Catholic Leadership

Having a daily prayer life is essential to strengthening one’s relationship with Jesus Christ and nurturing the body, mind, and soul. As Catholics and Christians, many of us have built prayer into our daily lives and rely on God heavily throughout each day. For others, it is difficult to begin a prayer routine and build it into a busy schedule or once begun, to stay consistent with it. Today, Maria Lipp shares her perspective and practice of prayer in her day-to-day life as an entrepreneur. We pray this may serve as inspiration to you to find your own ways [...]

As Catholics, we are blessed to have a plethora of prayers, reflections, meditations, spiritual readings, and so much more at our fingertips that nurture our faith and allow us to grow closer to Our Lord. While we strive to live our lives in the way God is calling us to, oftentimes we seek a deeper, more intricate prayer life and wisdom from the Holy Spirit that comes with that. The Bible, Rosary, Divine Mercy Chaplet and popular prayers, such as the Our Father, Hail Mary and Glory Be are frequently what we turn to—and we should! After all, these [...]

“As Catholics, we bring the richness of our faith to the public square. We draw from both faith and reason as we seek to affirm the dignity of the human person and the common good of all.” 1 There seems to be a lot of confusion in the Catholic Church surrounding the upcoming election. Priests and bishops are supporting both candidates, congregations are hearing mixed messages, and people are looking for truth in the wrong places. With this election being one that will change history and our country as we know it (whether for the better or worse is [...]

A global pandemic, racial injustices, and an election year each on their own are enough to make anyone crazy. But this year brought us all of it. We’ve had to adapt to new ways of living and “being.” We’ve watched and experienced true devastation. Our faith and hope have been challenged in ways that we never thought possible or perhaps never expected in our lifetime…And the year isn’t over yet. It’s easy to get caught up in everything, to add fuel to the fire, to be angry. And there are plenty of people doing this already. But as Catholics, [...]

Disclaimer: This blog post is not about selling indulgences. “The Catholic Church does not now nor has it ever approved the sale of indulgences. This is to be distinguished from the undeniable fact that individual Catholics (perhaps the best known of them being the German Dominican Johann Tetzel [1465-1519]) did sell indulgences–but in doing so they acted contrary to explicit Church regulations. This practice is utterly opposed to the Catholic Church’s teaching on indulgences, and it cannot be regarded as a teaching or practice of the Church.” (https://www.catholic.com/qa/does-the-catholic-church-still-sell-indulgences) When I was in University, people naturally asked me what I majored [...]

This was the speech given by Denise Barajas, President of the Tepeyac Leadership Initiative Class of 2020 in California, at the graduation ceremony for the 2020 TLI cohort in California. ___ Good evening, everyone. I am honored to be named the first president of the Los Angeles TLI cohort. I want to take this time to thank Archbishop Gomez for welcoming TLI into our Archdiocese, Bishop Olmsted for starting this amazing initiative along with Cristofer, our fearless leader, who has had to deal with so many changes but took them up graciously and persevered in helping us seamlessly finish [...]

This was the speech given by George McNeely, President of the Tepeyac Leadership Initiative Class of 2019 in Arizona, at the graduation ceremony for the 2019 TLI cohort in Arizona. ___ Bishop Olmsted and distinguished guests, First and foremost, on behalf of the TLI Class of 2019, TLI Director Cristofer Pereyra, thank you for your courage and endurance. To paraphrase Alexandre Havard from his book, Virtuous Leadership, “Courage is the sacrifice of self for the realization of prudent and just goals. Endurance, as the essence of courage, requires a strong proactive spirit in which man’s deepest strength reveals itself.” [...]

This was the speech given by Luke Kircher, President of the Tepeyac Leadership Initiative Class of 2020 in Arizona, at the graduation ceremony for the 2020 TLI cohort in Arizona. ___ In the tradition of TLI, I’d like to start how we begin all TLI gatherings – with our opening prayer… “O Mother, strengthen the faith of our brothers and sisters in the laity, so that in every field of social, professional, cultural, and political life they may act in accordance with the truth and the law brought by your Son to mankind.” The Holy Spirit works through each [...]

This was the speech given by Gustavo Estrella, President of the Tepeyac Leadership Initiative Class of 2018, at the graduation ceremony for the 2018 TLI cohort. ___ Thank God for our Bishop, Thomas Olmsted, for his visionary leadership and remarkable foresight in arming the people of the Diocese of Phoenix with faith-forming programs, such as TLI, in order to advance the mission of the Church. Your passion and tireless efforts to the mission of evangelization are an inspiration. We are very fortunate to have a dedicated leader at the helm such as Bishop Olmsted. Thank God for Cristofer Pereyra [...]