Catechetical Leadership for Renewal
Shaping the Next Generation of Catechetical Leaders
School of Parish Leadership and Evangelization Lilly Grant in Collaboration with The Archdiocese of Chicago Offices of Lifelong Formation and Catholic Schools
Launched in 2024 and funded by a generous grant from Lilly Endowment’s Thriving Congregations Initiative
Forming the Church Together
The future of the Church depends on leaders who are prepared to serve together.
At the University of Saint Mary of the Lake, we believe the Church is strongest when priests, deacons, religious, and lay leaders are formed with a shared understanding of the Church’s mission. While each vocation is unique, all are called to collaborate in proclaiming the Gospel, accompanying God’s people, and building vibrant parish communities.
For more than a century, USML has been a place where leaders are formed for faithful service. Today, through Mundelein Seminary and the School of Parish Leadership and Evangelization (SPLE), we continue that mission by preparing clergy and lay leaders to minister alongside one another with theological depth, pastoral wisdom, and a shared commitment to evangelization. This vision reflects the University’s mission to form priests, deacons, and the laity for parish leadership, ministry, and evangelization, rooted in the universal call of every baptized person to participate in the Church’s mission.
A Shared Mission for a Renewing Church
Today’s Church faces new opportunities and new challenges. As parishes evolve and become increasingly diverse, effective ministry depends on collaboration among pastors, catechetical leaders, deacons, parish staff, volunteers, and the communities they serve.
The Lilly Endowment Thriving Congregations Initiative provides USML with a unique opportunity to strengthen that collaboration through the Catechetical Leadership for Renewal project. By bringing together clergy and lay leaders from across the Archdiocese of Chicago, the initiative is aimed at fostering prayerful listening, shared discernment, and co-responsibility for the Church’s mission.
Learning From One Another
Recipients of the grant funded by Lilly’s Thriving Congregations Initiative are encouraged to form learning communities as the most effective way to build and sustain thriving local faith communities. Thriving congregations exhibit a nuanced understanding of the characteristics, interests, history and challenges of their communities and neighborhoods. These congregations attend closely to demographic and social changes in their communities, and they understand the particular qualities that make their communities both what they are and what they are becoming, enabling them to develop ministries that are highly relational and relevant for those they seek to reach.
Six Vicariate-level learning communities were launched in 2025, meeting for six months, reflecting on church teachings on catechesis, evangelization and co-responsibility, and on their lived experiences in parish life while listening to one another with openness and humility. Participants engaged in Conversations in the Spirit, the same process followed by the Synod on Synodality that concluded in 2025. Through this communal discernment process, clergy and lay leaders discovered new ways to accompany one another, strengthen parish life, and respond to the changing needs of the Church. At the same time, their insights are helping redesign catechetical leadership formation so future leaders are equipped to serve today’s Church with confidence and hope.
The Learning Communities represent more than a research effort—they embody the very model of ministry we seek to cultivate. To learn more about the transformative experience of the communal discernment process, follow the link below to Phase 1.
Whether preparing future priests at Mundelein Seminary or educating lay ministers, catechetical leaders, and permanent deacons through SPLE, USML is committed to forming leaders who recognize that the Church flourishes when every vocation works together.
Together, we are preparing leaders who will strengthen parishes, renew catechetical ministry, and help the Church thrive for generations to come.
Lilly Endowment Thriving Congregations Initiative Phases
Phase 1
Listen and
Discern
2024 – 2026
Phase 2
Design
2026 – 2027
Phase 3
Launch, Evaluate
and Sustain
2027 – 2028
Questions contact:
Harold “Bud” Horell
Margaret and Chester Paluch Chair of Theology
University of Saint Mary of the Lake
School of Parish Leadership and Evangelization
Office: (847) 837-4541
Email: CatLeadRenewal@USML.edu