AUSCP

Pilgrimage Planning Workshops – December 16
2025-12-16 11:00 - 12:00 (America/New_York) | Online
We will gather monthly for Pilgrimage training and toolkit workshops, connecting Catholics across the country as we plan for Pilgrimages of Hope for Creation in our local places and spaces!

March 18: Planning Pilgrimages and Network Building
April 15: Front-line Community Collaboration (90 min)
May 20: Planning a Pilgrimage: Nuts and Bolts
June 24: Catechesis: Responding to the Cry of the Earth, and Cry of the Poor
July 22: Growing Network and Impact: Gathering Pilgrims and Next Steps
August 19: Working with the Media
September 16: Group Sharing
October 21: Celebrating our Pilgrimages and Impact!
November 18: Next Steps: Continuing Along the Way
December 16: An Advent Spiritual Reflection of Pilgrimages of Hope for Creation

Please join these workshops live for engaging conversation, creative breakout rooms, phenomenal tools, and energizing examples! Most are 60 min, April will be 90. If you are unable to make the live time, please still register, and the recordings will be uploaded to the website soon afterwards.

Opening Doors Already Unlocked: Creating Space to Recognize and Support Women’s Voices and Leadership
2026-04-22 12:00 - 13:30 (America/Chicago) | Online
Join the AUSCP Women in the Church Working Group for a 90 minute online gathering of women and priests. Program will include brief testimonies, a guided Lectio Divina, Conversations in the Spirit, and a Q&A.
Grounded in the Synod’s call for “full implementation of opportunities” and AUSCP’s mission of compassionate, collegial accompaniment, this event creates a respectful space for listening, shared witness, and pastoral imagination about women’s leadership in parish life. A newly released Final Report from Study Group 5 (3-10-26), calls for the creation of “new spaces” for women in diocesan governance and decision-making, stating that their inclusion is not a concession but a requirement for the Church’s mission. Our webinar will explore concrete proposals illustrated by personal testimonies and audience participation.
Join us in this timely work to bring into being a Church where leadership is a shared responsibility of the whole People of God.
Testimonies include:
The Impact of Training Lay Preaching Formation on the Laity and our Church Susan McGurgan ( Director, Preach All Ways Initiative)
Creation of Space for Lay Leadership and Impact – Katie Jansen (Parish Life Coordinator; Director of the Work, St. Francis Xavier College Church) and Tim McMahon, SJ. Canonical Pastor for St. Francis Xavier (College) Church
Lectio Divina led by Lisa M. Orchen, M.Div. (Program Director, Proclaim)
Small group Conversations in the Spirit —35 minutes

Where have you already seen women exercising leadership or preaching in ways that are fully permitted by Church law, and what fruit have you noticed from those experiences?
Given the Synod’s call to fully implement what is already allowed in Canon Law, what opportunities for women’s leadership or preaching seem most ready to be expanded in parish life?

President Trump’s Policies and Strategies: Explained and Challenged
2026-05-21 17:30 (America/New_York) | Franciscan Center
Dear Friends and Readers,
For those of you in the Toledo area, I am giving a lecture, sponsored by the Lourdes Lifelong Learning program, in the theater in the Franciscan Center on Thursday, May 21, 2026 at 5:30 p.m. It is entitled: “President Trump’s Policies and Strategies: Explained and Challenged.” It will include his policies on higher education, mass deportation and waging war as well as moral challenges by Pope Leo and the American bishops.
General admission is $10 (cash or check only) payable at the door. Students, nuns, priests and persons with financial limitations are welcome to attend for free.
WGTE is no longer able to video my lectures, but I am very grateful that they provided that service for many years.
Fr. Jim Bacik
