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University of Notre Dame receives $10 million grant to strengthen faith-based service opportunities for youth and young adults

2024-12-17T09:00:00-05:00

The University of Notre Dame has received a $10 million grant from Lilly Endowment to fund the new Pathways to Communion Program at the McGrath Institute for Church Life. This program aims to strengthen the ecosystem of theologically informed service opportunities for young Catholics in the United States.

Notre Dame is one of 12 organizations being funded through Lilly Endowment’s National Youth and Young Adult Initiative on Faith & Service, which is designed to nurture and deepen the faith of Christian young people through intentional service and reflection about the meaning of service in their lives. Funding to Notre Dame will enable the institute to develop a support hub for 10 partner organizations that provide youth service opportunities and conduct national research designed to generate insights about young people’s experiences.

Katherine Angulo, program director of the Thriving in Ministry Initiative at the McGrath Institute, will lead the Pathways to Communion Program. Michael Baxter, a visiting associate professor at the institute, will serve as faculty adviser. Research will be implemented by Timothy O’Malley, the associate director for research at the institute, and Laura Upenieks, a sociologist from Baylor University.

John Cavadini (Photo by Matt Cashore/University of Notre Dame)

The McGrath Institute, which partners with Catholic dioceses, parishes and schools to address pastoral challenges with theological depth and rigor, is uniquely suited to oversee this program, said John Cavadini, the McGrath-Cavadini Director of the institute.

“The Church is one of the principal agents of service in this country and worldwide, yet there is no easy way for service organizations within the Church to form their people in a properly theological ideal of service. This grant will allow us to do precisely that,” Cavadini said. “The McGrath Institute is well-positioned to respond to this need because of its access to the insights of leading scholars as well as its record of collaboration with dioceses and organizations across the nation.”

The McGrath Institute will become a hub of support, offering subgrant funds to allow partner organizations to create or expand programming in their communities. These organizations are Alive in You, Andre House of Hospitality, the Catholic Campus Ministry Association, the Diocese of Charleston, the Diocese of Helena, the Diocese of Honolulu, the Diocese of Orange, ESTEEM (a joint partnership between Leadership Roundtable and Saint Thomas More Catholic Chapel and Center at Yale University), Iskali and the McGrath Institute’s Notre Dame Vision program.

Katherine Angulo (Photo by Steve Toepp/University of Notre Dame)

“We believe this program’s articulation of the theology of Christian service can help to set up programming that will explore the deepest roots of this theology,” Angulo said. “The program will be flexible enough to develop formation opportunities that are not one-size-fits-all and that can match the local cultures of each individual organization while emerging from a universal vision of Christian faith and service.”

Over five years, the leaders of the 10 partner organizations will participate in gatherings on Notre Dame’s campus, receive on-site visits by program managers and experience ongoing supervision with robust guidance in program evaluation and improvement. The institute will also develop a community of collaboration among these leaders that will continue beyond the grant.

At the same time, researchers led by O’Malley and Upenieks will have access to the leaders of the partner organizations, while partner organizations will have the opportunity to shape research questions and gain access to findings.

“You often hear people say that young people in the Church today are rigorously committed to service as part of their religious lives. But we have to admit that we don’t quite know as much as we think about the religious lives of young people in the Church today,” O’Malley said. “How do they pray? What’s the connection to service? How has COVID-19 changed their relationship to the Church? These are the kind of questions that our research will take up, in a longitudinal project that includes quantitative and qualitative dimensions alike.

“This research will help our partner organizations respond to the deepest needs and desires of the young adults they’re working with. The research we will undertake and the development of the support hub are designed to support each other.”

Cavadini noted that Christian service is modeled by Jesus Christ, who came into this life “in the form of a servant” (Philippians 2:7), and is thus an intrinsic element of Christian life.

“Service has a Eucharistic dimension because the Church is united by Christ’s self-giving love received in the sacrament of the Eucharist. Such love brings us to care for the least of these as an act flowing forth from Christian worship.”

Lilly Endowment Inc. is a private philanthropic foundation created in 1937 by J.K. Lilly Sr. and his sons Eli and J.K. Jr. through gifts of stock in their pharmaceutical business, Eli Lilly and Company. While those gifts remain the financial bedrock of the Endowment, it is a separate entity from the company, with a distinct governing board, staff and location. In keeping with the founders’ wishes, the Endowment supports the causes of community development, education and religion and maintains a special commitment to its hometown, Indianapolis, and home state, Indiana. The principal aim of the Endowment’s religion grantmaking is to deepen and enrich the lives of Christians in the United States, primarily by seeking out and supporting efforts that enhance the vitality of congregations and strengthen the pastoral and lay leadership of Christian communities. The Endowment also seeks to improve public understanding of diverse religious traditions by supporting fair and accurate portrayals of the role religion plays in the United States and across the globe.

Contact: Carrie Gates, associate director of media relations, c.gates@nd.edu or 574-993-9220.

McGrath Institute to host online seminars to help inform new USCCB pastoral statement on disability and inclusion in the Church

2024-03-06T15:00:00-05:00

Photo by Matt Cashore/University of Notre Dame

The McGrath Institute for Church Life at the University of Notre Dame has partnered with the National Catholic Partnership on Disability to offer six online educational seminars for Church leadership on disability and inclusion in the Church.

The series, “In Communion: Advancing the Full Participation of Persons with Disabilities in the Church,” has been created to help inform a new pastoral statement on people with disabilities being developed by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee on Laity, Marriage, Family Life and Youth.

Pastoral statements are teaching tools used by bishops to communicate official Church teachings on important issues.

The webinars, which are free and open to the public, will begin Thursday (March 7) from 3 to 4:30 p.m. EST. Future sessions will take place on March 14 and 21 and April 11, 18 and 25.

Clare Kilbane (Photo by Matt Cashore/University of Notre Dame)

Convening a cross-disciplinary group of experts, including people with disabilities, theologians, clergy, lay people and professionals in the field, each session will explore foundational and aspirational concepts important to the pastoral statement and how to enhance the involvement of people with disabilities in the Church.

The seminars will also address the role of the Church in advocating for people with disabilities in society.

“One important goal is to help leaders understand what is required to welcome Church members who experience disability more fully into the life of the Church,” said Clare Kilbane, director of research and development for McGrath’s Digital Education Program. “We also plan to explore how methods of inclusion and intentional efforts to promote belonging can transform opportunities for relationship and faith development for all.”

Another emphasis of the seminars will be to equip the authoring committee with a robust understanding of the experiences of people with disabilities, Kilbane said, as well as a recognition of the many and varied barriers they face and an appreciation for the gifts they have to offer the Church.

“We will look at how, through the development of this new pastoral statement, the Church can welcome all members into greater communion and sharing of Divine love, and each individual into a deeper relationship with God,” she said.

The series will begin with an exploration of the impact pastoral statements have on the Church and larger society and an analysis of the existing pastoral statement written in 1978. Participants will also consider how the new statement might advance and deepen the past statement’s teachings.

Subsequent sessions will analyze the concept of disability in general and how it is uniquely experienced by individuals, outline a vision of “full participation” in Church life and explore what it takes to create a Church where all are not only welcome, but also supported in ways that enable full participation.

“Through these seminars, we hope to help Church leadership understand that when persons with disabilities are welcomed — and invited to participate in all aspects of Church life — the Body of Christ is more complete,” said Charleen Katra, executive director of the National Catholic Partnership on Disability.

Additional information and online registration are available here.

Contact: Carrie Gates, associate director of media relations, 574-631-4313, c.gates@nd.edu

New Center for Liturgy initiative aims to foster children’s participation in worship

2024-03-06T08:00:00-05:00

The University of Notre Dame has received a grant of $1.25 million from Lilly Endowment Inc. to create a three-year research and education initiative intended to foster children’s participation in worship in the context of late modernity. Lilly Endowment made the grant through its Nurturing Children Through Worship and Prayer Initiative.

Situated within the McGrath Institute for Church Life’s Notre Dame Center for Liturgy, the initiative, called Contours of Wonder: Childhood and the Liturgical Imagination, seeks to renew liturgical formation in the Church by identifying the proper dispositions necessary for children and adults alike to worship God. Contours will then develop pastoral programming that cultivates a liturgical-sacramental imagination in dioceses and parishes.

Contours of Wonder is inspired by Romano Guardini’s scholarship on the liturgical formation of the child and adolescent. Commenting on Guardini’s importance to the initiative, Timothy O’Malley, academic director of the Notre Dame Center for Liturgy, noted: “Romano Guardini understood that if we were to develop a humane culture in an age characterized by technology, the abuse of power and frenetic activity, we need to remember what it means to be a liturgical creature. The formation of the child in the proper dispositions for worship will not only be good for the child but also for the entire human family.”

Through Contours, Notre Dame will partner with Villanova University to host three scholarly gatherings, culminating in three research volumes. Based on this research, a series of workshops and a leadership cohort will be piloted in partner dioceses across the United States. Cohort participants will spend a year exploring new ways to approach the liturgical formation of children and will develop implementation plans for their own churches, schools and dioceses. The initiative will culminate in a capstone conference in the summer of 2026.

To promote ongoing scholarship in this area, Contours will also host lectures and webinars throughout the three-year initiative and offer academic research fellowships to undergraduate and graduate students at the University of Notre Dame. An undergraduate course at Notre Dame will also be created, introducing Notre Dame students to contemplative and sacramental practices necessary for human flourishing.

“We are engaging with scholars from across disciplines as well as parents, catechists, pastors and children themselves. Essential to this initiative is ensuring that our research contributes meaningfully to the academy while remaining accessible to the wider Church in a way that inspires a transformation in how children are both understood and formed,” said Lesley Kirzeder, program director of the initiative.

O’Malley concluded by saying: “We are grateful to Lilly Endowment for enabling us to participate in this initiative. Since its founding in 1970, the Center for Liturgy has had a special focus on the formation of children for participation in the liturgy. This grant, therefore, is a natural outgrowth of our mission to renew the liturgical and sacramental imagination of the Church. It’s a gift to engage in this kind of pastorally informed research and teaching that allows us to directly serve the Church in the unique way that a University can.”

Originally published by Margaret Scroope at mcgrath.nd.edu on Feb. 28.

Notre Dame receives $1.25 million grant from Lilly Endowment Inc.

2023-08-22T10:36:00-04:00

The University of Notre Dame has received a grant of $1.25 million from Lilly Endowment Inc. to expand the work of the McGrath Institute for Church Life’s Holy Family Initiative for Family Catechesis, which offers parents, caregivers and Church leaders the tools they need to effectively pass on their Catholic faith to the next generation.

This effort is being funded through Lilly Endowment’s Christian Parenting and Caregiving Initiative. The aim of the initiative is to help parents and caregivers share their faith and values with their children.

The Holy Family Initiative is a catechesis program that seeks to create a culture of affiliation in Hispanic Catholic families through formation, community building, prayer and action. Through bilingual sessions, members of the McGrath Institute team offer dioceses and parishes new methods of affiliation aimed at overcoming the existing divisions between immigrant parents and growing numbers of first- and second-generation Hispanics born in the United States. The program seeks to build confidence in parishioners to take ownership of their own ability as the primary evangelizers for their families, and equip them with the spiritual tools to do so.

This grant will allow the McGrath Institute to expand this important work currently offered in parishes in the Archdiocese of San Antonio and the Diocese of Raleigh.

“Through this program, we want to create lasting structures of affiliation that aren’t just institutional, but start in the domestic Church, the heart of every parish,” said Katherine Angulo, director of the Thriving in Ministry Initiative at the McGrath Institute. “We are grateful to the Lilly Endowment, whose generous grant will help us reach even more communities, inviting Catholic Hispanic families into a deeper understanding of the distinctive aspects of Christian parenting.”

“The McGrath Institute mission is to respond to the pastoral challenges facing today’s Church leaders, parishes and dioceses, particularly in light of the issue of disaffiliation,” said John Cavadini, the McGrath-Cavadini Director of the McGrath Institute. “Through collaborations like these, we are able to offer programming that serves the wonderfully unique needs of the multicultural Church.”

Notre Dame is one of 77 organizations receiving grants through this competitive round of the initiative. Reflecting the diversity of Christianity in the United States, the organizations are affiliated with mainline Protestant, evangelical, Catholic, Orthodox Christian and Pentecostal faith communities. Many of the organizations are rooted in Black, Hispanic and Asian Christian traditions.

“We’ve heard from many parents who are seeking to nurture the spiritual lives of their children, especially in their daily activities, and looking to churches and other faith-based organizations for support,” said Christopher L. Coble, Lilly Endowment’s vice president for religion. “These thoughtful, creative and collaborative organizations embrace the important role that families have in shaping the religious development of children and are launching programs to assist parents and caregivers with this task.”

Lilly Endowment launched the Christian Parenting and Caregiving Initiative in 2022 because of its interest in supporting efforts to help individuals and families from diverse Christian communities draw more fully on the wisdom of Christian practices to live out their faith fully as well as passing on a vibrant faith to a new generation.

Lilly Endowment Inc. is a private foundation created in 1937 by J.K. Lilly Sr. and his sons Eli and J.K. Jr. through gifts of stock in their pharmaceutical business, Eli Lilly and Company. While those gifts remain the financial bedrock of the endowment, it is a separate entity from the company, with a distinct governing board, staff and location. In keeping with the founders’ wishes, the endowment supports the causes of community development, education and religion and maintains a special commitment to its hometown, Indianapolis, and home state, Indiana. A principal aim of the endowment’s religion grantmaking is to deepen and enrich the lives of Christians in the United States, primarily by seeking out and supporting efforts that enhance the vitality of congregations and strengthen the pastoral and lay leadership of Christian communities. The endowment also seeks to improve public understanding of diverse religious traditions by supporting fair and accurate portrayals of the role religion plays in the United States and across the globe.

The McGrath Institute for Church Life partners with Catholic dioceses, parishes and schools to address pastoral challenges with theological depth and rigor. By connecting the Catholic intellectual life to the life of the Church, we form faithful Catholic leaders for service to the Church and the world.

Originally published by Margaret Scroope at mcgrath.nd.edu on Aug. 15.

Notre Dame Vision program celebrates 20 years of in-person programming

2023-05-05T08:00:00-04:00

“Who am I?” “How will my gifts change the world?”

For the past 20 years, the University of Notre Dame, Saint Mary’s College and Holy Cross College students of different majors and walks of life have given their summers to empower high school students to ask these and other big questions during one-week summer conferences on Notre Dame’s campus.

Started in 2001 with a $2 million grant from the Lilly Foundation to “theologically explore vocation,” Notre Dame Vision is an expression of the robust faith life of the University, living out Notre Dame’s mission to be a force for good.

“Vision is animated by a fundamental truth. God not only calls us to this mission, but capacitates us to respond. But the complexities and challenges of this day and age are making it hard for young people to remember and embrace this fact. We wish to empower young people to rediscover this and commit to being witnesses in the world,” said Megan Shepherd, program director of Notre Dame Vision.

To this end, the college students, called “mentors in faith,” take a class through Notre Dame’s Department of Theology and receive intellectual, pastoral and communal formation in the semester preceding the summer.

“This formation plants seeds for a new kind of imagination to grow the minds of our college students, that faith is not something abstract, but a concrete reality that redefines how we live and orient our lives,” Craig Gould, associate director of Notre Dame Vision, said.

Armed with this training, the college students bring these conferences to life in the summers for the high school participants. The mentors lead small groups, share witness talks and serve as resident assistants in the residence halls. They act as guides as the high school students experience life on campus, live in the residence halls, eat in the dining halls and pray in some of Notre Dame’s famous sacred spaces.

Since 2007, Vision has hosted campus and youth ministers for separate conferences focused on their spiritual, personal and professional renewal. Many of these ministers, such as Elliott Gualtiere, dean of mission and ministry at Fairfield Prep in Connecticut, have brought students.

“Not only has this program positively impacted our students’ lives, but our larger community as well,” Gualtiere said. “Because of their experience at Vision, our students have embraced Christ’s call to be leaders in faith. Vision empowers them to make commitments that translate his love into action.”

After 20 years of in-person programming, Vision recently celebrated a big milestone — it received its 20,000th registration.

Scott Boyle, director of outreach for Vision, is a former college mentor and one of more than 1,250 college students who have served the program over the past 20 years. He said, “It’s truly humbling to be a part of a program with this kind of impact. As a former mentor myself, Vision empowered me to re-engage my faith and see possibilities for my life I could never have imagined. I can’t wait to see the impact Vision will have on our next 20,000 students.”

Notre Dame Vision Summer Conferences are still accepting high school student registrations for the 2023 conferences. Visit mcgrath.nd.edu/vision to register and learn more about their work and mission.

Originally published by Margaret Scroope at mcgrath.nd.edu on May 2.

McGrath Institute for Church Life receives $1M grant to establish compelling preaching program

2023-03-14T16:31:00-04:00

The McGrath Institute for Church Life at the University of Notre Dame has received a $1 million implementation grant from Lilly Endowment Inc. to help establish a three-year program titled Savoring the Mystery: Catholic Preaching in an Age of Disaffiliation. This initiative, based out of the Notre Dame Center for Liturgy at the McGrath Institute, proposes a renewal of Roman Catholic preaching.

Through a team-based cohort approach, 10 diverse cohorts of 20 Catholic leaders from across the United States will take part in a two-year formation process. These groupings will consist of one clergy member and one lay staff member and will focus on mediating an encounter with Jesus Christ through Scripture and preaching. In the third year of the program, McGrath staff will work with a select group of these participants to create digital courses and other resources to expand the impact of the formation process to the wider U.S. Church.

“This program perfectly aligns with our mission to connect the intellectual resources of the University of Notre Dame to the daily pastoral challenges facing today’s Catholics leaders. It is clear, based on all sociological studies, that poverty in Catholic preaching is a major obstacle to the flourishing of Church life in our day,” said Timothy O’Malley, associate professor of the practice and academic director of the Notre Dame Center for Liturgy at the McGrath Institute for Church Life. “This generous grant will allow us to foster compelling preaching that resonates with U.S. Catholics experiencing the effects of disaffiliation. We hope to create a preaching culture of affiliation.”

The effort is being funded through Lilly Endowment’s Compelling Preaching Initiative. The McGrath Institute is one of 32 organizations receiving funding in an invitational round of grants for the initiative, which is designed to help Christian pastors strengthen their abilities to proclaim the Gospel in more engaging and effective ways.

“Through the richness of this program, we will be able to contribute to the formation of faithful Catholic leaders, and inspire a renewed Catholic imagination promoting the liturgical renewal of the Church,” added John C. Cavadini, the McGrath-Cavadini Director of the McGrath Institute for Church Life.

“We are excited about the work that these organizations will do to foster and support preaching that better inspires, encourages and guides people to come to know and love God and to live out their Christian faith more fully,” said Christopher L. Coble, Lilly Endowment’s vice president for religion. “Their programs will serve a significant number of aspiring and current preachers who are working to reach and engage increasingly diverse audiences both within and beyond congregations.”

The Compelling Preaching Initiative is part of the Endowment’s longstanding interest in supporting projects that help to nurture the religious lives of individuals and families and foster the growth and vitality of Christian congregations in the United States.

Lilly Endowment Inc. is a private philanthropic foundation created in 1937 by J.K. Lilly Sr. and his sons Eli and J.K. Jr. through gifts of stock in their pharmaceutical business, Eli Lilly and Co. While those gifts remain the financial bedrock of the Endowment, it is a separate entity from the company, with a distinct governing board, staff and location. In keeping with the founders’ wishes, the Endowment supports the causes of community development, education and religion and maintains a special commitment to its hometown, Indianapolis, and home state, Indiana. The principal aim of the Endowment’s religion grantmaking is to deepen and enrich the lives of Christians in the United States, primarily by seeking out and supporting efforts that enhance the vitality of congregations and strengthen the pastoral and lay leadership of Christian communities. In addition, the Endowment also seeks to improve public understanding of diverse religious traditions by supporting fair and accurate portrayals of the role religion plays in the United States and across the globe.

The McGrath Institute for Church Life partners with Catholic dioceses, parishes and schools to address pastoral challenges with theological depth and rigor. By connecting the Catholic intellectual life to the life of the Church, it forms faithful Catholic leaders for service to the Church and the world.

Contact: Maggie Scroope, program director of communications, McGrath Institute for Church Life, 574-631-0153, mscroope@nd.edu.

Originally published by Margaret Scroope at mcgrath.nd.edu on March 13.