Waking Up Goliath

As an administrator, I’ve long been fascinated by meeting organization and facilitation. Nothing drives me nuts like a poorly run meeting that drags on but then ends without any new clarity or action steps. My temptation in those moments is to take charge and keep things moving at a good clip. But in doing so, I can often step on others’ toes or not allow all voices to be heard. In short, I can misuse power. A couple years ago, two of my colleagues in the Catechesis world introduced me to a different model of convening and facilitating called Sociocracy. Joann Terranova and Trinka Hamel are both long time parish leaders and conveners of community. Their regional catechetical organization in northwest Washington state functions in more organized and efficient manner than other similar organization that I know of, yet it is also the most inclusive and joyful. Everyone feels like they have a voice and can make a difference. I asked Joann and Trinka if I might interview them specifically on what they’d learned about “the power of convening” which is a focus of Chapter 4 in Redeeming Power. (Released July 26)

I became aware of Bishop Gary Gordon from others who worked with him, either during his time as the bishop of Whitehorse in the Yukon from 2006-2014 or the bishop of Victoria in British Columbia where he has been since 2014. This is not your usual bishop, each person tried to convey to me. He has a huge heart. He'll go anywhere. Reach out to anyone. For many years now Bishop Gary has been the link between the Canadian Catholic Bishops Conference and the Interfaith Committee on Chaplaincy with the Correctional Services of Canada. He has a long and deep relationship with the First Nations people and is most proud of the name he was gifted with by the Sto’:lo (Stah lo) people in 2006: Xylohmetoxw (pronounced Hy-oth’-meh-took) meaning “Taking Care of the People.” Bishop Gary’s episcopal crest with its salmon in the middle speaks to his ongoing commitment to the part of the world he has now long called home… and also quite possibly his abiding love for fishing. When you hear him speak, you’ll hear him reference Tasso—his favorite fishing haunt. And you’ll understand why people near and far talk about his approachable style of ministry leadership. (Released July 19)

Laura Kelly Fanucci is a powerful writer, speaker, and retreat leader, yet at this point she is probably most well-known as the convener of MotheringSpirit.com—an ecumenical gathering space for those interested in the spirituality of parenting. While online conversation on social media is often perceived as shallow, Laura is known for going deep—speaking to painful human realities like the loss of children and cancer. She never avoids tough topics but writes from the crucible of living in the midst of grief and illness… and she invites others to be honest about the realities of life as well. While the label of ‘influencer’ makes her nervous, as you’ll hear in this interview, she is someone who is very conscientious about the way she exercises her influence. And, when I write in Redeeming Power, chapter 11, about people whose power is sourced in the authenticity and integrity, Laura is definitely one of those people I have in mind. (Released July 12)

I had the great joy of getting to talk with Dr. Jared Bryson, the CEO of Catholic Charities for the Archdiocese of St. Louis, when he was only 100 days into his new job.  Jared had been 14 years with Mercy Health before stepping into this position—a background that prepared him well for understanding the board and ecclesial relations he’d now be managing.  But when I talked with him, he was still trying to figure out how to steward the new powers with which he’d been entrusted, and in a particular way he was wrestling with the heighted power of his speech.  This interview formed the basis for much of what I ended up writing about in Chapter 2 of Redeeming Power. Fortunately, Jared has a background in the study of spirituality, and in particular monastic spirituality, that he was already relying upon to ground him long before he started in this new role.  But as you’ll hear, fidelity to regular spiritual practice and direction was becoming even more important to him now. (Released April 12, 2024)

Can you imagine at the age of 39 being named the school superintendent for all 216 Catholic elementary schools in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles?  No, neither can I.  But Kevin Baxter can.   Kevin took the fast track in Catholic leadership.  Indeed a mere six years after being named the elementary school superintendent, he became superintendent of the entire LA Catholic school system serving close to 80,000 students. Dr. Kevin Baxter is now the Director of the Mary Ann Remick Leadership Program at the University of Notre Dame in Indiana where braves the bitter (not LA) winters to oversee the formation of Catholic school leaders from around the country.  He is the co-author of “Greatness in Smallness: A Vision for Catholic Microschools” (NCEA, 2021) as well as co-editor of “Conscience & Catholic Education” (Orbis Press, 2022).  (Released April 5, 2024)

I met Jenni Ho-Huan in Fall 2022 when the two of us had the good fortune of being neighbors at the Collegeville Institute on the campus of St. John’s University in Collegeville, Minnesota.  Pastor Jenni, as she is most often called by her congregants, is an ordained Presbyterian minister in Singapore with an abiding interest in the spiritual practices of monasticism (especially around hospitality) and how those practices can help persons tangled in busyness and consumerism to live more authentically.  In a multi-religious country where less than 20% identify as Christian, Jenni is the founder of the “To Really Live” online community that seeks to foster relationships among those seeking something more but who may not be interested in joining a traditional church. She also devotes significant time to mentoring Christian women ministers—still a relatively rare phenomenon in Singapore.  One of the most fascinating points of my conversations with Jenni around power involved the different nuances the Chinese and English languages offer regarding the term.  As you’ll hear in this interview, language often gives us the conceptual boxes in which we talk about power and think about its role in our own lives. (Released March 22, 2024)

I had the good fortune of meeting Eric LeCompte in Fall 2022 when we were fellow resident scholars at the Collegeville Institute on the campus of St. John’s University.  While I was researching power, Eric was researching the intersection of social action and liturgy, and he tried to live what he studied.  As someone who has engaged in social advocacy around human rights for over 25 years now, Eric placed a high priority on being able to pray each day with the monks at St. John’s Abbey. Eric LeCompte cut his teeth in social activism with SOA Watch – an organization committed to ending the U.S.’s role in state-sponsored violence in Latin America.  He is currently the Executive Director of Jubilee USA Network—a coalition of more than 750 religious organizations who share a common concern around international debt relief.  He has spoken at the United Nations on multiple occasions and regularly appears in such media outlets as the Washington Post, National Public Radio, the Wall Street Journal, CNN Money, MSNBC, and the Associated Press. (Released March 15, 2024)

My guest today is Dennis Gonzales, the Senior Director of Mission Innovation and Integration at the Catholic Health Association.  A former Lasallian Christian Brother, Dennis began his career in the classroom with youth, but for many years now has worked in Catholic health care, including 15 years with Christus Health Care in the southwest U.S. Having already interviewed others in the Lasallian world, it was fascinating for me to hear how the educational charism of John Baptiste de la Salle (who I profile in chapter 5 of Redeeming Power) could also inform the work of a health care leader. Dennis talks about the service-oriented, relational understanding of power that he has tried to strengthen among health care leaders, especially through his coaching of new executives.  He also describes his own learning goals for this season of his career, modeling that the healthy exercise of power is never a stagnant accomplishment but rather something we’ll be working on throughout our lives. (Released March 8, 2024)

Born and raised in Texas, Leticia Ochoa Adams is quite at home in the Wild West.  And it is a good thing, too, because for the past decade Leticia has found herself in the Wild West of Catholic social media where the environment is harsh and the rules are few.  Leticia is a straight shooter, unabashedly posting not only about contentious moral issues in modern culture, but also grief and trauma.  She lost her own son, Anthony, to suicide in 2017.  Her frankness and fearlessness in describing the messiness of her own life journey have attracted over 7000 followers on Instagram making Leticia a significant influencer in the Catholic online world. But whereas once the label of “influencer” would have made her cringe, Leticia Ochoa Adams now owns it and is working hard to develop the pastoral skill, virtue, and knowledge needed to exercise this role responsibly.  As will become clear when you listen to our interview, Leticia resists any attempt to separate the word influence from that word responsibility, seeing the two as going hand in hand.  She takes as her model the 14th century influencer Catherine of Siena—another outspoken lay woman in the Church who drew quite a diverse group of followers.  At the end of 2022, Leticia released her first book about her faith journey: Our Lady of Hot Messes. (Released March 1, 2024)

Kerry Robinson and I first crossed paths in the magnificent Catholic Student Center at Yale University.  I’d been invited to give a lecture there and was wowed by the facility and all the gatherings taking place there.  When I mentioned this to the pastor Fr. Bob Beloin, he said, “Oh, You need to meet Kerry.  She got this place built.”   Kerry, it turns out, had been the community’s development director and raised $75 million dollars to both build the new center and rejuvenate the Catholic presence at Yale.  Her success led to the publication of the award-winning book “Imagining Abundance: Fundraising, Philanthropy and a Spiritual Call to Serve” (Liturgical Press, 2014).  But Kerry had already been part of building new structures in the Church long before her work at Yale.  A member of the Raskob family, she had been active in Catholic philanthropy since the age of 14.  And Kerry has continued to build more structures—of the organizational nature—since her work at Yale.  Kerry was the founding executive director of the Leadership Roundtable—a network of Catholic leaders from both the business and church worlds building a culture of co-responsibility, transparency, and accountability in the Church.  Since the time I interviewed her, Kerry has now become President and CEO of Catholic Charities USA. Kerry continues to use her power—most especially the power to convene—as a way to build the Reign of God. (Released February 16, 2024)