gathered together in your name, so may we in all things hold fast to justice tempered by mercy, so that in this life our judgment may in no way be at variance with you, and in life to come, we may receive an everlasting reward for deeds well done. Amen.

National Leadership Roundtable on Church Management

2014 Annual Meeting

The Standard for Excellence:

BEST PRACTICES FOR A MISSION DRIVEN CHURCH

Loyola University Chicago | Lake Shore Campus | June 24-26, 2014

www.TheLeadershipRoundtable.org/AnnualMeeting

THE NEW EVANGELIZATION AND EXECUTION-ORIENTED STRATEGIC PLANNING

Most Rev. John Barres, Bishop of Allentown, Pennsylvania

Jim Friend, Chief Development Officer, Faith in the Future

table conference, he was an inspiration. The whole idea of an execution-oriented approach really resonated with me.

Larry Bossidy’s whole approach to execution-oriented strategic planning can be summarized by the words of the great inventor Thomas Edison: “Vision without execution is hallucination.”

Strategic planning fundamentals consist of solid human virtue, human formation and human wisdom as exemplified by the life and management practice of people like Larry Bossidy. The Holy Spirit ignites those human skills and opens us up to the progress and lead of the Spirit. Our pastoral efforts to promote the New Evangelization, at the same time, requires us to be sound, prudent and innovative financial stewards.

BISHOP JOHN BARRES

I would like to start by talking about Larry Bossidy [retired CEO of Honeywell International, Inc., and author], who has become a great friend and mentor to so many of us in the Diocese of Allentown. I have read and carefully studied Larry’s books, particularly Execution: The Discipline of Getting Things Done. And when I heard Larry speak at the 2006 Leadership Round-

In December 2010, I took a trip up to Ridgefield, Connecticut to see Larry. We spent 90 minutes together and really hit it off. I was 49 at the time, and I told him, “I love what you’re writing. I’m a young bishop, I need some guidance, and I’d like you to work with me and the Diocese of Allentown.”

He agreed and really committed through weekly conference calls and periodic visits to the Diocese. He mentored our diocesan staff and influenced significantly my own management style. He also took one of the young stars of Catholic philanthropy in the United States today, Jim Friend, and helped him to develop into a topflight ecclesial planner.

While I was working with Larry, I had dinner in Manhattan with Bishop William Murphy from the Diocese of Rockville Center [New York] who said something I still remember. I was reflecting on some of the tensions and difficulties of change. We work with innovative entrepreneurs, and finance and marketing people. We work with inspirational pastoral people and dedicated Catholic educators. As the bishop, you are right in the center, and inevitably there are different approaches and tensions. The bishop is called to discern unity in the efforts. The two perspectives both serve the mission of the Church and need to be well-integrated and

related. You need to help them understand each other and find a common language, a common vision and approach.

I can tell you I have made a lot of mistakes along the way. But like Jim Friend and our entire diocesan staff, I have learned so much that will help us to move into the future. We do not have all the answers. We still have a lot of issues we are trying to address, but we have come to realize that both data-driven and Spirit-driven processes are key.

Strategic planning in a Catholic setting needs to be Biblically-driven. Both Pope Francis and Pope Benedict XVI have been emphasizing and challenging every Catholic in every walk of life to be involved daily in Lectio Divina: reading, meditating, praying, contemplating and living the Sacred Scriptures. If that is happening, then our strategic planning senses are finely tuned to the Spirit, and all those human skills are ignited by the Spirit.

Our strategic planning approach needs to be Eucharistically-driven. My biggest takeaway from the past two days has been what Fr. Bryan Hehir said quoting Pope Francis that “those who live by the hope of the Kingdom of God generate and make history.” St. John Paul II said that every Mass has cosmic significance and every Mass is celebrated on the altar of the world. We have to harness the power of the Mass.

JRR Tolkien, in a letter to his son at the end of his life, writes: “I put before you the one great thing to love on this earth: the body and blood of Jesus Christ. There you will find true romance, true honor, true glory, and the true ways of all your loves upon Earth.” That’s the power of the Eucharist, and our strategic planning has to be nourished and inflamed

with the body and blood of Jesus Christ, and the power of the cross. The cross of Jesus Christ is paradoxically our hope and our security. It’s the center of our world and of every conversion that we have in the course of our lives. It’s the center of our eternal destiny. So the power of the cross needs to be at the center of these beautifully orchestrated strategic planning efforts.

Finally, our strategic planning needs to be radically contemplative. It needs to be nourished by silence. There is one lesson in the holiness and mission of the lives of the saints. Openness to the will of God is nourished in silence. Dynamic and effective action finds its true direction in silence. As St. John Paul II said, in the lives of the saints, you can separate their holiness from their missionary spirit. Strategic planning finds its true direction in silence, in opening to the Spirit.

Grace builds on nature. The human virtue and developed skills of strategic planning are ignited and taken to a contemplative level by the fire of the Holy Spirit leading us. It makes all the difference in terms of how we approach strategic planning.

And so we honor and appreciate the insights of our dedicated Catholic business people, the apostolate of the laity, Vatican Council II, the baptismal call to holiness of the laity and the fact that the laity can never be patronized. When we really open up to the expertise, charisms and insights of our holy laity, the Church is deeply enriched and contemplatively energized.

My prayer is that this is what is happening in the Diocese of Allentown.

As I said earlier, we have not solved everything. We need to continually call on the

Spirit for the courage to make decisions that are timely, effective and pastorally charitable and sensitive.

JIM FRIEND

We all wondered, of course, how a business icon like Larry Bossidy was going to adapt his style to the world of a diocese, an average-sized diocese at that. And the answer is he did a beautiful job – we adapted to his style, and he adapted to our’s. Since this [Roundtable] conference is about partnerships, I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention what an incredible leader Bishop Barres is for opening himself up to the kind of experience Larry embraced, including mentoring and feedback. As many of you in this room know, the danger of being in a leadership position is becoming insulated from the truth, and so you have to sometimes be active in seeking the truth. And that’s the wonderful gift that Bishop Barres brought to the diocese, coupled with the boundless energy of Larry Bossidy who, as the bishop pointed out, was able to look at an avalanche of information and cut to the heart of the matter. It’s such an incredible gift, and I think he helped instill that in us, as well.

All of us have worked with and are familiar with a various types of volunteers. There’s

the type that offers you his or her recommendation and everybody in the room walks out feeling good. (We now have a plan, thanks for your recommendation). Then there are the volunteers who make us look in the mirror and see the painful reality of our situation. In the Diocese of Allentown, we were dealing with a number of painful and potentially painful issues at the time the bishop brought Larry Bossidy to us.

The initial phase of our strategic planning initiative was very issues-driven. We had different subcommittees and my job as secretary for stewardship and development was to recruit some talented laypeople to staff these committees. We weren’t looking, however, for the same old volunteers, the ones who volunteer for everything. We reached deep inside the heart of the community and did a lot of interviews and networking to find people who are experts in their fields and could bring those talents to our subcommittees in areas like real estate and healthcare. We had one volunteer -- the chairman of our Purchasing Committee -- who became physically ill whenever we overspent on anything! In sum, we had wonderful people who were tigers in their own industries and who were extremely excited to work with Larry Bossidy. For two years, Larry would fly in quarterly. On those days, I would plan his schedule and every hour

we would march in a new subcommittee to meet around the Chancery table and discuss the progress and challenges of each subcommittee. And I can tell you these very talented men and women loved being challenged and schooled by Larry.

How about results? From a philanthropic point of view, it’s not so surprising that our giving went through the roof. Our Bishop’s Annual Appeal and our donations to several charities that are supported by the diocese continued to grow because we really engaged some topflight folks. We asked for their opinions – as well as their expertise --and got them involved philanthropically with our endeavors.

As part of the overall strategic planning process, we put together individual tasking documents for each of the subcommittees. These were essentially a half-page of questions, and very specific benchmarks and timeframes for each subcommittee. We expected these subcommittees to not only answer these questions, but present their recommendations at quarterly meetings with Larry. Beyond the strategic planning initiative, we were actually able to get many of those men and women involved with the new boards of directors we had set up for our schools, and with our revitalized Catholic Charities board of directors. It’s been such a great opportunity to get our laity more engaged.

Larry never took little things for granted. If, for example, we decided to put a piece of property up for sale, he would challenge us with probing questions and observations, like “What’s your marketing plan for selling this property?” and “When you hire a firm to sell it make sure they have the right tools so you get the best possible price.” At the time of our strategic

planning initiative, our director of Catholic Charities was retiring and so we launched a search. Larry made it clear he was a strong advocate of having top management involved in all hiring decisions, that it shouldn’t be delegated to a search firm or other party. He always thought you should hire good people because they have a huge impact on your entire organization.

Larry commented once that management by committee never works, and so having too many people involved in the process can be counterproductive. You need clear leadership. You need a group to distill the information, but then you need a clear leader in the end to make the decisions. At times, some of our committees found themselves getting bogged down with too much data. For example, our Special Learning Centers were trying to find a way to save costs and yet provide the same stellar service they always had. So instead of having these centers stall once again, Larry suggested they make decisions now for the coming year. In other words, don’t wait for the year to come and go before making your plan. Make your strategic planning happen now so that you can move forward.

Larry saw our Purchasing Committee as low-hanging fruit – as well as a winning proposition. We had some wonderful business leaders on this committee, including the chairperson, who knew from experience how to save $40,000 a year on cleaning, for example, or $50,000 on food, just by renegotiating their contracts. There are certain things that men and women who run businesses know instinctively. They know how to save a buck. And Larry’s appeal to us was simply to spread that com-

“We reached deep inside the heart of the community and did a lot of interviews and networking to find people who are experts in their fields and could bring those talents to our subcommittees.”

“It’s been such a great opportunity to get our laity more engaged.”

“You need a group to distill the information, but then you need a clear leader in the end to make the decisions.“

mittee model as quickly as we could, to go for the low-hanging fruit.

Larry also encouraged us to be rigorous in our budgeting process. Sometimes budgets tend to get passed on from year to year without much analytical review. He advised us that it’s not simply a matter of defending the budget, but explaining it. And just through those conversations we found that maybe we don’t need this service, or maybe we need to invest more in a particular area. Larry was always looking for ways to stimulate that rigorous dialogue about every aspect of the budget on an annual basis.

Another piece of the pie that Larry helped us oversee (though it wasn’t directly involved with the turnaround) was Catholic education. We had spent three years with a group called the Bishop’s Commission for Catholic Schools, conceived and partially recruited by the bishop himself to help us turn around a 15-year decline in Catholic school enrollment in our diocese. We were bleeding about 500 kids a year from the whole system, and the hemorrhaging showed no signs of stopping.

We made an all-American wrestling champion from Lehigh University, Mark Lieberman, part of the solution. Mark was used to taking every problem to the mat and, in agreeing to spearhead our turnaround, applied the same approach to some of the challenges we faced in Catholic education. Probably the biggest and most painful part of his

job was making sure everybody knew that enrollment was part of their job. If you had asked a principal back then whose job enrollment was, he or she might have said, it’s the administrator’s, or the pastor’s, or somebody else’s. We had to explain to them that enrollment was everyone’s responsibility, then make sure they got it and embraced it.

There was also the fact that over the years we had developed in the diocese a very strong top-down approach to marketing aimed at boosting our presence and visibility in the area of Catholic education. It was coupled with a bottom-up approach to getting strong leaders, strong boards of directors, and a strong advancement program in each of our schools. But I think the bottom line with any turnaround of Catholic education is that it can’t be all top-down driven by a diocese or archdiocese. There has to be strong local leadership and accountability for finance, for marketing, for development, and for all other business aspects. And principals have the toughest job of everyone; they’re

the busiest people in the school. The truth is, most of them didn’t go to school to run a business, yet we’re asking them to basically be the CEO of a business. So bringing in the board of directors with their business sense and business savvy to be a resource to the principals and help them to make difficult financial decisions, help them with forecasting and projections and strategic planning, was such a tremendous blessing. And guess what? The principals love it. It’s another great example I’m proud to cite of the progress we’ve made in the strategic planning arena in our diocese over the last couple of years.

Please find a paper co-written by Bishop Barres and Larry Bossidy in Appendix 4 (pg. 71)

“When we open up to the charism of the laity, our Diocese is enriched.”

SELECTED QUESTIONS, ANSWERS, AND COMMENTS

My question relates to the importance of language when you’re discussing strategic planning. When you’re dealing with people experienced in this field, they use terms like “input,” “output” and “direct develop.” Did you find you were able to translate some of that language so it could be understood by people in the Church world and be used as a resource going forward?

important, as well as delivering results and seeing them through. After all, if you look at the saints, they were contemplatively results-driven.

JIM FRIEND

We can’t live just in the ecclesial world or just in the business world. There has to be a nice blend. We as a Church have to be able to speak some business language from time to time, and yes, we had to do a little bit of tutoring along the way with some of the key performance indicators and things like that. I remember the first time someone at a staff meeting used “KPIs” -- key performance indicators. That kind of jargon just doesn’t fly off the tongue when you’re in an ecclesial setting. But it’s still important, and maybe we need to adapt it some way. I think as a Church we have to step up our game a little bit if we’re going to be effective in the 21st Century.

BISHOP JOHN BARRES

BISHOP BARRES

That was one of Larry’s charisms. He was not into jargon. And frankly, what he taught us was that it’s about the tenacity to see it through. Are you really committed? And just the whole blend of charitable ecclesial communication, charitable collaboration, charitable input and consultation. Asking the right question is also

For years, the finances of our Special Learning Centers had not been adequately analyzed and addressed. So, as part of the strategic planning process, we got our boards of governors around it and they found an exciting path through it. In fact, they have made unbelievable progress and we made it very clear in our three Special Learning Center mission statements that their mission is an expression of the Catholic Church’s belief in the Gospel of Human Life.

We’ve seen three models of ecclesial-lay relationships at this conference – yours, Archbishop Kurtz and Brian Reynolds, and Rev. Donnelly and Paul Butler. The Roundtable would like to encourage more leadership relationships like these, but I’m wondering, are they something so personal and unique it would hard to replicate? Or do you think it’s possible to engender them?

JIM FRIEND

I personally think it’s a matter of getting the word out and helping other bishops and other pastors see the benefit of these relationships. I wish another 900 people could have attended this conference. That’s the challenge for the Roundtable, I believe, to grow this conference and get more folks to attend because there’s such wonderful material that more people need to hear about.

BISHOP JOHN BARRES

In strategic planning, grace builds on nature. We are all grateful for the human skills so beautifully articulated by this group in terms of the wisdom of strategic planning, the the proven best-practices of organizational behavior theory, and the “vision and execution” that a man like Larry Bossidy teaches you. Then, to let that be ignited by the Holy Spirit, to realize that Catholic strategic planning-- which sets the world on fire with the New Evangeliza-

tion -- is Spirit-driven and we need to be radically contemplative, radically Biblical, radically Eucharistic, and mission centric. There is also the whole dimension of being financially responsible, to really look at financial picture carefully and proactively. I like the phrase “prioritized and integrated.” What are our priorities? How do the different priorities integrate and how do we deliver? A prioritized and integrated financial strategy is at the service of the New Evangelization. If we are taking care of the beautiful generosity and magnanimity of our Catholic people and we are responsible and transparent, then we are going to deliver the New Evangelization in all its dimensions, and execute the missionary spirit in a new and powerful way that meets the actual needs of a global world in the 21st Century.

It strikes me that Larry [Bossidy] is legendary in the field of execution, in measuring. How intentional were you in setting up measurements? I ask that question because I’ve always found it a problem to define success when you’re working in both the gospel and temporal worlds.

JIM FRIEND

One of the nice things about social media is that you really can measure your results. The metrics are all out there. We have a wonderful gentleman who owns a marketing company and is an expert in digital media and social media who is spearheading our social media efforts. But to answer your question, I think it really depends on the areas you’re delving into. When we sent out our tasking documents, which I mentioned earlier, to each of our committees, we tried to be as specific as possible about the answers we were looking for. We didn’t feed them the answers, of course, but we wanted true measurements and even some timeframes on how these committees were going to solve the problems we faced. There was one year when we needed to cut 10 percent of our expenses, so that became the benchmark for each of the secretaries: find ways to pare their budgets by 10 percent.

REV. THOMAS SMOLICH, S.J. International Director, Jesuit Refugee Services Member of the Board of Directors, The Leadership Roundtable

As you look at this whole Catholic schools issue, Bishop Barres, what’s the one thing that has made the difference in terms of the work you’ve done? And Jim, as you’ve moved on to this bigger stage, what’s the one thing, the one lever, that those of us who are interested in the future of Catholic education need to be looking at?

BISHOP JOHN BARRES

Very simply, opening up to lay expertise and letting them know up front that they will have a substantial impact.

and with local advancement programs. With faith in the future, we’re trying to leverage development and enrollment on one front, quality of education and quality of staff on another front, while using technology to move the whole process forward. In year one, we were able to balance the budget for all our schools. And in year two, we’re looking at the first enrollment growth in probably a couple of decades. So the strategy seems to be working.

REV. KEVIN KENNEDY

Pastor,

Saint Ambrose Parish, Cheverly, MD

The common thread among all of the relationships discussed yesterday and today is trust. If you don’t have trust, you’re not going to have a good working relationship. That begets the question, how do you develop trust? Did that come naturally to you? Or was there something conscious in the process where you helped lead people to a deeper level of trust in one another?

JIM FRIEND

I’ll just add to that having strong, top-down diocesan support and a coordinated effort, followed by strong local leadership and empowerment with those boards of directors

JIM FRIEND

I think it helped that we had a weekly employee newsletter with a little piece on strategic planning to keep people current. And at different times throughout the year we had articles in our local Catholic paper that kept people apprised of our planning and our progress with strategic planning. You can never do too much communication. It has to be an ongoing effort if you want to build trust.

National Leadership Roundtable on Church Management 2014 Annual Meeting

The Standard for Excellence:

BEST PRACTICES FOR A MISSION DRIVEN CHURCH

Loyola University Chicago | Lake Shore Campus | June 24-26, 2014

www.TheLeadershipRoundtable.org/AnnualMeeting

ACCOUNTABILITY: AN ELEMENT OF THE NEW EVANGELIZATION

His Eminence Donald Cardinal Wuerl Archbishop of Washington

This Leadership Roundtable gathering brings back memories of the initial efforts that developed into the Roundtable. I recall particularly the conference on Governance, Accountability and the Future of the Church held at the Saint Thomas More Catholic Chapel and Center at Yale University on March 28, 2003. The Leadership Roundtable has come a long way in the decade since then and has offered a unique and valuable service to the Church.

The origins of the Leadership Roundtable are rooted in the desire for quality Church management that involves accountability and the incorporation of the expertise of the laity in the development and implementation of Church administration, programs and procedures. Your theme for this year’s meeting focuses on best practices for a mission driven Church. I would like to reflect on three elements that contribute to a mission driven Church: clear Church identity, mission or ministry of all Church members, and shared accountability.

The context of a mission driven Church today includes two significant realities that were not part of our discussion ten years ago: the New Evangelization, and Pope Francis and the so-called “Francis Effect,” what he calls “missionary discipleship.”

When we talk of mission driving the Church today, we clearly must include the New Evangelization first touched on years ago by Pope Paul VI, highlighted over and over by Saint John Paul II, institutionalized by Pope Benedict XVI, and made visible in the life and ministry of Pope Francis. This perspective is the life-giving element for best practices that could otherwise remain managerial or administrative functions.

The New Evangelization is a term that has become very familiar in the Church today. Saint John Paul II began more than three decades ago to speak of the need for a new period of evangelization. He described it as an announcement of the Good News about Jesus that is “new in ardor, method and expression.” Pope

Benedict XVI affirmed that the discernment of “the new demands of evangelization” is a “prophetic” task of the Supreme Pontiff. He emphasized that “the entire activity of the Church is an expression of love” that seeks to evangelize the world.

Likewise, in continuity with his predecessors, Pope Francis calls us to the work of the New Evangelization. This was also a major initiative of his when he was Archbishop of Buenos Aires. Already we can see as a hallmark in this papacy the emphasis that the Church “go out” into the world, to not stay wrapped up within itself but to go out to give to people the beauty of the Gospel, the amazement of the encounter with Jesus. When and how we do it must have as its goal – conscious and explicit – the outreach that we can describe as evangelization, or the manifesting of the Kingdom.

It is increasingly evident that the New Evangelization is not one specific action or activity of the Church, but rather a way of seeing a whole range of activities carried on by the Church to spread the Good News of Jesus Christ. Thus we can speak about the ongoing outreach to those who have never heard of Jesus, while also speaking of its continuity with the ongoing catechesis that is a part of the life of every believer, while adding the dimension of outreach to those who have simply fallen away from the practice of the faith.

Our need is to see our administrative efforts as part of and an expression of “going out” beyond self-reflection. Pope Francis uses this schema and cites it in its entirety in the introduction to The Joy of the Gospel, his apostolic exhortation that followed the 2012 Synod on the New Evangelization. In fact, he quotes directly from the propositions of the Synod and clearly footnotes them.

The Synod made it very clear that the continuation of the mission of Christ, which began with the Great Commissioning following his death and Resurrection, is what we are engaged in today. As the Acts of the Apostles tell us, as Jesus prepared to return to his Father in glory he charged his disciples, “You will be my witnesses” (Acts 1:8). That same challenge echoes in our ears and hearts today – we are the witnesses to Jesus Christ, his message, his way of life, his triumph over death and his pledge of new life to all who would walk with him.

Our definition of the New Evangelization includes renewal of personal faith. This is both an affective and a cognitive or intellectual renewal of our faith; be confident in its truth – be able to stand in the truth, without hesitation, without apology for what we believe, and share the faith. This is a new aspect of our appreciation of our faith that has not always been recognized in the past. We must be driven out of the excitement we have for our faith to share it.

What we reflect on today has to be seen specifically in light of Pope Francis’ apostolic exhortation, The Joy of the Gospel – Evangelii gaudium. The title is as much a description of him as it is the name of his document. From the moment he stepped out onto the balcony of Saint Peter’s Basilica on the night of his election as 265th Successor to Saint Peter, Pope Francis has set a vibrant tone and has become a focal point of faith renewal, not only in the life of the Catholic Church but among many, many people. Perhaps what strikes such an appealing cord is his manner of reflecting on the joy of the Good News of Jesus Christ. Pope Francis is not changing any of the great received teachings in the Church. Rather, he is revitalizing those teachings and highlighting how you do the Gospel –how you live the Gospel’s message.

Today there was a television report on just how popular Pope Francis is and that his tweets are retweeted more than any other person. The news report indicated over ten thousand daily retweets of the Pope’s tweet. Obviously, this says something about the impact he is having and his ability to project the love of God and the compassion of Christ.

What Pope Francis invites us to do is focus our attention on the overwhelming blessing that is the love of God in our lives and in our world. When asked to describe himself, he humbly said he was a sinner. So we all are. But he reminded us that we have all been embraced by the love of God. The invitation of Pope Francis to a fresh way of living the Gospel in our world – which is so desperate for forgiveness, compassion, kindness and love – is a bright ray of hope as we move forward in the Third Millennium.

of the Gospel, Pope Francis cites propositions from the Synod on the New Evangelization. It is against the backdrop of that gathering of bishops and catechetical leadership that I want to offer these reflections today. The starting point, however, for both the work of the Leadership Roundtable and an understanding of the mission or ministry of the Church has to be a clear understanding of the Church’s identity.

Let me address that with a personal story. As I took my aisle seat on a plane one day, a woman in the window seat turned and introduced herself and seeing my Roman collar said, “Have you been born again?”

“Yes,” I responded and she immediately asked, “When?” I said, “In baptism. And I have been trying to grow into that new life ever since.” “Oh,” she said, “you’re Catholic,” which led her to another question. “Tell me about this Church thing that is so important to you.”

We began with Matthew’s Gospel and Peter’s confession about Jesus that led to Jesus’ announcement, “You are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church.” As the conversation unfolded and she raised a number of significant questions, we talked about how we are all invited into the family of God, how Jesus established the Church as his new Body in the world, how it was Jesus who determined that his Church should have a certain fundamental structure, how the Apostles continue today in the person of bishops to lead the Church, and how the work of Saint Peter is carried on today by the bishop of Rome, the Pope. As we landed and were taxiing up to the gate, the man in the aisle seat directly across from me leaned over and said, “Father, I couldn’t help but hear this conversation. I’m Catholic and I didn’t know all of that.”

The Catholic Church is the enduring, vis-

ible yet spiritual, structured yet Spirit-led, human yet divine, presence of Christ in the world today. The Second Vatican Council teaches us that while not the fullness of Christ’s Kingdom, the Church is the beginning, the outward visible sign and instrument of that Kingdom coming to be among us, of communion with God and of unity among all people. When we address questions of governance and accountability in the Church, we must be careful not to use a political model for a reality that transcends human political institutions. It would be a mistake to judge the Kingdom of God by the standard of the kingdom of man.

In his pontificate – including his apostolic exhortation, The Joy of the Gospel – Evangelii gaudium, and in the ongoing process of restructuring some aspects of the Vatican curia – Pope Francis has addressed the issues of Church management and accountability. But he always does this in light of the institutional ability to bear witness to the truth of the Gospel. Even our institutions have to participate in the Gospel driven purpose of the Church.

The gauge of the success of our organizational structures and managerial practices must always be how effective they are in bearing witness to the saving message of Christ. The challenge of our day is to be able to do our work, to carry out our ministry in so consciously missionary a manner that we measure our success by its positive and inviting effect on those we serve and everything around us.

“Pope Francis is the example of evangelization in action. This includes his efforts at restructuring administration and addressing managerial issues. “

What the Leadership Roundtable brings to the fore, and what should be a part of our deliberations today, is not just good management but the question of whether what we are engaged in and what we are proposing constitute best practices that actually engage people in an appreciation of the Gospel and lead them to an encounter with Christ.

Pope Francis is the example of evangelization in action. This includes his efforts at restructuring administration and addressing managerial issues. What is it that we offer that warrants our attention to the relationship of what we do, how we do it, and the spread of the Gospel – our message? This brings us to a reflection on the mission or ministry of Church members; what the Church offers.

Occasionally, people will ask me, “What exactly does the Church bring to our society?” or they will ask in a more personal way, “What exactly does the Church offer to me?”

A number of years ago I was invited to speak at the Catholic Center at Harvard University. The theme was “The Role of Faith in a Pluralistic Society.” At the conclusion of my presentation, a man who self-identified as an atheist and who taught in the law school was the first to present a question. He asked, “What do you people think you bring to our society?”

“You people” was a reference to the front row of the audience that was made up of representatives of a variety of religious traditions, all of whom were in their appropriate identifiable robes.

Since he was a lawyer, I asked if he would mind if I answered his question with a question of my own. When he nodded in agreement, I asked: “What do you think the world would be like if it were not for the voices of all of those religious traditions represented in the hall? What would it be like if we did not hear voices in the midst of the community saying, ‘You shall not kill, you shall not steal, you shall not bear false witness?’ What would our culture be like had we not heard religious imperatives such as ‘love your neighbor as yourself, do unto others as

you would have them do to you?’ How much more harsh would our land be if we did not grow up hearing, ‘blessed are they who hunger and thirst for righteousness, blessed are the merciful, blessed are the peacemakers?’ What would the world be like had we never been reminded that someday we will have to answer to God for our actions?”

To his credit, the man who asked the question smiled broadly and said, “It would be a mess!”

The Church brings what it has always brought – an invitation to faith, an encounter with Christ and a whole way of living. Our structures and practices must participate in our witness to the life-giving quality of our message. How we act, function and organize our activities must mirror who we are – the people of God, God’s family, a community of faith.

What we bring is God’s love, Christ’s mercy, the life-giving gifts of the Holy Spirit. We should look and act like the Church of missionary disciples. Just as Pope Francis used his now famous sound bite to describe priests as pastors who have the “odor of the flock,” so too should Church structures, programs and pastoral practices and initiatives as well as those engaged in them – clerical, religious and lay – look like witnesses to the Risen Lord.

So that we could best answer our calling, the Lord endowed his community of disciples with a structure that will remain until the Kingdom is fully achieved. He purposefully chose the Apostles, with Saint Peter as their head, as the foundation stones of “the new Jerusalem,” and he charged them to lead, to teach and to sanctify his flock entrusted to them. As the successors of the Apostles, the bishops – in unity with the Pope – have been entrusted with this, as well.

Whatever management style or model is followed, leadership actions and administration must be oriented toward the mission of bringing to others an encounter with the Good News of Jesus Christ. Managerial decisions must allow room for the Holy Spirit to act.

Mere bureaucratic efficiency is not the goal or the measure of success. Rather, as Pope Francis counseled in his first apostolic exhortation, “The renewal of structures demanded by pastoral conversion can only be understood in this light: as part of an effort to make them more mission-oriented, to make ordinary pastoral activity on every level more inclusive and open, to inspire in pastoral workers a constant desire to go forth and in this way to elicit a positive response from all those whom Jesus summons to friendship with himself.”

Allow me to use the example of our recently concluded first Archdiocesean Synod in the Archdiocese of Washington. It reached its culmination and concluded on Pentecost Sunday, June 8. This celebration brought to a finish over two years of work involving over 200 delegates reflecting the ethnic and cultural and ecclesial face of the Archdiocese of Washington. Its members were primarily laywomen, laymen, those in consecrated life and clergy. We used as a working principle that our effort would strive to be the best Church we can. We accepted as working principles the need to communicate, consult and collaborate.

service and stewardship / administration. The consultation – via our website and regional and parish meetings – generated a series of recommendations and, eventually, statutes.

ism that is now rapidly enveloping our society and our Western culture.

The New Evangelization recognizes that in countries where the Gospel has already been preached there is an “eclipse of the sense of God.” What brings a new urgency to our mission is the acknowledgment of just how widespread and profound the new secularism is.

What the working sessions and the invitation to recommendations provided was an opportunity to hear voices of the membership of the Church of Washington. I take great pride in the fact that when all our work was finished, members who had served as delegates reminded me that what they were setting before me were their words, their reflections, their conclusions.

In the age of the New Evangelization we have to be able to carry on our ecclesial ministry, institutionally and personally. And it must be done in an aura that invites communication, the sharing of information, and consultation – the ability to hear back and reflect on what was communicated. And finally, it must involve collaboration, the working together that provides the mechanism to resolve, formulate and move forward with programs, practices and structures.

Pope Benedict XVI, during his visit to the Archdiocese of Washington in April 2008, underlined three challenges the Gospel faces in our society. In his homily at vespers with the bishops of the United States during a meeting at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, he reminded us that we are challenged by secularism, the materialism around us and the individualism that is so much a part of our culture.

It is against this background – a diminished appreciation of the faith – that Pope Benedict called all of us to the New Evangelization, and Pope Francis challenges us to go out and meet people where they are so that we can walk with them towards a closer bond with Jesus.

Over 15,000 recommendations arrived as we began the consultation part. This was preceded by an effort to communicate to all members of the Church the understanding of our call as a Church in the areas of worship, education, community,

The pastoral letter, Manifesting the Kingdom, on the first synod of the Archdiocese of Washington is an effort to tell the story of that Synod and what I believe it to be –an example of collaborative ministry in the age of the New Evangelization. The style of ministry today is so important because the context of the New Evangelization, and the very reason we need to re-propose our Catholic faith to the world, is the secular-

This brings us to reflect on the wider accountability of all of us to share the Good News, to pass on the Gospel message, to be an active agent of the New Evangelization.

In our reflections on the Church, Church management and best practices in a mission driven Church and how we accept our tasks as agents of the new Pentecost, I would like to highlight a number of theological foundation stones. I will touch on four of them.

“Invitation of Pope Francis is a fresh way of living the Gospel.” @MikeOLoughlin

“Managerial decisions must allow room for the Holy Spirit to act.”

First is the anthropological foundation of the New Evangelization. If secularization with its atheistic tendencies removes God from the equation, the very understanding of what it means to be human is altered. Thus the New Evangelization must point to the very origin of our human dignity, selfknowledge and self-realization. The fact that each person is created in the image and likeness of God forms the basis for declaring, for example, the universality of human rights. Here, once again, we see the opportunity to speak with conviction to a doubting community about the truth and integrity of reality such as marriage, family, the natural moral order and an objective right and wrong.

Second is the Christological foundation of the New Evangelization. As has already been noted, New Evangelization is the re-introduction, the re-proposing, of Christ. Our proclamation of Christ, however, begins with a clear theological explanation of who Christ is, his relationship to the Father, his divinity and humanity, and the reality of his death and Resurrection. At the center of our Christian faith is Christ. But the Christ we proclaim is the Christ of revelation, the Christ understood in his Church, the Christ of tradition and not of personal, sociological, or aberrant theological creation. On our own, none of us could come to know the mind, heart, love and identity of God. Jesus came to reveal the truth – about God and about ourselves.

Third is the ecclesiological foundation of the New Evangelization. The New Evangelization must provide a clear theological explanation for the necessity of the Church for salvation. The Church is not one among many ways to reach God, all of them equally valid. While God does wish all to

be saved, it is precisely out of his universal salvific will that God sent Christ to bring us to adoption and eventual eternal glory.

Pope Francis in his homily on the Solemnity of John the Baptist reminded us, “We are Christians because we belong to the Church. It is like a surname: if our name is ‘I am Christian,’ our name is ‘I belong to the Church.’”

This, the Pope points out, is necessary because “others before us have lived faith and transmitted it to us, have taught us.”

He warns against a “do-it-yourself Church” and he highlights that “there are those who believe that they can have a personal relationship direct and immediate with Jesus Christ removed from communion and mediation of the Church. They are dangerous and damaging temptations.”

He concludes that part of the homily by the simple exhortation, “remember: being Christian means belonging to the Church.”

Fourth is the soteriological foundation of the New Evangelization. Intrinsic to the understanding of God’s presence with us today is the awareness of what we mean by his Kingdom. The Kingdom that Jesus proclaimed and established and that is manifest in his Church will reach its final fullness only in glory. The fullness of the Kingdom is yet to come but it is present in its beginnings here and now. Our actions now have consequences that endure. What we achieve here and now as a manifestation of the Kingdom remains. “Heaven and earth will pass away,” Jesus said. But his words that are everlasting life will never cease to be realized.

In concluding these reflections, I want to note some of the qualities required for effective Church ministry today, whether it is at the level of management or Gospel

proclamation. Since both are tied together, whatever we are doing must take on the aura of the mission driven disciple. Pope Francis speaks about missionary discipleship. There are qualities of the mission driven disciple who manifests a mission driven Church. I will touch on four that, for me, stand out: boldness or courage, connectedness to the Church, a sense of urgency, and joy.

In the Acts of the Apostles the word that describes the Apostles after the outpouring of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost is “bold.” Peter is depicted as boldly standing up and preaching the Good News of the Resurrection; later Paul takes up the theme, and in frenetic movement around the world accessible to him, boldly announces the Word.

Our enthusiasm for the faith and our conviction for its truth should always be expressed in love. As Saint Paul reminds us we must not only speak the truth but do so in love. It is not enough that we know or believe something to be true. We must express that truth in charity, with respect for others, so that the bonds between us can be strengthened in building up the Church of Christ.

As our Holy Father, Pope Francis, has reminded us and as the Synod pointed out on many occasions, people are not brought to the love of Jesus Christ by

“How we structure and organize our activities must center around who we are, the people of God.” @MikeOLoughlin

“ It is our Catholic faith that urges us toward committed transparency, verifiable accountability, missionary discipleship.”

angry denunciations. As is being demonstrated around the world, the response to Pope Francis and his message of “loving invitation” is extraordinary. He tells us, “A Church which ‘goes forth’ is a Church whose doors are opened.” Our faith convictions “have pastoral consequences that we are called to consider with prudence and boldness.” The evangelizers for the New Evangelization also need a connectedness with the Church, its Gospel and its pastoral presence. The authentication of what we proclaim and the verification of the truth of our message that these are the words of everlasting life depend on our communion with the Church, and our solidarity with its pastors.

Another quality of the New Evangelization and, therefore, those engaged in it, is a sense of urgency. Perhaps we need to see in Luke’s account of Mary’s Visitation of Elizabeth a model for our own sense of urgency. The Gospel recounts how Mary set off in haste in a long and difficult journey from Nazareth to a hill country in the village of Judea. There was no time to be lost because her mission was so important.

Pope Francis begins his apostolic exhortation Evangelii gaudium with the reminder that, “The joy of the Gospel fills the hearts and lives of all who encounter Christ…with Christ joy is constantly born anew.” Our message should be one that inspires others to joyfully follow us along the path to the Kingdom of God. Joy must characterize the evangelizer. Ours is a message of great joy: Christ is risen, Christ is with us. Whatever our circumstances, our witness should radiate with the fruits of the Holy Spirit including love, peace and joy.

How, then, do we answer question, “What is at the heart of a mission driven Church and how would we measure the excellence of best practices in such a Church?”

I think we need to begin with our own conviction that there is an awakening of the Spirit in the hearts of many people, young and not so young, and that the pretensions of the secular order are not able to satisfy the longings of the human heart. We can profess with pride and conviction that the Gospel message continues to be the answer to our needs and longings today. We re-propose Christ as the answer to a world staggering under the weight of so many unanswered questions of the heart.

At the very core of our convictions, however, is our faith. It is our Catholic faith that urges us toward committed transparency, verifiable accountability, missionary discipleship. It is our Catholic faith that we proclaim with renewed adherence, awakened conviction and great joy. It is summed up in the simple acclamation: Christ has died, Christ is risen, and Christ will come again.

2014 Annual Meeting

The Standard for Excellence:

BEST PRACTICES FOR A MISSION DRIVEN CHURCH Loyola University Chicago | Lake Shore Campus | June 24-26, 2014

www.TheLeadershipRoundtable.org/AnnualMeeting

Appendix 1

2014 ANNUAL MEETING

SPEAKER, PANELIST, AND PRESENTER BIOGRAPHIES

Most Rev. John Barres was ordained a Bishop and installed as the fourth Bishop of Allentown on July 30, 2009. He was the first priest ordained a bishop within the Diocese of Allentown. In almost 5 years as shepherd of the Diocese, Bishop Barres has supported efforts of pastors, teachers, parents and the former Bishop’s Commission on Catholic Schools at strengthening our Catholic schools. In the 2012-2013 school year, Allentown was the only Diocese in Pennsylvania to see an increase in enrollment and the only diocese from Maine to Maryland to show an increase in elementary school enrollment. The current school year makes the second straight year that the Diocese of Allentown’s school enrollment has increased, no other Pennsylvania diocese can make that claim. With the assistance of former Honeywell Chairman and CEO Larry Bossidy, Bishop Barres has guided the Diocese on its first strategic plan, which over two years has resulted in cutting edge efforts to enhance pastoral ministries and help to strengthen the financial condition of the Diocese. The Bishop, recognizing the importance of social media in spreading the Gospel message and the New Evangelization, has launched a video blog on the Diocesan website and is working with a committee of outside experts to expand the Diocese’s social media presence. Nationally, Bishop Barres has been an active member of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops Ad Hoc Committee for Religious Liberty. He has spoken out forcefully on the issue. The Bishop also serves on two other USCCB committees: the Committee on Laity, Marriage, Family Life, and Youth; and the Committee on Evangelization and Catechesis. He was recently appointed Episcopal Liaison to the Pontifical Mission Societies.

Rev. Efrain Bautista was born and raised in Calexico, California, located in the Imperial Valley, the southern, most eastern part of California. Fr. Bautista attended public school in Calexico and attended the local university where he obtained a Business degree. After attending college, he started to work in several local non-profit organizations, all of which provided services to the less fortunate one of the poorest areas in California. Fr. Bautista worked there for about 3 years before deciding to apply to the seminary for the Diocese of San Diego. Fr. Bautista was admitted into the seminary in the Fall of 2002 and began his philosophical studies at the University of San Diego. In August 2006, his Bishop sent Fr. Bautista to the Pontifical North American College in Rome, to complete his theological studies. Following his ordination in June 2010, Fr. Bautista returned to the Imperial Valley to the town of Brawley, CA where he served as an Associate Pastor at Sacred Heart Church and St. Margaret Mary Church prior to being assigned to St. Francis of Assisi Church in Vista, CA, north of San Diego. In May of 2012, following the departure of the Pastor, Fr. Bautista was named Administrator and subsequently pastor of the St. Francis of Assisi in October of the same year and has been there ever since then. St. Francis of Assisi is a vibrant multi-cultural parish community with 9 Sunday Masses celebrated in three languages, Spanish, English and Vietnamese. In addition, St. Francis has a school, religious education in each of the three languages, over 100 ministries, making the parish one of the largest in the Diocese of San Diego.

Robert J. Birdsell is the co-founder and Managing Partner of the Drexel Funds, a family of non-profit venture funds for private schools. Prior to founding the Drexel Funds, Rob was CEO of the Accelerate Institute. At the Accelerate Institute, Rob led the organization through a strategic planning process which shifted its focus from a teacher preparation program to having a singular concentration on transformational urban school leadership and also rebranded the organization during this process. Under Rob’s leadership the organization also expanded its footprint to Memphis, Newark, Baton Rouge and Milwaukee and he built a business model which focuses less on philanthropy and more on local partner investment. In the past two years, Rob has raised investment commitments on the local and national level of over $10 million for the Institute. Prior to the Accelerate Institute, Rob was the President & CEO of the Cristo Rey Network. Over his tenure, he oversaw the significant growth of the network from 12 to 25 schools, grew revenues of $33 million in 2007 to $75 million in 2012. Rob dramatically expanded Cristo Rey’s leadership development programs, advocated for high performing urban schools and education reform on Capitol Hill, and led an initiative at Cristo Rey to increase the quality of outcomes for students. Rob also put in place a disciplined approach to managing growth and recruited seven new outside directors to the Cristo Rey Network board. Prior to Cristo Rey, Rob led Eduventures consulting practice and he began his career teaching high school English in Los Angeles and Milwaukee. Rob is a frequent speaker on education policy and sustainability for urban schools. He has spoken at the America’s Promise Alliance’s Grad Nation Summit, the Council on Foundations Annual Meeting, the United States Department of Education Leadership Conference, Notre Dame University’s Conference on Sustainability for Faith-based Urban Schools, and Yale University’s Summit on Education Reform. In addition, Birdsell has been published or quoted in the Wall Street Journal, Time magazine, USA Today, America magazine, World at Work Journal, Company Magazine, the Atlanta Journal, the Milwaukee Journal, Conversations, and the Ligorian.

Alex Boucher is Project Administrator of the Leadership Roundtable’s CatholicPastor.org, a collaborative virtual learning forum, part of their ongoing leadership formation program where priests, as a community of practice, can engage in an extended conversation, learn from one another, and share best practices. In addition to his work with the Leadership Roundtable, Alex serves as Program & Operations Manager for the Catholic Apostolate Center, where he assists in forwarding the Center’s mission through partnerships, program implementation, planning, and internal operations. Alex coordinates the Center’s higher education cooperative alliance with Saint Joseph’s College of Maine. He also facilitates the Center’s support of the Campus Ministry Leadership Institute and Empowered Campus Ministry, co-sponsored with the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops Secretariat of Catholic Education. A native New Englander, Alex is a proud alumnus of Cheverus High School, the Jesuit college preparatory school of Maine. As a high school student, he served on his parish council and parish evangelization committee, and served for two years on

the Maine Diocesan Council for Catholic Youth. Alex previously worked in full time parish ministry at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception and several other diverse and multi-cultural parishes in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Portland, Maine in the areas of parish life, liturgy, and faith formation. Alex currently serves on the diocesan liturgical commission and assists as a master of ceremonies for his diocesan bishop. He is currently completing a degree in Theology in the School of Theology & Religious Studies at The Catholic University of America in Washington, DC, where he is active in campus ministry, including men’s ministry and the Knights of Columbus.

Lawrence A. Bossidy is the retired Chairman of the Board and CEO of Honeywell International Inc., a global $26-billion advanced technology, controls and manufacturing company. Mr. Bossidy’s distinguished fivedecade career in business began with the General Electric Company’s renowned financial training program in 1957. For the next 34 years, Mr. Bossidy served in a number of positions with GE, including Chief Operating Officer of General Electric Credit Corporation (now GE Capital Corporation), Executive Vice President and President of GE’s Services and Materials Sector, and Vice Chairman and Executive Officer of General Electric Company. Mr. Bossidy joined AlliedSignal Inc. as Chairman and CEO in 1991. He is credited with transforming AlliedSignal into one of the world’s most admired companies. During his tenure with AlliedSignal, the company achieved consistent growth in earnings and cash flow, highlighted by 31 consecutive quarters of earnings-per-share growth of 13% or more and an eight-fold appreciation of the company’s share price. He was named CEO of the Year by Financial World magazine in 1994 and Chief Executive of the Year by CEO Magazine in 1998. In 1999, Mr. Bossidy became Chairman of Honeywell International Inc., following the merger of AlliedSignal and Honeywell in December 1999. He retired from the company as scheduled in April 2000. Mr. Bossidy returned as Chairman and CEO of Honeywell International Inc. in July 2001 following General Electric’s unsuccessful acquisition bid for Honeywell. He retired from Honeywell again in 2002. Mr. Bossidy is co-author of the best-selling book Execution: The Discipline of Getting Things Done, and its sequel Confronting Reality: Master the New Model for Success. Mr. Bossidy graduated from Colgate University in 1957 with a BA degree in economics. He is a former member of the Board of Directors of General Electric, JPMorgan, Merck & Company and the Berkshire Hills Bancorp. He is also an advisor to the Aurora Capital Group, a private equity firm, Chilton Investment Company & CapGen Capital Advisors, LLC. In addition he is a contributor to CNBC Squawk Box.

Michael Brough is the director of strategic engagement for the Leadership Roundtable. He works with Catholic leaders to create and implement resources that assist parishes, dioceses, and Catholic nonprofits to address the development and implementation of management structures and personnel policies and procedures that enhance the effectiveness of all those in Church ministry. Mr. Brough is also a presenter in the Leadership Roundtable’s training for new pastors and a

keynote presenter and workshop facilitator at national and diocesan conferences. He is certified by the Center for Creative Leadership to deliver the Catholic Leadership 360 assessment tool. Previously, Mr. Brough was executive director of RENEW International. He is an experienced presenter and teacher and worked for the Scottish bishops in the area of justice education. He has led training for Catholic lay ministers, priests, and bishops throughout the US and in 12 other countries. Mr. Brough holds degrees from St. Andrews University, Scotland, and Loyola University, New Orleans, with further qualifications in clinical and pastoral counseling and education.

Paul V. Butler is the president of GlobalEdg, a leadership development consulting firm. Paul works with senior executives in organizations to increase capabilities of individuals, teams, and organizations. With over 30 years of experience in the public and private sectors, he is well positioned to support organizations going through large-scale change efforts and produce sustainable results.

Dennis Corcoran has more than 30 years of full-time parish employment. He holds a BA in Religious Studies from Caldwell College and a MA in Pastoral Ministry/Church Leadership from Boston College. Dennis is currently the Pastoral Associate for Christ the King Church in New Vernon, NJ. He was previously the Director of Parish Operations for Church of the Presentation in Upper Saddle River from 19952005. Dennis is a consultant for organizational leadership to Catholic parishes and dioceses throughout the country and is a member of the National Leadership Roundtable on Church Management where he is on the faculty for the Pastor’s Toolbox. Dennis lives in Randolph with his wife, Laura, and 4 children - 22, 20, 17, & 15.

Mary Cornwell is a 2012-2013 ESTEEM Alumni from Michigan State University. Due to a desire to do post-grad service and continue diving into Catholic Social Teaching after this program, she joined Amate House, a young adult volunteer program through the Archdiocese of Chicago. The past year, she has been living in intentional community and working at Girls in the Game, organizing and coaching after school programs to promote health, leadership, and sports in under served neighborhoods. This fall, she will be pursuing a Master’s in Public Health to study issues related to physical activity and nutrition and health equity.

John Deinhart is the Director of Stewardship and Strategic Planning for the Catholic Diocese of Knoxville. In his role at the diocese, John oversees all areas of development including the annual Bishop’s Appeal, planned and capital giving, and the work of a number of diocesan foundations. John is also responsible for all facets of diocesan strategic planning and serves on the Bishop’s Senior Leadership Team. Prior to his career in development, John worked in consumer products marketing and sales for nearly 25 years, leading sales and marketing teams at Ralston Purina and Bush’s Beans. In his most recent role with Bush Brothers, he led the brand’s expansion efforts into Canada. Since moving to East Tennessee in 1999, John and his wife Crystal have been actively involved in many Catholic ministries, including their longtime advocacy and support of the mission of Nuestros Pequenos Hermanos (NPH), a home for over 3,500 orphaned, neglected and abandoned children in 10 countries across Latin America. John serves on the executive committee of the National Board of NPHUSA and is known to the kids at NPH as ‘Senor Frijol’ (Mr. Bean).

Peter Denio is the Coordinator for the Standards for Excellence program and CatholicPastor. org for the National Leadership Roundtable. In this capacity he has worked with parishes, dioceses, religious communities, schools, and nonprofits on the integration of best management practices. He was the former Acting Director of the National Pastoral Life Center. He has worked as a Lay Ecclesial Minister for almost 20 years and currently serves as the part-time Pastoral Associate of Adult Faith Formation at Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church in Ridgewood, NJ. He sits on the advisory boards of the Fordham Graduate School of Religion and Religious Education, the Catholic Common Ground Initiative, and the Paulist Office for Reconciliation. He received a Masters in Pastoral Ministry from Boston College and a Masters in Public Administration from Seton Hall University. He is married for 12 years to his wife Mary. They live in Fair Lawn, NJ and have three children together: Conor (10), Riley (7), and Devon (6).

Katie Diller is the director of student outreach at St. John Catholic Church & Student Center at Michigan State University and the national program coordinator of ESTEEM (Engaging Students to Enliven the Ecclesial Mission), a joint project of the Leadership Roundtable and Saint Thomas More Catholic Chapel & Center at Yale University that engages young adult Catholics into the full life of the Church. As a postgraduate volunteer in the Alliance for Catholic Education (ACE), Ms. Diller served as a high school chemistry teacher in Phoenix, Arizona. She holds degrees from the University of Notre Dame, the University of Dayton, and Yale University.

Rev. Joseph Donnelly is a native of Waterbury Connecticut. He graduated from St. Bonaventure University in 1968 and did his priestly formation at the North American College in Rome. While there he completed a licentiate in fundamental theology at the Gregorian University in 1972. He was ordained a priest in Rome for the archdiocese of Hartford in 1971. Father Donnelly served in parish ministry in the archdiocese in several parishes before joining the formation faculty at St. Thomas Seminary in Bloomfield CT as spiritual director in 1977. During this time he completed a masters degree in Spiritual theology at Creighton University in Omaha. In 1984 he was invited to join the formation faculty of the North American College in Rome where he served as vice rector until 1989. After a sabbatical consisting of a 30 day retreat and a semester at Weston School of Theology in Cambridge MA he was assigned as the priest on a pastoral team at St. Bridget Parish in Manchester CT. He served there until 2003 when he was appointed pastor of Sacred Heart Parish in Southbury CT. He continues to serve there. In 2007 Fr. Donnelly was also appointed chair of the Board of Directors of the St. Vincent DePaul Mission of Greater Waterbury, a social service agency under Catholic Charities which operates the largest homeless shelter in Connecticut as well as a soup kitchen, thrift store, mental health facilities and housing for the working poor in Waterbury. Father Donnelly has served the archdiocese of Hartford in various capacities on the Presbyteral Council, the Committee for Continuing Education of Priests, and as a teacher in a local college and Catholic high school and in adult education programs. He also worked for several years at the Institute of Living in Hartford as a spiritual director for priests in their in-patient therapeutic program for professionals.

Lt. Gen. James M. Dubik (US Army, Ret.), is a trustee of the Leadership Roundtable. Lt. Gen. Dubik assumed command of Multi National Security Transition Command-Iraq on June 10, 2007. During this final command, he oversaw the generation and training of the Iraqi Security Forces. Previously, he was the Commanding General of I Corps at Ft. Lewis and the Deputy Commanding General for Transformation, US Army Training and Doctrine Command. He also served as the Commanding General of the 25th Infantry Division. Lt. Gen. Dubik has held numerous leadership and command positions with airborne, ranger, light and mechanized infantry units around the world. He was commissioned a second lieutenant of infantry from Gannon University as a Distinguished Military Graduate in 1971, and he retired from service on September 1, 2008. He is a frequent writer and speaker and he holds degrees from Gannon University, Johns Hopkins University, and the US Army Command and General Staff College.

John Eriksen is the director of special projects for the Leadership Roundtable, overseeing the organization’s programs focusing on Catholic schools and pooled strategic investment. He was previously superintendent of schools in the Diocese of Paterson, NJ. Mr. Eriksen began his career as a high school teacher in Notre Dame’s Alliance for Catholic Education (ACE) before moving to the Leadership Roundtable, where he headed the organization’s management consulting practice. He holds degrees from the University of Notre Dame and the Kennedy School at Harvard University.

Carol Fowler is the recently retired Director of the Department of Personnel Services for the Archdiocese of Chicago. The Archdiocese employs about 15,000 people. As one of the seven Archdiocesan department directors, she served on Cardinal Bernardin’s Cabinet and Cardinal George’s Administrative Council. She served the Archdiocese in this role from July 1991 until June 30, 2012. Her position included supervision of all human resource functions for laity, clergy and religious, including policy development, recruitment and hiring, performance management, employee relations and benefits management of health, pension and related benefits. Carol was a member of the Board for the National Leadership Roundtable on Church Management. She was president of the National Association of Church Personnel Administrators and served on that Board for several years. She is past president of the National Association of Diocesan Directors of Campus Ministry, served on the board of the Catholic Campus Ministry Association and was on the Bishops’ United States Catholic Conference Committee on Education. She is also a member of the Advisory Board of the Center for Church Management at Villanova University, is a member of the Society for Human Resource Management and an Associate of the Dominican Sisters of Adrian. She holds a Doctor of Ministry degree from St. Mary’s Seminary and University, Baltimore. Her doctoral project was on lay ecclesial ministry. She has a Master of Arts degree in Counseling Psychology from the Adler School of Professional Psychology and a B.A. in Social Science with a secondary teaching certificate from Michigan State University. The Human Resources Certification Institute of the Society for Human Resource Management certifies Ms. Fowler as a Senior Professional in Human Resources. Ms. Fowler currently teaches, conducts workshops and consults on areas of Church management, best practices in Church human resources, leadership development, new pastor workshops and a variety of parish and diocesan administration issues.

Rev. Michael Garanzini, S.J. has served as the 23rd president of Loyola University Chicago since June 2001. A seasoned university administrator, tenured professor, author, and scholar, Father Garanzini has spent the majority of his career working in higher education. In June 2011, Father Garanzini was appointed by Adolfo Nicolás, S.J., the superior general of the Society of Jesus, to serve as the Secretary for Higher Education for the Society of Jesus. In this new role, which officially began on September 1, 2011 and is in addition to his continued service as president and CEO of Loyola, Father Garanzini assists the Father General on a part-time basis, coordinating and championing Jesuit higher-education issues around the world. Father Garanzini’s solid academic credentials combine with a rare blend of experience in teaching, research, service, and administrative leadership at some of the nation’s leading Jesuit institutions of higher learning, including Georgetown, Fordham, Saint Louis, and Rockhurst universities, as well as Gregorian University in Rome. A St. Louis native, Father Garanzini received his BA in psychology from Saint Louis University in 1971, the same year he entered the Society of Jesus. Father Garanzini serves on the following boards of trustees: the Association of Catholic Colleges and Universities (ACCU); the Federation of Independent Illinois Colleges and Universities; the Archdiocese of Chicago, Board of Catholic Schools; the Flannery O’Connor-Andalusia Foundation; and LIFT-Chicago. He serves on investment committees for the ACCU, the Society of Jesus, and other organizations, and he is chairman of the Cuneo Scholarship Foundation. Active in community service, Father Garanzini is known for his work on behalf of children and families. He is a frequent speaker and has published many books and articles on issues suchas child and family therapy, moral development, and Catholic education.

Rev. J. Bryan Hehir is the Parker Gilbert Montgomery Professor of the Practice of Religion and Public Life at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. He is also the Secretary for Health and Social Services for the Archdiocese of Boston. Prior to assuming these positions Father Hehir served as President and CEO of Catholic Charities USA, the national network of Charities in the United States, from 2001 through 2003. From 1973-1992 he served on the staff of the U.S. Catholic Conference of Bishops in Washington, D.C., addressing issues of both foreign and domestic policy for the church in the United States. From 1984-1992, he served on the faculty at Georgetown University in the School of Foreign Service and the Kennedy Institute of Ethics. In 1993 he joined the faculty of the Harvard Divinity School as Professor of the Practice in Religion and Society. From 1998-2001 he served as Interim Dean and Dean of the Divinity School. Father Hehir took his A.B. and Master of Divinity degrees at St. John’s Seminary and his Doctor of Theology at Harvard Divinity School. His research and writing focus on issues of ethics and foreign policy, Catholic social ethics and the role of religion in world politics and in American society. He is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American Philosophical Society and the Council

on Foreign Relations. He serves on the Board of the Arms Control Association, the Global Development Committee and the Independent Sector. He was named a MacArthur Fellow in 1984 and is the recipient of over thirty honorary degrees from American colleges and universities. Publications include: “The Moral Measurement of War: A Tradition of Continuity and Change”; Military Intervention and National Sovereignty”; “Catholicism and Democracy”; “Social Values and Public Policy: A Contribution from a Religious Tradition”; and “The Moral Dimension in the Use of Force”.

Susan King is secretary of the Leadership Roundtable board of directors, dean of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Journalism and Mass Communication, and John Thomas Kerr Distinguished Professor. Prior to joining UNC, Ms. King was vice president for external affairs for Carnegie Corporation of New York. She worked for nearly five years in the US Department of Labor as the assistant secretary for public affairs and as the executive director of the Family and Medical Leave Commission. Her journalism career included stints with ABC, CBS and NBC. Ms. King was also an independent journalist reporting for CNN and ABC Radio News. She was a local television news anchor at stations in Buffalo, NY, and Washington, DC. She has hosted the “Diane Rehm Show” and “Talk of the Nation” for NPR. Ms. King holds degrees from Marymount College and Fairfield University.

Most Rev. Joseph Kurtz was born in Mahanoy City, Pennsylvania in 1946, Archbishop Joseph Edward Kurtz earned bachelor (1968) and master of divinity (1972) degrees from St. Charles Borromeo Seminary in Philadelphia and a master’s degree in social work (1976) from the Marywood School of Social Work in Scranton, Pennsylvania. Archdiocese Kurtz was ordained to the priesthood for the Diocese of Allentown in 1972 and served 27 years in various roles within the Diocese, including as a social worker, Catholic Charities director, pastor, and teacher on the high school, college, and seminary levels. In 1999 Archbishop Kurtz was appointed Bishop of Knoxville, Tennessee and in 2007, Archbishop of Louisville, Kentucky. Elected President of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops in 2013, Archbishop Kurtz serves on the executive and administrative committee of that body. He is the vice chancellor of the board of the Catholic Extension Society, and he serves on the Board of Trustees of the Catholic University of America and on the Board of Directors of the National Catholic Bioethics Center and St. Charles Seminary in Philadelphia. He serves on the Advisory Board to the Cause for Archbishop Fulton Sheen’s beatification. In February of 2014, Pope Francis appointed Archbishop Kurtz to the Holy See’s Congregation for the Oriental Churches.

Elizabeth McCaul provides a broad range of financial and regulatory advisory services to clients in the United States and Europe, including assistance with matters related to safety and soundness, risk management, corporate governance, and capital markets. Elizabeth joined Promontory after serving as the Superintendent of Banks of the State of New York, where she was responsible for supervision of some of the world’s largest institutions and most of the foreign banks operating in the United States, as well as community banks, mortgage companies, and the overseas banking activities of investment banks and insurance companies. All told, she oversaw financial institutions representing $2 trillion in assets. She is well recognized for her safety and soundness and risk management credentials. As Superintendent, she introduced capital markets specialists to the examination teams, established targeted hedge fund reviews, opened a Tokyo office, and helped banks and securities firms comply with the Sarbanes-Oxley Act and the USA PATRIOT Act. In her early days as Superintendent, Elizabeth directed a $22 billion banker’s bank, following its liquidity problems. After the 9/11 attacks, she worked with banks, securities firms, and the Federal Reserve to get the U.S. markets reopened and functioning properly. She subsequently worked with federal regulators and top law enforcement officials to create mechanisms to help guard against the use of the U.S. banking system for financial terrorism. Elizabeth served as the Chairman of the Conference of State Bank Supervisors and as a member of the Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council (FFIEC). She was an instructor on corporate governance at the Financial Stability institute at the Bank for International Settlements. She also worked as an investment banker at Goldman Sachs from 1985 to 1995. Elizabeth earned a Bachelor of Arts at Boston University and received a scholarship from the German government to the Common Market Program at the Institute of European Studies, University of Freiburg, Germany.

Kathleen McChesney has held unique leadership positions in the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the United States Catholic Bishops’ Conference and The Walt Disney Company before establishing Kinsale Management Consulting. She served in many leadership positions in the FBI, heading its field offices in Chicago, Illinois and Portland, Oregon and the FBI’s International Training Academy, before being appointed as an Executive Assistant Director - the Bureau’s third highest position. As a detective with the King County Police in Seattle, Washington, she specialized in the investigation of homicide and sex abuse cases, and as an FBI Special Agent she directed investigations in the areas of organized crime, public corruption and terrorism. Dr. McChesney was selected by the United States Catholic Bishops’ Conference to establish and lead a national office for child protection. She developed and oversaw a national compli -

ance mechanism to ensure that all Catholic dioceses complied with civil laws and internal policies relative to the prevention, reporting and response to the sexual abuse of minors. She coordinated a major research study into the nature and scope of theproblem of sexual abuse in the Catholic Church and has published and lectured frequently on the issue of sexual abuse of minors in youth-serving organizations. Dr. McChesney has served on several non-profit boards including the National Children’s Alliance, the International Association of Chiefs of Police, the Safety Advisory Board of the Boys and Girls Clubs – USA, the Foundation of Former Special Agents of the FBI, the National Leadership Roundtable, the Federal Executive Boards of Chicago, Los Angeles and Portland, and the Villanova Center for the Study of Church Management. She is the recipient of several prestigious awards including the President’s Award for Distinguished Public Service, the Lifetime Achievement Award of the National Center for Women in Policing and an honorary Ph.D. from Anna Maria College. Dr. McChesney is the coauthor/co-editor of two books: Sexual Abuse in the Catholic Church: A Decade of Crisis (2012); and Pick Up Your Own Brass: Leadership the FBI Way (2010).

Dominic Perri is a principal of the Essential Conversations Group, a management consulting firm based in Chicago. In this role, he provides facilitation, leadership development, training and consultation to organizations throughout the United States and Canada. Dominic has led strategic planning and re-structuring processes for corporations, universities, government agencies and nonprofits. Dominic is also a dynamic presenter who has created and delivered leadership training programs across the U.S. Among the topics he addresses are managing people of different generations in the workplace, using social media to improve performance and increasing collaboration and teamwork. Dominic also has extensive experience in the field of survey research, developing and analyzing surveys and focus groups at two university research centers. He has worked as a researcher at both the Survey Research Center at the University of MarylandCollege Park and the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate (CARA) at Georgetown University in Washington, DC. Dominic is a member of the board of directors of the Organization Development Network of Chicago. Other professional memberships include the Academy of Management and the Association of Consultants to Nonprofits. Dominic holds a B.S. in Physics from the Catholic University of America, with minors in both religion and philosophy. He also has an M.A. in Sociology and an M.A. in Economics from the University of Maryland, College Park. Dominic lives with his wife Patricia and their two daughters in Forest Park, IL.

Brian Reynolds is the Chancellor and Chief Administrative Officer for the Archdiocese of Louisville. In this position he coordinates the planning, personnel and administrative functions for the archdiocese serving 111 parishes. Besides his work as a diocesan administrator, Dr. Reynolds has served as a consultant, trainer and author in church ministry for more than 30 years. Over the years he has worked with more than 100 Catholic dioceses in the United States, Canada and Ireland. In addition, he has served on the adjunct faculty of several colleges and universities where he has taught courses on leadership, ministry, stewardship and ethics. He is the author and co-author of five books and more than 40 articles on church ministry, adolescence, and religious education. Dr. Reynolds presently serves on a number of boards locally and nationally including: Board of Trustees, Spalding University; Catholic Youth Foundation - USA; and the Center for Interfaith Relations. He is the recipient of several national awards including: Vision Award from the National Association of Church Personnel Administrators; the Yves Congar Award from the Conference of Pastoral Planning; the Spirit Award from the National Association for Lay Ministry; and the National Catholic Youth Ministry Award. He earned a Bachelors Degree from Fairfield University, a Masters Degree from Fordham University and a Doctorate in Leadership Education from Spalding University. He has been married to his wife, Catherine, for 33 years and they have two young adult children.

Kerry Robinson is the executive director of the Leadership Roundtable. She is a member of the Raskob Foundation for Catholic Activities and Foundations and Donors Interested in Catholic Activities (FADICA). She has served as a trustee for several organizations, including the Education for Parish Service Foundation, the Gregorian University Foundation, the National Catholic AIDS Network, the Institute for Religious Education and Pastoral Ministry at Boston College, the Center of Applied Research in the Apostolate, the Center for the Study of Church Management at Villanova University, Busted Halo, America magazine, the National Pastoral Life Center, the Catholic Campaign for Human Development, and Jesuit Volunteer Corps. Ms. Robinson served as the director of development for Saint Thomas More Catholic Chapel & Center at Yale University where she led a successful multi-million dollar fundraising drive to expand and endow the Chapel’s intellectual and spiritual ministry and to construct a Catholic student center. She holds degrees from Georgetown University and Yale Divinity School.

His Eminence Donald Cardinal Wuerl is the Archbishop of Washington and was elevated to the College of Cardinals in 2010 by Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI. He participated in the March 2013 conclave that elected Pope Francis. He serves on numerous national and international bodies including the Vatican Congregations for the Doctrine of the Faith, Bishops, and the Clergy as well as the Pontifical Councils for Culture and for Promoting Christian Unity. He was the Relator General for the October 2012 Vatican Synod on the New Evangelization for the Transmission of the Christian Faith. Cardinal Wuerl is known for his teaching ministry and is the author of numerous articles and books, including the best-selling catechisms, The Teaching of Christ and The Catholic Way. His recent books include, Seek First the Kingdom (2012), New Evangelization: Passing on the Catholic Faith Today (January 2013), and The Light Is On For You (February 2014). The Cardinal was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and received graduate degrees from The Catholic University of America, the Gregorian University in Rome and a doctorate in theology from the University of Saint Thomas in Rome. He was ordained to the priesthood on December 17, 1966, and ordained a bishop by Pope John Paul II in 1986 and served successively as Auxiliary Bishop in Seattle, Bishop of Pittsburgh and Archbishop of Washington. His titular church in Rome is Saint Peter in Chains.

Meeting

The Standard for Excellence:

BEST PRACTICES FOR A MISSION DRIVEN CHURCH

Loyola University Chicago | Lake Shore Campus | June 24-26, 2014

www.TheLeadershipRoundtable.org/AnnualMeeting

Appendix 2

2014 ANNUAL MEETING PARTICIPANTS

Sr. Barbara Austin, O.S.B. is director of the school of lectio at St. Joseph’s Monastery and a spiritual director at St. Benedict, Tulsa, OK.

Thomas Baker is publisher of Commonweal Magazine.

Most Rev. John Barres is bishop of the Diocese of Allentown.

David Barringer is CEO of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul National Council.

Rev. Efrain Bautista is pastor of St. Francis of Assisi in Vista, CA.

Bro. Paul Bednarczyk, CSC, is executive director of the National Religious Vocation Conference

Rev. John Belmonte, S.J., is superintendent of Catholic Schools in the Diocese of Joliet.

Rev. Robert Beloin is chaplain of Saint Thomas More Catholic Chapel & Center at Yale University.

Mark Bersano is coordinator of Parish Leadership and Management Programs at the Loyola University Chicago Institute of Pastoral Studies.

Betsy Bliss is managing director for JP Morgan and a trustee of the National Leadership Roundtable on Church Management.

Very Rev. David Boettner is vicar general of the Diocese of Knoxville.

Geoffrey T. Boisi is founding chairman of the National Leadership Roundtable on Church Management as well as chairman and CEO of Roundtable Investment Partners LLC

Alexander Boucher is project administrator of CatholicPastor.org and program & operations manager of the Catholic Apostolate Center.

Michael Brough is director of strategic engagement at The Leadership Roundtable.

E. Jane Brown is CFO of the Catholic Academy of Sussex County.

Richard Burke is president of Catholic School Management, Inc.

Paul Butler is founder and president of GlobalEdg LLC

William Canny is the COO of the Papal Foundation.

Samuel Casey Carter is executive director of Faith in the Future.

Kevin Carton is former senior practice partner of Pwc and a trustee of the National Leadership Roundtable on Church Management.

Jim Ceplecha is managing director of the Retirement Services Division of Christian Brothers Services.

Angelo Collins, OP is associate dean of the School of Education and Counseling Psychology at Santa Clara University.

Dennis Corcorn is the pastoral associate of Christ the King Parish in Randolph, NJ.

Mary Cornwell is a 2012-2013 ESTEEM Alumni and will be a graduate student at the University of South Carolina.

Douglas Culp is Secretary for Pastoral Life and CAO of the Diocese of Lexington.

Barbara Anne Cusack is chancellor of the Archdiocese of Milwaukee.

Carlos De La Rosa is program officer of Porticus North America.

John Deinhart is director of stewardship and strategic planning for the Diocese of Knoxville.

Peter Denio is coordinator of Catholic Standards for Excellence at The Leadership Roundtable.

Katie Diller is director of student outreach at St. John Catholic Student Center, Michigan State University.

Rev. Frank Donio, S.A.C. is director of Catholic Apostolate Center.

Ms. Elizabeth Donnelly is a trustee of the Mary J. Donnelly Foundation.

Rev. Joseph Donnelly is pastor of Sacred Heart Parish, Southbury, CT.

Rev. Msgr. Larry Droll is vicar general of the Diocese of San Angelo.

Jim Dubik is chairman of the Leadership Roundtable and Lt. Gen. (Ret.) of the US Army.

John Eriksen is special projects director for the Leadership Roundtable.

Geno Fernandez is Head of Strategic Execution for Zurich Insurance in North America and a trustee of the National Leadership Roundtable on Church Management.

Fred Fosnacht is president and founder of MyCatholicVoice.

Carol Fowler is former director of the department of personnel services for the Archdiocese of Chicago and a former trustee of the National Leadership Roundtable on Church Management.

Michael Galligan-Stierle is president and CEO of the Association of Catholic Colleges and Universities.

Rev. Michael J. Garanzini, SJ, is president of Loyola University Chicago.

Thomas Gordon is chief operating officer of Catholic Extension.

Thomas Healey is partner at Healey Development and treasurer of the National Leadership Roundtable on Church Management.

Rev. J. Bryan Hehir is secretary for social services for the Archdiocese of Boston and a trustee of the National Leadership Roundtable on Church Management.

Steve Johnson is a program director for Santa Clara University.

Alexia K. Kelley is president of Foundations and Donors Interested in Catholic Activities (FADICA).

Victoria Reggie Kennedy is a trustee of the National Leadership Roundtable on Church Management.

Rev. Kevin Kenndy is an adjunct professor at Catholic University and pastor of Saint Ambrose Parish in Cheverly, MD.

Kevin Kiley is director of Strategy and Financial Planning for the Archdiocese of Boston.

Michael King is a professor at Wake Technical Community College.

Susan King is dean at the UNC-Chapel Hill School of Journalism and Mass Communication, and secretary of the National Leadership Roundtable on Church Management.

Rev. Mike Knotek is executive secretary of the Priests’ Place Board for the Archdiocese of Chicago.

Ginny Koehler is the manager of finance and operations at Catholic Leadership Institute.

Nancy Koons is executive director of Catholic Charities of the Texas Panhandle in Amarillo, Texas.

Most Rev. Joseph Kurtz is president of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops and archbishop of the Archdiocese of Louisville.

Mary Lavin is director of Major Gifts/Development for the Archdiocese for the Military Services, USA

James Lindsay is executive director of Catholic Volunteer Network.

Jim Long is comptroller of the Diocese of Hamilton.

Jim Lundholm-Eades is director of services and planning at The Leadership Roundtable.

Rev. Paul Magnano is pastor of Christ Our Hope Catholic Church, Seattle, WA.

Patrick Markey is executive director of the Diocesan Fiscal Management Conference (DFMC).

Sr. Mary Charles Mayer is associate chancellor for Pastoral Services of the Diocese of Knoxville.

Elizabeth McCaul is a partner at Promontory Financial Group and partnerin-charge of the New York office.

Kathleen McChesney is CEO of Kinsale Management Consulting and is a former trustee of the National Leadership Roundtable on Church Management.

Patrick McClain is office manager at The Leadership Roundtable.

Mary McGinnity is executive director of The Ignatian Volunteer Corps.

Kevin McGowan is the chief financial officer for Catholic Extension.

Katie McKenna is development and communications officer for The Leadership Roundtable.

Rev. J. Donald Monan, SJ, is the chancellor of Boston College and is vice-chair of the National Leadership Roundtable on Church Management.

Charlie Moore is president of Coleridge, Frost & Associates and a trustee of the National Leadership Roundtable on Church Management.

Glenn D. Mueller is chairman of Catholic Textbook Project.

Stacey Noem is Director of Human and Spiritual Formation in the Master of Divinity Program at the University of Notre Dame.

William O’Connell is President of O’Connell & Associates at Ameriprise Financial

Michael J. O’Loughlin is communications manager at The Leadership Roundtable.

Nicole Perone is a Master of Divinity student at Yale Divinity School, and alumnae of the ESTEEM program at Yale.

Dominic Perri is program manager of the Leadership Roundtable’s Catholic Leadership 360 program.

Peter Persuitti is the managing director of the Religious and Nonprofit Practice at Arthur J. Gallagher & Co.

Brian Reynolds is chancellor and CAO of the Archdiocese of Louisville.

Kerry A. Robinson is executive director of The Leadership Roundtable.

Charles Rotunno is the executive vice president of the Raskob Foundation.

Joseph Sankovich is owner of Joseph B. Sankovich & Associates.

Brian Schmisek is director of the Institute of Pastoral Studies at Loyola University Chicago.

Robert Seelig is the CEO of Catholic Management Services.

Sam Stanton is the executive director of Maryknoll Lay Missioners.

John Strazanac is the Parish Administrator at St. Patrick-St. Anthony Parish, Grand Haven, MI.

Mark Teresi is Project Director for the National Fund for Catholic Religious Vocations (NRVC).

Keith Tharp is the Director of Administration for St. Thomas Aquinas Parish and School and St. John Church and Student Center, Lansing Diocese

Rev. Donald Thimm is pastor of Holy Apostles Catholic Church in New Berlin, WI.

Jeff Trumps is chief financial officer of the Diocese of Lafayette Louisiana.

Michael Vollmer is director of risk management for the Christian Brothers Services.

Rev. Jeffrey von Arx, SJ, is president of Fairfield University.

Rev. John J. Wall is president of Catholic Extension and a trutee of the National Leadership Roundtable on Church Management.

W. Brian Walsh is president of Faith Direct.

Carol Walters is director of the Office for Lay Ecclesial Ministry in the Archdiocese of Chicago.

Most Rev. Donald Wuerl is the archbishop of the Archdiocese of Washington.

National Leadership Roundtable on Church Management

2014 Annual Meeting

The Standard for Excellence:

BEST PRACTICES FOR A MISSION DRIVEN CHURCH

Loyola University Chicago | Lake Shore Campus | June 24-26, 2014

www.TheLeadershipRoundtable.org/AnnualMeeting

Appendix 3

LEADERSHIP ROUNDTABLE MEMBERSHIP COUNCIL

Richard A. Abdoo is president of R.A. Abdoo & Company, LLC.

Joseph Amaturo is president of the Amaturo Family Foundation.

Robert M. Amen is chairman and CEO of International Flavors and Fragrances, Inc.

Harold Attridge is professor and former dean of the Yale Divinity School.

William F. Baker is president emeritus of Thirteen WNET.

Rev. John P. Beal is professor in the School of Canon Law at the Catholic University of America and a former trustee of the National Leadership Roundtable on Church Management.

Rev. Robert L. Beloin is the chaplain of Saint Thomas More Catholic Chapel & Center at Yale University.

Marilyn Blanchette is president of L’Etoile Development Services.

Betsy Bliss is managing director for JP Morgan and a trustee of the National Leadership Roundtable on Church Management.

Geoffrey T. Boisi is chairman and chief executive officer of Roundtable Investment Partners, LLC, and founding chair of the National Leadership Roundtable on Church Management.

Joseph J. Bonocore is chairman and CEO of Impresa Technologies.

Kurt Borowsky is chairman of Van Beuren Management and chairman of the Seton Hall University Board of Regents.

Mary M. Brabeck is dean of the Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development at New York University and a former trustee of the National Leadership Roundtable on Church Management.

Anthony Brenninkmeyer is former CEO of American Retail Group, a trustee of FADICA, and a former trustee of the National Leadership Roundtable on Church Management.

Hans Brenninkmeyer is a trustee of the National Leadership Roundtable on Church Management.

E. Jane Brown is a chief financial officer of Catholic Academies of Sussex County.

Kathleen Buechel is retired president of Alcoa Foundation and senior lecturer at the University of Pittsburgh’s Graduate School of Public and International Affairs.

Anne Burke is a justice on the Illinois Supreme Court.

Richard J. Burke is president and senior executive consultant of Catholic School Management, Inc.

Jane Burke O’Connell is president of the Altman Foundation.

Francis Butler is founder of Drexel Philanthropic Advisors, president emeritus of FADICA, and a former trustee of the National Leadership Roundtable on Church Management.

Rev. William J. Byron, SJ, is professor of business and society at St. Joseph’s University.

Nicholas P. Cafardi is dean emeritus and professor of law at Duquesne University Law School.

Lisa Cahill is professor of theology at Boston College.

Guido Calabresi is Sterling Professor of Law emeritus and former dean of the Yale Law School, and a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals, Second Circuit.

John Caron is retired president of Caron International.

Kevin Carton is former senior practice partner at PwC and a trustee of the National Leadership Roundtable on Church Management.

B.J. Cassin is chairman and president of the Cassin Educational Initiative Foundation and a trustee of the National Leadership Roundtable on Church Management.

Anthony J. Cernera is former president of Sacred Heart University.

Arturo Chavez is president and CEO of the Mexican American Catholic College, Inc.

Denis Cheesebrow is the president and founder of Teamworks International.

Charles Clough is chair and CEO of Clough Capital Partners.

Michael D. Connelly is president and CEO of Catholic Healthcare Partners in Cincinnati, OH.

John M. Connors, Jr. is chairman and CEO of Hill, Holiday, Connor, and Cosmopulos.

Michael Cote is CEO of SecureWorks.

Mary Cunningham Agee is president and founder of the Nurturing Network.

John P. Curran is a trustee of the John P. and Constance A. Curran Charitable Foundation.

Barbara Anne Cusack is chancellor of the Archdiocese of Milwaukee.

Rev. Anthony Cutcher is president of the National Federation of Priests’ Councils (NFPC).

James Davidson is professor of sociology at Purdue University.

John DeGioia is president of Georgetown University.

Daniel Denihan is principal of Denihan Capital and a trustee of the National Leadership Roundtable on Church Management.

John DiJulio is a professor of law of the University of Pennsylvania.

Rev. Edmund J. Dobbin is president emeritus of Villanova University.

Edward Dolejsi is executive director of the California Conference of Catholic Bishops.

Elizabeth Donnelly is a trustee of the Mary J. Donnelly Foundation.

Charles Dougherty is president of Duquesne University.

Sr. Karin Dufault, SP, is general superior of the Sisters of Providence International.

James Dubik is Lt. Gen. (Ret.), United States Army and chairman of the National Leadership Roundtable on Church Management.

Rev. Robert D. Duggan is a researcher at the Catholic University of America.

Cynthia Lee Egan is president of retirement plans at T. Rowe Price.

Elizabeth Eisenstein is a member of the Amaturo Family Foundation and a member of FADICA.

Sr. Janet Eisner, SND, is president of Emmanuel College.

Marilou Eldred is the President of the Catholic Community Foundation.

Sr. Sharon Euart, RSM, is executive director of the Resource Center for Religious Institutes (RCRI).

Geno Fernandez is executive vice president of Zurich North America and a trustee of the National Leadership Roundtable on Church Management.

Joseph F. Finn is a partner of Finn, Warnke & Gayton.

Peter M. Flynn is chief financial officer for the Diocese of Fort Worth.

Carol Fowler is former director of the department of personnel services for the Archdiocese of Chicago and a former trustee of the National Leadership Roundtable on Church Management.

Zeni Fox is professor at Seton Hall University.

Norman Francis is president of Xavier University of Louisiana in New Orleans, and a trustee of the National Leadership Roundtable on Church Management.

William P. Frank is senior partner at the law firm Skadden, Arps, Meagher & Flom LLP.

Michael Galligan–Stierle is president and CEO of the Association of Catholic Colleges and Universities.

Rev. Michael J. Garanzini, SJ, is president of Loyola University Chicago.

Robert Gasser is CEO of Investment Technology Group and a trustee of the National Leadership Roundtable on Church Management.

Charles Geschke is chairman of the board of Adobe Systems, Inc. and a trustee of the National Leadership Roundtable on Church Management.

Susan Gianinno is chair and CEO of Publicis USA.

Frederick W. Gluck is former managing director of McKinsey & Co. Inc. and a trustee of the National Leadership Roundtable on Church Management.

Sr. Doris Gottemoeller, RSM, is senior vice-president, mission values integration, for Catholic Healthcare Partners.

Sr. Katherine Gray, CSJ is director of Mission Integration and Ongoing Formation of Christ Cathedral in Oakland, CA.

Thomas Groome is chair of Boston College School of Theology and Ministry.

Mary Ann Gubish is the former director of the department for envisioning ministry for the Diocese of Pittsburgh.

Michael J. Guerra is president emeritus of the National Catholic Education Association.

Ken Hackett is former president and executive director of Catholic Relief Services and the current United States Ambassador to the Vatican.

Patrick T. Harker is president of the University of Delaware and a former trustee of the National Leadership Roundtable on Church Management.

Alice B. Hayes is former president of the University of San Diego.

Thomas Healey is partner at Healey Development and treasurer of the National Leadership Roundtable on Church Management.

Christine Healey is executive director of the Healey Educational Foundation.

Rev. J. Bryan Hehir is secretary for social services for the Archdiocese of Boston and a trustee of the National Leadership Roundtable on Church Management.

James Higgins is senior advisor for Morgan Stanley.

Rev. Michael Higgins, CP, is director of the development office for Holy Cross Province

Rev. Dennis Holtschneider, CM, is president of DePaul University.

Lori Hricik is director of The Depository Trust and Clearing Corporation

Rev. John Hurley, CSP, is a consultant for New Evangelization Strategies.

Frank J. Ingrassia is former managing director at Goldman, Sachs & Company.

Rev. Msgr. Thomas P. Ivory is pastor emeritus of the Church of the Presentation in Upper Saddle River, NJ.

Marti Jewell is former director of the Emerging Models of Pastoral Leadership Project.

Sr. Mary Johnson, SND, is professor of sociology and religious studies at Trinity Washington University.

Br. Thomas Johnson, FSC, is vicar general of the Institute of the Brothers of the Christian Schools.

Thomas Johnson is chairman and CEO of Greenpoint Financial Corp.

Sr. Carol Keehan, DC, is president and CEO of the Catholic Health Association and a former trustee of the National Leadership Roundtable on Church Management.

Joseph Kelsch is director of business development for International Capital Group, LLC.

Victoria Reggie Kennedy is a trustee of the National Leadership Roundtable on Church Management.

Rev. J. Cletus Kiley is director for immigration policy for UNITE HERE.

Susan King is dean of the UNC-Chapel Hill School of Journalism and Mass Communication, and secretary of the National Leadership Roundtable on Church Management.

Catherine R. Kinney is former president and co-chief of operations of the New York Stock Exchange.

Dolores Leckey is senior fellow at Woodstock Theological Center and advisor to the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

James T. Lenehan is a former executive with Johnson and Johnson.

Rev. Paul Lininger, OFM Conv., is former executive director of the Conference of Major Superiors of Men.

T. Michael Long is a partner at Brown Brothers Harriman.

Mary E. Lyons is president of the University of San Diego.

Michael Madden is principle partner at BlackEagle Partners, LLC.

Rev. Msgr. James T. Mahoney is vicar general of the Diocese of Paterson.

Kathleen Mahoney is former president of Porticus North America Foundation.

Rev. Edward A. Malloy, CSC, is president emeritus of the University of Notre Dame and a former trustee of the National Leadership Roundtable on Church Management.

Josephine C. Mandeville is president of the Connelly Foundation.

Alfred Martinelli is former chairman of the Buckeye Pipeline Company.

John H. McCarthy is senior fellow at the Hauser Center at Harvard University.

Margaret W. McCarty is executive director of the Christian Brothers Conference.

Elizabeth McCaul is a partner at Promontory Financial Group and partner-in-charge of the New York office.

Kathleen McChesney is CEO of Kinsale Management Consulting and is a former trustee of the National Leadership Roundtable on Church Management.

Owen McGovern is president of Catholic Solutions.

Patrick McGrory is chair of the Raskob Foundation for Catholic Activities.

Anne McNulty is a private investor.

Rev. Joseph M. McShane is president of Fordham University.

Charles Millard is director of the Pension Benefit Guaranty Company.

Sr. Patricia Mitchell, SFCC, is executive director of Silicon Valley FACES.

Rev. J. Donald Monan, SJ, is the chancellor of Boston College and is vice-chair of the National Leadership Roundtable on Church Management.

Michael Montelongo is senior vice-president of strategic marketing for SODEXHO, Inc.

Paul M. Montrone is chairman and CEO of Fisher Scientific International, Inc.

Carol Ann Mooney is president of St. Mary’s College in South Bend, IN.

Charles Moore is president of Coleridge, Frost, & Associates and trustee of the National Leadership Roundtable on Church Management.

Mary Jo Moran is executive director of the National Association of Church Personnel Administrators (NACPA).

R. Michael Murray, Jr. is a member of the advisory committee for McKinsey & Company, Inc.

Michael Naughton is director of the John A. Ryan Institute for Catholic Social Thought at the University of St. Thomas.

Joan Neal is Organizational Development Consultant at JF Neal Consulting

Rev. Robert Niehoff, SJ, is president of John Carroll University.

John T. Noonan is a judge in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.

Margaret O’Brien Steinfels is co-director of the Fordham Center on Religion and Culture at Fordham University.

Ralph A. O’Connell is provost of New York Medical College and the dean of the School of Medicine.

William O’Connell is a financial life planner at Ameriprise Financial.

John J. O’Connor is CEO of JH Whitney Investment Management, LLC.

Leon Panetta is former secretary of defense and a former trustee of the National Leadership Roundtable on Church Management.

Mario Paredes is presidential liaison, Roman Catholic Ministries of American Bible Society.

Sr. Catherine M. Patten, RSHM, is former coordinator for the Catholic Common Ground Initiative.

Jane C. Pfeiffer is chairwoman of RCA Videodisc.

Roger Playwin is the former national executive director of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul.

Ronald F. Poe is president of RFP.

R. Robert Popeo is chairman of Mintz, Levin, Cohn, Ferris, Glovsky & Popeo, PC.

James Post is past president and co-founder of Voice of the Faithful.

Richard Powers, III is a trustee of the National Leadership Roundtable on Church Management.

Rev. Thomas Reese, SJ, is a senior analyst for National Catholic Reporter.

Paul Reilly is CEO of Raymond James and a trustee of the National Leadership Roundtable on Church Management.

Sr. Terry Rickard, OP, is director of RENEW International.

Kerry A. Robinson is executive director of the National Leadership Roundtable on Church Management.

Gerard R. Roche is senior chairman of Heidrick & Struggles.

Darla Romfo is president of Children’s Scholarship Fund and a trustee of the National Leadership Roundtable on Church Management.

Cynthia Rowland is a partner of Coblentz, Patch, Duffy & Bass, LLP.

Joseph Roxe is chairman of Bay Holdings, LLC.

Frederic V. Salerno is former vice chairman of Verizon.

Michael Schafer is the executive director of the Catholic Finance Corporation.

Br. Robert Schieler, FSC, is general council of the De La Salle Christian Brothers.

Sr. Katarina Schuth, OSF, holds the endowed chair for the social scientific study of religion at St. Paul Seminary.

John Sexton is president of New York University.

Rev. Msgr. Robert T. Sheeran is former president of Seton Hall University.

Marianne D. Short is a partner with Dorsey and Whitney, LLP.

Rev. John Sivalon, MM, is former superior general of Maryknoll Fathers and Brothers.

Ann G. Skeet is executive director of the American Leadership Forum – Silicon Valley.

Rev. Thomas H. Smolich, SJ, is president emeritus of the Jesuit Conference and of the of the Conference of Major Superiors of Men, and a trustee of the National Leadership Roundtable on Church Management.

Rev. Larry Snyder is president of Catholic Charities USA.

Anthony Spence is director and editor in chief of Catholic News Service.

Rev. Msgr. John J. Strynkowski, STD, is vicar of higher education for the Diocese of Brooklyn.

Br. Stephen Synan, FMS, is president of the Religious Brothers Conference.

Richard F. Syron is former chairman and CEO of Freddie Mac and a trustee emeritus of the National Leadership Roundtable on Church Management.

Dominic Tarantino is retired chairman of PriceWaterhouseCoopers, LLP.

Anthony Tersigni is president and CEO of Ascension Health.

Thomas Tierney is chairman and founder of the Bridgespan Group.

Rev. Richard Vega is former president of the National Federation of Priests’ Councils.

Edmond Villani is vice chairman of Deutsche Asset Management.

Fay Vincent is former commissioner of Major League Baseball.

Rev. Jeffrey P. Von Arx, SJ, is president of Fairfield University.

Rev. John J. Wall is president of Catholic Extension and a trustee of the National Leadership Roundtable on Church Management.

Don C. Watters is a former director of McKinsey & Company.

John A. Werwaiss is CEO of Werwaiss & Co., Inc.

Paul Wilkes is a writer and editor.

Charmaine Williams is a consultant to the Diocese of Fort Worth.

Sr. Susan Wolf is internet and social media strategist of Catholic Web Solutions

Carolyn Woo is president and CEO of Catholic Relief Services.

Charles E. Zech is director of the Center for the Study of Church Management at Villanova University.

National Leadership Roundtable on Church Management

2014 Annual Meeting

The

Standard for Excellence:

BEST PRACTICES FOR A MISSION DRIVEN CHURCH Loyola University Chicago | Lake Shore Campus | June 24-26, 2014

www.TheLeadershipRoundtable.org/AnnualMeeting

Appendix 4

THE NEW EVANGELIZATION AND “EXECUTION-ORIENTED” STRATEGIC PLANNING

For years, non-profits have tried to plan for the future, often with little to show for their efforts beyond dusty file cabinets stuffed with decades of unused mission statements, strategic plans and long-range studies as accomplishing their goals has proven painfully difficult.

Catholic institutions are no exception, but they face the necessity of improving their operations due to economic realities. Pope Francis has challenged every Catholic globally to engage in a New Evangelization that brings the Gospel to others. A recommitment to prayer, the Mass, the Scriptures, Catholic teaching and following the Holy Spirit in reaching out to inactive Catholics, the poor and people in the margins will be key to the New Evangelization. As the Pope states in The Joy of the Gospel: “Jesus can break through the dull categories with which we could enclose him and he constantly amazes us by his divine creativity. Whenever we . . . return to the source and . . . recover the original freshness of the Gospel, new avenues arise, new paths of creativity open up . . . with new meaning for today’s world.”

The material side will be vital as well. While evangelization is primarily a matter of individuals and groups spreading the faith, carrying out these activities requires an infrastructure. Schools, parishes, charitable services and missions all must be financed; maintenance must be performed and employees need to be paid. To accomplish this, the Church needs to integrate the type of planning and execution that the business world has pioneered with the missionary and pastoral insights that are at the heart of the Church’s identity.

To help in this process, the two of us - a current Roman Catholic bishop and a retired Fortune 50 CEO - came together in 2010 to apply execution-oriented planning to somewhat outdated and inefficient church structures. A fresh and outside business insight combined with a pastoral approach particular to the Diocese of Allentown, Pennsylvania led to a strategic planning process involving key personnel: the diocesan priests, deacons, employees and volunteers. This two-year experience harnessed the expertise of many outstanding lay Catholics. The willingness of these

busy men and women to devote substantial time to the tasks was both inspirational and highly productive.

The theory behind the process was simple: in order to carry out its missions, the Diocese needed to manage itself better. Strategic planning, however, can be a hard sell in non profits. Employees often wonder whether strategic planning is a euphemism for cutting jobs. Accordingly, the Diocese launched projects with specific goals and tactics to build on the momentum created by accomplished projects.

Throughout the process, the emphasis was always the same: it is not enough to come up with a strategic plan, you have to be “execution oriented”--you have to carry out the plan or you have not accomplished anything. To put this into the language of Catholic spirituality, there must be a union of prayer and action.

On the material side groups focused on parish capital improvements, structural engineering, real estate, pensions and benefits, purchasing and economies of scale, information technology and diocesan funds management. Knitting much of this together was an emphasis on a more intentionally integrated and prioritized budget process and financial strategy. The groups rigorously assessed Diocesan finances and, using the substantial resources they generated, implemented actions essential to placing the Diocese on a more secure financial footing. Meanwhile, the Diocese’s commission on Catholic schools and its education staff have jointly begun to accomplish what many thought was impossible-last year there was a small but real increase in enrollment after 15 years of declines.

The process has also convinced many that the Diocese deserves increased financial support. Significant unsolicited donations have been made by persons who are deeply engaged in the strategic planning process and there has been a marked increase in giving to the Diocese’s annual financial appeal.

Some of the lessons learned along the way include: •Organizations do not execute unless the right people focus on the right details at the right time. When recruiting volunteers, match the right skill sets to the issues you are addressing.

•Set clear objectives, have the prayerful tenacity to follow through and be willing to make hard choices. Construct sharp, well-expressed goals with definite time frames. Keep things simple and understandable. Resistance and stalling are normal human reactions that need to be constructively confronted. Encourage all involved to be open-minded and objective. Debate respectfully and resolve issues openly. Recognize the value of getting buy-in but don’t mistake buy-in strategies for criticalchange strategies. Move forward tenaciously but be flexible with approaches as you dig deeper into an issue.

•Report and celebrate progress. Achievement creates a momentum that generates confidence to undertake and achieve more.

The Diocese still has tough work to do and difficult decisions to make in managing its infrastructure and pursuing the New Evangelization, but the success to date shows that executionoriented strategic planning can work in the non-profit world.

John O. Barres is the Bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Allentown

Larry Bossidy is the former CEO of Honeywell and Allied Signal and the author of Execution: The Discipline of Getting Things Done

National Leadership Roundtable on Church Management 2014 Annual Meeting

The Standard for Excellence:

BEST PRACTICES FOR A MISSION DRIVEN CHURCH

Loyola University Chicago | Lake Shore Campus | June 24-26, 2014

www.TheLeadershipRoundtable.org/AnnualMeeting

Appendix 5

LEADERSHIP ROUNDTABLE PUBLICATIONS

Visit www.TheLeadershipRoundtable.org/Publications to download copies of previous publications.

A Call to Communion: Co-Responsibility for the Good of the Church

Topics include the new evangelization and getting our feet dirty, empowering young people to fulfill their baptismal calling, co-responsibility for Church finances, Pope Francis and reforming the Vatican. (2013)

From Aspirations to Action: Solutions for America’s Catholic Schools

Topics include the case for Catholic schools, creating a culture of excellence, and 94 recommendations to strengthen Catholic schools. (2011)

Clarity, Candor and Conviction: Effective Communications for a Global Church.

Topics include the future of communications, the growing Catholic Latino population in the U.S., and transcripts of keynote addresses from Prime Minister Tony Blair and Bishop Gerald Kicanas. (2009)

Give Us Your Best: A Look at Church Service for a New Generation.

Topics include identifying the next generation of Church leaders and ministers, and recruiting the very best for Church service. (2007)

The Church in America: Leadership Roundtable 2005A Call to Excellence in the Church (2005)

Managing for Mission: Building Strategic Collborations to Strengthen the Church

Topics include partnership, connecting with funders, lessons from the US Army, and the end of assumed virtue for nonprofits. (2012)

A Blueprint for Responsibility: Responding to Crises with Collaborative Solutions

Topics include the case for transparency and accountability in a global church, the lessons learned from the sex abuse crisis in the US, and philanthropy and accountability in uncertain economic times. (2010)

Managerial Excellence: Engaging the Faith Community in Leadership in the Church Today.

Topics include a parish ministry assessment tool, best practices from model parishes, and challenges and solutions in Church strategic planning. (2008)

Bringing Our Gifts to the Table: Creating Conditions for Financial Health in the Church

Topics include effective diocesan planning and the power of economies of scale in the Church. (2006)

The Church in America: Challenges and Opportunities in Governance and Accountability for Institutions in Transition (2004)

A National Symposium: Hispanic Leadership and Philanthropy for a 21st Century Church

This gathering will explore Hispanic engagement in Church ministry, philanthropy, management, and civic life.

At this symposium, we will gather philanthropists, Church leaders, business executives, educators, trustees of Catholic institutions and networks, and other key stakeholders for a highly participatory series of keynotes, workgroups, and plenary sessions. Together we will explore existing models and opportunities for growth in Hispanic leadership and philanthropy and consider how we can respond faithfully and effectively to embrace and leverage a culturally rich Catholic Church in the 21st century.