Seven bishops join Catholic Leadership Institute’s Episcopal Advisory Board

Feb 28, 2009 / 16:26 pm

Seven U.S. bishops have joined the Catholic Leadership Institute’s Episcopal Advisory Board, the institute announced on Thursday.

The Catholic Leadership Institute (CLI) aims to train people in leadership skills to help them become Catholic leaders and Christian witnesses in their families, workplaces, communities and Church.

According to a press release from the Institute, The new board members include Archbishop of Boston Seán Cardinal O'Malley, Bishop of Austin Gregory M. Aymond, Bishop of Orlando, Florida Thomas Wenski, and Bishop of Pittsburgh David Zubik. Other new board members are Bishop of Springfield, Illinois George Lucas, Bishop of Sacramento Jaime Soto, and Auxiliary Bishop of Philadelphia Daniel Thomas.

"I am pleased to partner with my brother bishops in support of the ministry of Catholic Leadership Institute. Their work has made a tremendous impact on so many dioceses around the country and I look forward to the opportunity to further their efforts of building happy, healthy and holy leaders for the Church," said Bishop Gregory Aymond, Episcopal Moderator of CLI's Advisory Board.

The Advisory Board was formed to enhance the organization’s leadership development and formation programming to better serve priests and lay faithful, the Institute said.

At present the Catholic Leadership Institute offers a two-year leadership training program for priests titled “Good Shepherds, Good Leaders.” According to CLI, the program uses Jesus Christ as the “ultimate shepherd” in curriculum designed to help clergy overcome contemporary challenges such as a diminishing number of clergy and the “complex circumstances” of priestly ministry.

The program intends to help priests “minimize the frustration and energy” spent on administrative roles and maximize the “joy and time spent on the pastoral duties for which they were uniquely ordained.”