Course Development Grant Program (Joan and Bill Hank Center for the Catholic Intellectual Heritage)

Course Development Grant Program (Joan and Bill Hank Center for the Catholic Intellectual Heritage) is sponsored by Loyola University Chicago. This grant supports pedagogical and curricular development in topics connected to Catholic thought and life in the arts, sciences, and professional education. It is available to individual full-time LUC faculty.

Loyola University Chicago is leading an effort to create a network of Catholic colleges and universities dedicating to supporting the church’s synodal journey.

The university and its 15 partner institutions received a $10 million grant in November 2025 from the Lilly Endowment to launch the Catholic Education Network to Enact and Resource Synodality (CENTERS), a collaboration to strengthen active listening, dialogue and shared decision-making in the Catholic Church in the United States.

The goal is to help theological schools renew their internal operations, curricula and partnerships to better prepare pastoral leaders for an evolving church. “If the definition of what it means to be Catholic is shifting to include being and working in a more synodal way, and if we purport to be Catholic institutions of higher education, what does that mean for us?

” said Peter Jones, interim dean of Loyola’s Institute for Pastoral Studies. Jones noted that Pope Francis made the final document of the “synod on synodality” a part of the ordinary magisterium of the church. That document, which was released in October 2024, was the culmination of efforts that began three years earlier in all of the dioceses of the church around the world.

Synodality was described as a process of “walking together” — the literal translation of “synod” — listening to one another and listening for the guidance for the Holy Spirit. The final document, produced after two sessions of the synod at the Vatican, described synodality as “a path of spiritual renewal and structural reform that enables the church to be more participatory and missionary.

” “Synodality is a rooted in spiritual discernment that is collaborative and accountable,” Jones said. “‘Shared discernment’ is the phrase. ” That means that individual Catholics are called to take on a more active role, he said.

“It’s not just the passive reception of the sacraments. Every baptized person is called to be a missionary,” Jones said. “The point is to discern and figure it out together.

” Loyola and other university partners have been considering what synodality means for higher education since 2021, and several of them worked together to bring students to Rome for the final session of the synod. This project is a continuation and extension of that. CENTERS will fund local capacity-building projects at each participating institution.

In addition, the 16 member institutions have been divided into four regional groups of four that will lead efforts to host regional retreats, trainings, symposia and peer learning. As a broad group, the network will convene national assemblies and endow the Adsumus Fellowship, a national cohort-based ministry leadership formation program for ministry students.

Michael Canaris, an associate professor in the Institute of Pastoral Studies, serves as principal investigator of the grant alongside Jones. They made sure, he said, to include institutions that display not only geographic diversity, but also demographic diversity and ideological diversity.

Members are encouraged to work with the “Catholic ecosystems” in which they are situated to help develop more synodal ways of working, including working with their home dioceses directly and working with other Catholic institutions and non-profits.

Universities, connected and adjacent to their dioceses but not directly part of them, can play a role in spreading the message of synodality, as they did with the implementation of the documents from the Second Vatican Council, Canaris said.

The grant was made through Lilly’s Pathways for Tomorrow Initiative, which is designed to help theological schools respond to the most pressing challenges in preparing pastoral leaders for Christian congregations both now and into the future.

“We are grateful for the investment of Lilly Endowment in the application of Loyola’s greatest intellectual resources to the formation of a stronger, more responsive church for the 21st century,” said Loyola Provost Douglas W. Woods. “This initiative will help shape the role of Jesuit, Catholic education and the ways Loyola can help inform and lead the church through effective education at both the leadership and grass-roots levels.

” In addition to Loyola, CENTERS includes Catholic Theological Union in Chicago.

Other participating institutions are: Gonzaga University, Loyola Marymount University, Loyola University New Orleans, Mexican American Catholic College, Xavier University, Xavier University of Louisiana, Saint John’s University, Saint Joseph’s University, Santa Clara University, Southeast Pastoral Institute, University of Dayton, University of Dallas, University of San Francisco and Villanova University.

**Related Articles**### Cardinal Radcliffe reflects on synod during parish event Cardinal Timothy Radcliffe said the solution to overcoming polarization in the church and in wider society is for people on all sides to learn to talk to and listen to one another with respect, something that was demonstrated in the 2023 and 2024 sessions of the synod on synodality.

### Pope approves next phase of synod, setting path to 2028 assembly Pope Francis has approved the next phase of the Synod of Bishops on synodality, launching a three-year implementation process that will culminate in an ecclesial assembly at the Vatican in October 2028.

### At synod prayer service, pope calls for immigration reform with a heart Taking to heart the lesson of the parable of the good Samaritan is the key to assisting the millions of migrants and refugees forced to travel far from their homelands and often exploited along the way, Pope Francis said.