Building Bridges
First Fridays with Leadership Roundtable | January 2024
In this edition
Up First: Rebuilding trust and the role of the Church in addressing mental health
News & Noteworthy:
2025: The Jubilee Year: Pilgrims of Hope
Synod Takeaway: Lay participation in bishop selections
Lessons from the Toolbox: A Pastor’s Wellness
Leadership Roundtable in the Field:
Building Bridges National Gathering
Recapping Our Work in 2024
ESTEEM receives grant through Lilly Endowment and the McGrath Institute for Church Life to expand its program to more campuses
Up First
Rebuilding trust and the role of the Church in addressing mental health
The final Synod document provided the Church a to-do list of recommendations, many aimed at restoring trust and strengthening our institutions in the wake of the twin crises that have rocked the global Church over the past two decades. While the reforms called for in the final document are critically important, it’s equally important that we take time to remember just why our Church institutions are so important; why they are worth saving.
To that end, a recent conversation at Georgetown University’s Initiative on Catholic Social Thought and Public Life served as a powerful reminder of why the institutions of the U.S. Catholic Church are so vital, not just to Catholics but to communities, and why the strength of our local institutions matter. The Church —and particularly churchgoing—plays a vital role in supporting individuals and communities and helping those in need. One often unseen way is fostering positive mental health.
During that conversation, New York Times columnist, David Brooks, noted that the mental health crisis facing America stems, in part, from a crisis of spirituality and of trust. Recent studies have found that 36% of Americans are persistently lonely, 40% of young people experience persistent hopelessness, a full one-in-five Americans reported having experienced some form of mental illness in 2023, more than 40% of adults report feeling more anxious than the year before, and 17% report having a substance abuse disorder — all at increasing rates.
However, a growing body of research has also found that active engagement in a faith community and religious practice is associated with overall better mental health. And that when facing mental health concerns, Americans still overwhelmingly turn to their faith leaders and community for support.
Recently, a global study of more than 10,000 people from 24 countries found a direct correlation between those who actively practice and follow a religion and greater positive mental health, with the strongest correlation found in the United States. Further, a study of nearly 90,000 American women found attending weekly religious service corresponded with a five-times reduction in rates of suicide, even after controlling for depression, major life stress, and social activity.
While the challenges the Church faces are real, it is helpful as we launch this Jubilee Year of Hope to remember the powerful role our parishes, leaders, and faith play in strengthening our communities and supporting families and individuals in need.
Go Deeper:
Does Religion Generate Higher Levels of Self-Reported Well Being?. The Association of Religion Data Archives. November 2024.
New Polling Data Shows Most People of Faith Would Seek Mental Health Care if Recommended by Their Faith Leader. American Psychiatric Association. September 2024.
What Do We Do Now? Catholic Responsibilities, Opportunities After the Election and Synod. Georgetown University Initiative on Catholic Social Thought and Public Life. December 2024.
News & Noteworthy
2025: The Jubilee Year: Pilgrims of Hope
Approximately every 25 years, the Catholic Church hosts a Jubilee, a Holy Year of renewed faith and celebration. As has been tradition, on Christmas Eve, the Jubilee year officially began with the rite of the opening of the Holy Door at St. Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican just ahead of Midnight Mass.
The theme of this Jubilee year is “Pilgrims of Hope.” Despite not knowing what the future may bring, the Jubilee year encourages Catholics to lean into the hope that we each hold for good things to come.
Go Deeper:
Jubilee 2025. Vatican.
Jubilee 2025 — Pilgrims of Hope. USCCB.
10 things to know about Jubilee 2025—the Holy Year that begins on Christmas Eve. Catholic News Service via America. December 2024.
5 Holy Doors: What Every Catholic Should Know Ahead of Jubilee 2025. National Catholic Register. August 2024.
Synod Takeaway: Lay participation in bishop selections
The Final Document from the Synod includes many recommendations to increase transparency, accountability, and co-responsibility in the Church, including a call for “the People of God [to] have a greater voice in choosing Bishops.”
Throughout history, the process for selecting bishops has evolved from a highly decentralized process in the early Church to a modern system that is driven by bishops and approved by the Holy Father. In an article published in November, Jesuit priest and Religion News columnist Fr. Thomas Reese, SJ offers a primer on the evolution of those changes.
“In the early church,” Reese explains, “when a bishop died, the people would gather in the cathedral and choose a new bishop, who could be a priest or layman.” Today, the process is led by bishops and ultimately reviewed and approved at the Vatican by a committee of cardinals and bishops that votes on the candidates and submits its recommendation to the pope, who can accept or reject their suggestion.
There is, of course, no perfect way to select a bishop. The early process, which was heavily decentralized and locally led, provided fertile ground for corruption or manipulation. The modern system, some worry, may be too heavily centralized and are calling for a process that allows for more transparency and greater involvement from the laity and from local clergy.
Prior to the final assembly gathering in October 2024, Pope Francis assigned the question of bishop selection to a special study group of experts from all continents. The study group will deliver its response to the Pope this year, taking into account the recommendations from the Final Document.
Go Deeper:
The laity should have a greater voice in choosing bishops. National Catholic Reporter. November 2024.
For a Synodal Church: Communion, Participation, Mission Final Document. Vatican. November 2024.
Inside The Vatican: How Are Catholic Bishops Chosen? Religion Unplugged. October 2024.
Pope to priests: Be “shepherds with 'the smell of the sheep'”. Vatican News. June 2021.
2022 Catholic Partnership Summit Report. Leadership Roundtable. 2023.
Lessons from the Toolbox
A Pastor’s Wellness
A Lesson from "A Pastor's Toolbox, Vol. 2," Chapter 12
In our Up First section, we highlight the important role the Church plays in individual and community well-being. But for our parishes to serve their community well, the pastor’s overall well-being must be supported so he can lead with strength and care.
In chapter 12 of “A Pastor’s Toolbox Vol. 2,” Andrew F. Kelly, a licensed clinical psychologist who at the time of publication was director of the Clergy Consultation and Treatment Service at St. Vincent’s Hospital in Westchester, N.Y., details that understanding and fostering a pastor’s well-being is not simply a matter of self-care, but also requires ensuring the pastor has the awareness, social-emotional capacity, and healthy coping skills to lead the Church.
Being a pastor requires engaging in what Kelly called “intimate communication,” a relational way of being that involves listening, empathy and understanding, resonance, clarification, and response — all before leading. Kelly cautions that pastors cannot effectively lead if they are distant from the laity or view themselves as superior; nor if they overly seek to please, fail to properly manage confrontation, acknowledge their limitations, or accept and follow authority. Developing proper relationships, engaging in healthy communication, setting boundaries where needed, and learning to understand personal limitations, in addition to practices of self-care, are all part of his blueprint for pastors to build solid mental, social, and emotional wellbeing.
Kelly offers pastors a checklist for taking stock of their wellness and encourages them to make time each day to reflect on what went well in an effort to consistently acknowledge the positive, especially in times of challenge.
Go Deeper:
Read Ch. 12 of A Pastor’s Toolbox Vol. 2.
How Businesses Should Be Thinking About Mental Health. Forbes. December 2024.
Movement Behaviors and Mental Health of Catholic Priests in the Eastern United States. Journal of Religion & Health. August 2023.
Visit our online store to purchase both volumes of “A Pastor’s Toolbox” and the version in Spanish, “La Caja de Herramientas para Líderes Pastorales.”
Leadership Roundtable in the Field
Building Bridges National Gathering
In December, Leadership Roundtable hosted the Building Bridges National Gathering in Chicago, made possible by the generous support of the Lilly Endowment. This gathering brought together a diverse, intergenerational group of lay, clergy, and religious leaders from across the U.S. in a synodal process centered on how we can overcome divisions within the Church. Participants gathered from nine states — from Louisiana to South Dakota, New Jersey to California.
Ensuring participants were members of and served communities reflecting the broad ethnic and cultural diversity of the Church in the U.S. — including Black, Indigenous, Hispanic/Latino, and Asian-Pacific Islander Catholics, as well as young adults — at least half of participants who took part in the three-day event had never before attended a Leadership Roundtable gathering.
Participants prayed together, shared faith, celebrated the Eucharist, and shared in synodal/spiritual conversations related to building bridges within our faith communities. Conversations focused on the importance of intercultural competency, active listening, diversity in our leadership teams, and synodal leadership in shaping the future of Catholic leadership. Moving forward, Leadership Roundtable is committed to continuing to promote and offer formation and dialogue around these principles and continuing conversations on how to overcome polarization in our Church and society.
Our Work in 2024
As we reflect on 2024, we wanted to share some quick highlights of our year and our growing work with Catholic leaders across the country.
ESTEEM receives grant through Lilly Endowment and the McGrath Institute for Church Life to expand its program to more campuses
ESTEEM (Engaging Students to Enliven the Ecclesial Mission), a young adult leadership formation program created in partnership by Leadership Roundtable and the Saint Thomas More Catholic Chapel and Center at Yale University, will join organizations across the United States in 2025 in a new initiative aimed at deepening the Catholic faith of young adults through intentional service and reflection.
Led by the McGrath Institute for Church Life at the University of Notre Dame and funded by a $10 million grant through Lilly Endowment Inc.'s National Youth and Young Adult Initiative, the Pathways to Communion Program will support ESTEEM to expand support to current campuses and extend its network of campuses nationwide.
Over the five-year project, ESTEEM will engage in a cohort of organizations working to impact the faith lives of young adults through the support of the McGrath Institute's expert guidance in program evaluation and improvement. ESTEEM will expand its programmatic support and select ten small liberal arts colleges to initiate its program on their campuses, enhancing service experiences through leadership formation and reflection opportunities, cultivating a sense of servant-leadership among the young adult participants. ESTEEM will supply financial and pastoral support to those sites to make the programmatic experience robust and enriching, as well as remove as many resource-based limitations as possible, and integrate the ten new sites into a national network of 18 campuses across the U.S.
Go Deeper:
ESTEEM Partners with The University of Notre Dame’s McGrath Institute For Church Life to Expand Program through Network of Campus Ministries. Press Release from Leadership Roundtable. December 2024.
University of Notre Dame receives $10 million grant to strengthen faith-based service opportunities for youth and young adults. Press Release from University of Notre Dame. December 2024.
Leadership Roundtable
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