OUR FLAGSHIP GATHERING · SINCE 2003

The Catholic Partnership

Summit

A gathering of Catholic leaders from across the Church — bishops, lay
executives, religious, academics, and emerging voices — for honest, focused
conversation about the most pressing challenges and opportunities of our times.

NEXT SUMMIT

October 20-21, 2026

LOCATION

Loyola University Chicago | Lake Shore Campus | Chicago, IL

The Catholic Church faces a moment of great opportunity.

Pope Leo’s Magnifica Humanitas challenged the Church to focus on a future with Artificial Intelligence.
What are the implications of that challenge?
What does this moment ask of—and offer—leaders in Catholic institutions, from dioceses to parishes to nonprofits?  

 

Our 2026 Catholic Partnership Summit leverages our decades-long work of building a culture of standards-based excellence in Catholic institutions to address the pressing questions around AI, focusing not on whether to use the powerful new tools at our disposal but rather on how.

The Summit will consider the challenges and opportunities AI presents institutions of the Church today by wrestling with two enduring questions:

i.

What makes an institution strong enough to carry its mission?

Vision does not survive on conviction alone. It survives on effective governance, sound finances, operations that work, and leaders who have built something strong enough to hold the weight.

ii.

How do we take up what is new without losing who we are?

Technology and other tools should sharpen our judgment and serve the mission, rather than do our thinking for us or make us a product of someone else's vision.

Join us October 20–21

Learn from leaders in the field, those building this revolution and those responding to it. Go deeper with peers: share what's working, wrestle with what worries you, and leave with knowledge, perspective, and community.

Summit Sponsors

Thank you to those individuals and organizations that make our annual Catholic Partnership Summit possible!

VISIONARY

The Boisi Family

Elizabeth McCaul and Frank Ingrassia

Jim and Molly Perry

 

CATALYST

Joseph Regan

 

 

 

SUPPORTER

Dee & Kevin Conway

Dan & Kathleen Denihan

The Lynch Foundation

Peggy & Gene McQuade

 

 

 

FRIEND

Circle Wealth Management

John & Cyndy Fish, Suffolk

Gabelli Foundation

Ken & Won Giuriceo

Healey Family Foundation

Susan King

Steve & Maureen Klinsky

Loyola University Chicago

Terry & Polly O'Toole

John F. W. Rogers

Michael Zink

GOLD

Bill Hemmer

Jay Scansaroli

 

 

 

SILVER

Rev. John P. Beal, III

Bob Catell

Bernadette Castro

Karen Restaino

 

 

 

Become a Summit Sponsor

Your investment not only supports the Summit, it also sustains Leadership Roundtable's year-round work: the resources, tools and programs that equip Catholic leaders to govern well, lead with accountability, and build cultures where the mission of evangelization can flourish.

Meet our Summit Speakers!

ASHWIN
BHARATH

Ashwin Bharath is the CEO of Galent and the Co-Founder and Chairman of Revature, and has worked in artificial intelligence since 2001. At Galent, an AI-native digital engineering firm, he helps Fortune 500 enterprises modernize software delivery through AI, talent, process, and platform-led execution, with a focus on measurable business outcomes. At Revature, he has helped launch technology careers for more than 30,000 professionals and delivered over four million hours of training. His work centers on how AI can reshape work, create new career pathways, and deliver real enterprise value.

BETSY
BOHLEN

Elizabeth (Betsy) Bohlen is the Chief Operating Officer of the Archdiocese of Chicago, where she oversees all administrative operations and brings strategic planning, organization, and implementation expertise to strategic pastoral initiatives. She joined the Archdiocese in 2011 after many years of involvement through pro bono consulting engagement and as a member of the Archdiocesan Finance Council.

Prior to the Archdiocese, Ms. Bohlen was a partner at McKinsey & Company, an international management consulting firm. She has also served as an investment officer for the Slovak American Enterprise Fund in Bratislava, Slovakia, and a financial analyst at the First Boston Corporation (now Credit Suisse), a global investment bank. 

Ms. Bohlen holds a Master of Business Administration from Harvard Business School. She received her Bachelor of Arts in economics, with a minor in theology, from the University of Notre Dame. Ms. Bohlen lives in the Hyde Park neighborhood of Chicago with her husband, Jon, and their two children. 

CHRISTIAN
DALLAVIS

Christian Dallavis is Superintendent of the Partnership Schools, a Catholic school network that transforms urban Catholic schools into economically sustainable, operationally efficient, and academically excellent schools. Christian supports network school leaders’ capacity to build intentional Catholic school culture, ensure high-quality teaching and learning, and grow enrollment in the Partnership’s seven schools in Cleveland and Toledo, Ohio. 

Christian spent 16 years on the faculty at the University of Notre Dame, where he was the Senior Director of Leadership Programs and an Associate Professor of the Practice of Educational Leadership in Notre Dame’s Alliance for Catholic Education (ACE).

As the Director of the Mary Ann Remick Leadership Program, Christian redesigned Notre Dame’s master of arts in educational leadership and doubled the size of the nation’s largest preparer of Catholic school leaders. He was the founding Director of the Notre Dame ACE Academies, a model for university-school partnership that comprised 15 schools in Arizona, Florida, and Indiana. His team also led the design and launch of the Center for Transformational Educational Leadership, a professional formation institute for sitting principals serving the Archdiocese of Chicago (now known as the ACE Principals Academy).

Christian earned a joint Ph.D. in English and education at the University of Michigan, where he studied the intersection of culturally responsive pedagogy and urban Catholic schooling in immigrant communities. After completing a BA at Notre Dame in English and Japanese, Christian taught middle school English in Biloxi, Mississippi while earning an MA in teaching from the University of Portland, and later worked as a teacher educator in Bangladesh.

KATE
DEPETRO

Kate DePetro is originally from East Greenwich, Rhode Island, and now calls New York City home. A magna cum laude graduate of Hofstra University, she works in national news media.

Growing up, Sundays meant Mass at Our Lady of Mercy Church followed by breakfast at Dunkin’ or Jigger’s Diner, where it often felt like the entire town had gathered. After moving to New York City, Kate realized how much she missed that sense of community—and how many other young adults were searching for it, too.

That feeling eventually inspired Pizza to Pews, which Kate co-founded with Anthony Gross. The idea was simple: bring young adults together around a table, help them form genuine friendships, and give them someone to walk into church with.

What started as a small group gathering for Mass and pizza quickly grew into a movement. Pizza to Pews has brought together hundreds of young adults in New York City and expanded to cities across the country, building communities centered on faith, friendship, and belonging.

The movement has gained national attention, with coverage from NBC’s TODAY, the New York Post, The Wall Street Journal, the Daily Caller, and other media outlets, introducing the Pizza to Pews mission to audiences across the country.

For Kate, the mission remains personal: recreating the sense of belonging she grew up with and reminding young adults that they don’t have to navigate faith—or life—alone.

Outside of work and Pizza to Pews, Kate loves the ocean, Italian food, the New England Patriots, and walks along New York City’s West Side Highway. Above all, she believes some of the best relationships begin around a table—where strangers become friends and community begins.

ALEX
JONES

Alex is the CEO & Co-Founder of the Hallow app, a Catholic prayer and meditation app to help people find peace in God. The app launched at the end of 2018 just as Alex came back to his faith. It was deeply personal for him as he built it primarily for himself, but it is now, by the grace of God, the largest prayer app of any faith in the world, with over 30 million downloads and over 1 billion prayers prayed. It is the only faith-based, religious, meditation, wellness, fitness, or reference app in the history of the app store to ever crack the top 10 in the app store rankings, landing at the #1 spot last year during Lent ahead of TikTok, Amazon, Netflix, Instagram, and Spotify. It has been in the top 3 each of the last 3 years. The app has 250,000 five star reviews across 150 countries, 15,000 different prayer and meditation sessions across 8 different languages and hundreds of different content creators including Mark Wahlberg, Fr. Mike Schmitz, Sister Miriam, Chris Pratt, Bishop Barron, Mario Lopez, Jonathan Roumie, Gwen Stefani, Lauren Daigle, and more, even featuring prayers by the new Holy Father Pope Leo XIV.

Alex grew up in Columbus, Ohio. He graduated from the University of Notre Dame School of Engineering in 2015 and Stanford’s Graduate School of Business in 2020. He worked professionally in consulting in Chicago before Hallow at McKinsey & Co as an Engagement Manager, and now lives in Chicago with his wife, daughter, two sons, and a newborn baby girl. He’s been named a member of Forbes 30 under 30 with his two co-founders, Erich Kerekes and Alessandro DiSanto, and a member of the inaugural University of Notre Dame Domer Dozen. He has been awarded the Legatus Bowie Kuhn Evangelization Award, the Catholic International University's Founder's Award, and the National Catholic Prayer Breakfast's Christifidelis Laici Award. Alex has appeared on NPR, Fox News, the BBC, the Tucker Carlson Network, Pints with Aquinas, the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, The Free Press, and more.

SUSAN
KING

Susan King, is currently Senior Fellow at Indiana University’s Lilly Family School of Philanthropy, working on the Higher Education and Philanthropy Initiative. She is Dean emeritus of UNC Hussman School of Journalism & Media and advises journalism, communication, and philanthropy institutions.

As Dean at UNC, Chapel Hill, she held a distinguished professorship and taught courses in journalism, media leadership, and the implications of the media revolution on communications and American society. She has served at the highest levels of Higher Education, Philanthropy and Government, as Assistant Secretary of Labor and Vice President of Carnegie Corporation of New York.

For twenty years, King was a journalist in Washington, D.C. in both local and national news and served as White House correspondent for ABC News. She is a founder of the International Women’s Media Foundation, a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, The Belizian Group, an advisor to Ida B. Wells Society at Morehouse College and a trustee of Brielle Public Library.

SR. TERESA
MAYA, CCVI

Sr. Teresa Maya, CCVI, Ph.D., serves as Senior Director for Theology and Sponsorship at the Catholic Health Association of the United States. Prior to joining CHA, she held the role of congregational leader for the Sisters of Charity of the Incarnate Word in San Antonio from 2014 to 2022. From 2016 to 2019, she served as the president of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious.

She held leadership roles with CHRISTUS Health, fostering strong relationships between sponsors and governance leaders. Originally from Mexico, she joined the Sisters of Charity and took her vows in 1998.

As a member of the Congregation of the Sisters of Charity of the Incarnate Word in San Antonio, Sr. Teresa has extensive experience as a teacher, history professor, administrator, leader, facilitator, and speaker. She is committed to forming ministers who aim to transform both the Church and society.

Sr. Teresa holds a doctor of philosophy in history from El Colegio de Mexico, a master of arts in systematic theology from the Graduate Theological Union, and a bachelor of arts from Yale University.

FR. BRENDAN
MCGUIRE

Fr. Brendan McGuire is the Pastor of St. Simon Parish in Los Altos, California, and Co-Founder of the Institute for Technology, Ethics and Culture (ITEC), a partnership between the Vatican's Dicastery for Culture and Education, Santa Clara University, and Silicon Valley technology leaders. A former tech executive turned Catholic priest, he brings a unique perspective to the conversation about AI and human flourishing. His forthcoming book, The Soul of AI: A Priest, an Algorithm, and the Search for Wisdom, explores how ancient wisdom traditions can guide the ethical formation of artificial intelligence through sustained relationship and dialogue. His research has demonstrated measurable improvements in AI ethical reasoning through exposure to formation narratives rooted in the world's great spiritual and philosophical traditions. Fr. McGuire works closely with leading AI companies to advocate for a "third way" in the AI conversation: one grounded in formation, transparency, and the conviction that the questions we ask about AI are ultimately questions about ourselves.

FR. WILLIAM
O'NEILL, S.J.

William O’Neill, S.J. is a Resident Scholar in the Ignatian Center for Jesuit Education and the Markkula Center. He previously served as professor emeritus of social ethics at SCU's Jesuit School of Theology in Berkeley and a visiting professor at Hekima University College in Nairobi. He received his STL from the Jesuit School of Theology and his Ph.D. from Yale University.

His writings include The Ethics of Our Climate: Hermeneutics and Ethical Theory (Georgetown Univ. Press), Reimagining Human Rights: Religion and the Common Good (Georgetown Univ. Press); Catholic Social Teaching: A User’s Guide (Orbis); and book chapters and journal articles addressing questions of human rights, social reconciliation, restorative justice, refugee and immigration policy. race and mass incarceration, ecological ethics and the Church and public reason. Since 2019, he has been a member of the Mission and Identity team of the Jesuit Refugee Service while serving in the Kakuma refugee camp in northwestern Kenya, the Adjumani Settlements in Uganda, and the Maban refugee camps in South Sudan.

SR. RAFFAELLA
PETRINI, FSE

Sr. Raffaella Petrini, a member of the religious Congregation of the Franciscan Sisters of the Eucharist, was appointed by Pope Francis as President of the Pontifical Commission for the Vatican City State and President of the Governorate of the Vatican City State on March 1, 2025.

Since 2021, she held the position of Secretary General of the Governorate of the Vatican City State.

Previously, from 2005 to 2021, she served as an Official at the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples in the Roman Curia.

Born in Rome on January 15, 1969, Sr. Petrini earned a degree in Political Science from the Libera Università Internazionale degli Studi Sociali Guido Carli (LUISS), a Masters in Organizational Behavior from the University of Hartford, CT. She studied Marketing and International Development in Bologna, Italy. She obtained a doctorate in Social Sciences from the Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas in Rome, where she taught Welfare Economics and the Sociology of Economic Processes at the Faculty of Social Sciences.

On May 21, 2024, she received an honorary degree from Seton Hall University in New Jersey.

Since 2022, she is a member of the Vatican Dicastery for Bishops and on the Board of Directors for APSA (Administration of the Patrimony of the Apostolic See).

KERRY ALYS
ROBINSON

Kerry Alys Robinson provides strategic council and public support for a network of 170 independent Catholic Charities agencies that collectively serve more than 16 million people in need each year. Under her leadership, CCUSA created “Love Your Neighbor: A Strategic Framework” to guide the nationwide network in the years 2026 to 2030 and launched the People of Hope Museum, a traveling, immersive storytelling experience that highlights the transformative power of Christian service.

She is a noted expert in Catholic leadership and philanthropy and, for decades, has served the church and its mission to alleviate human suffering. Previously, Kerry was an executive partner at Leadership Roundtable, which promotes excellence and best practices in the management, finances and human resource development of the Catholic Church. Prior to that, Kerry served as director of development for Saint Thomas More Catholic Chapel and Center at Yale University, leading a $75 million fundraising campaign to expand and endow the chapel’s ministry and construct a Catholic student center.

A member of the Raskob Foundation for Catholic Activities and FADICA (Foundations and Donors Interested in Catholic Activities), she has been an advisor to and trustee of more than 25 grantmaking foundations, charitable nonprofits and family philanthropies. She served for 15 years on the national committee for the USCCB’s Catholic Campaign for Human Development.

Kerry is an accomplished writer and speaker and wrote the prize-winning Imagining Abundance: Fundraising, Philanthropy and a Spiritual Call to Service.

MATTHEW HARVEY
SANDERS

Matthew Harvey Sanders, a former infantry officer and seminarian, is the Founder and CEO of Longbeard. The company's flagship product, Magisterium AI, is the world's leading Catholic answer engine, serving users in over 190 countries. Longbeard also developed Vulgate AI, an advanced library platform powering a historic digitization project with the Pontifical universities in Rome. Later this year, the company will release Ephrem, the world's first trained Catholic AI. Matthew was among the technology leaders invited to the Vatican for the presentation of Magnifica Humanitas, Pope Leo XIV's encyclical on artificial intelligence, and has addressed the Catholic Bishops' Conference of England and Wales, the Council of European Bishops' Conferences (CCEE), and parliamentarians at the House of Lords of the United Kingdom Parliament.

BISHOP LAWRENCE
SULLIVAN

Bishop Lawrence Sullivan is an Auxiliary Bishop and Vicar General for the Archdiocese of Chicago. He was consecrated as a bishop on February 26, 2025 at Holy Name Cathedral by Cardinal Blase Cupich.

Bishop Larry’s most recent ministries were with Catholic Cemeteries of Chicago and as pastor of Christ the King Parish in the Beverly neighborhood. He was previously pastor of St. Christina Parish in the Mount Greenwood neighborhood, and as associate pastor and then pastor of St. Celestine Parish, Elmwood Park. Additionally, he has served as interim vicar of Vicariate VI, covering an area on the South Side and in the south suburbs.

He earned a bachelor’s degree in political science from Niles College of Loyola University and a Master of Divinity from the University of St. Mary of the Lake/Mundelein Seminary before being ordained to the priesthood in 1992. Bishop Larry also earned a master’s degree in ecclesial management from the Catholic University of America.

In addition to his parish assignments, Bishop Larry has worked in the bereavement ministries of the archdiocese since 2013, is a member of the Archdiocesan School Board, and has been a member of the College of Consultors and a member and vice-chair of the Presbyteral Council.

FR. PETER
WOJCIK

Fr. Peter Wojcik is the pastor of Saint Clement Parish and Pastoral Strategy Leader for the Archdiocese of Chicago. He also teaches negotiation and change management at Quinlan School of Business at Loyola University and is a member of the board of Alpha USA as well as the Vatican’s Centesimus Annus pro Pontifice Foundation. 

He was born in Lublin, Poland and arrived in Chicago in 2003 to undertake his graduate studies at the University of Saint Mary of the Lake in Mundelein. He was ordained a Catholic deacon by Cardinal Francis George in 2007 and then a priest of the Archdiocese of Chicago in 2008. In 2016, Fr. Peter joined the Renew My Church team and took responsibility for overseeing the final stage of parish spiritual renewal called Building the New Reality. He also served as the pastoral leader of Faith Hub Chicago, a movement of pioneers of pastoral renewal across the Archdiocese. 

Fr. Peter holds an undergraduate degree in human behaviour and philosophy from the Catholic University of Lublin, an MBA from Kellogg School of Management, an MA in Theology, and post-master certifications in medical ethics, spirituality, and preaching.

Summit Agenda

Day 1 — October 20

4:00 p.m.

Mass at the Madonna Della Strada Chapel
Principal Celebrant: Bishop Lawrence Sullivan, Vicar General of the Archdiocese of Chicago

5:00 p.m.

Summit Check-In

Welcome Reception & Cocktails

6:00 p.m.

 

7:15 p.m.

 J. Donald Monan, SJ Medal Presented to Reverend John J. Wall

Keynote Panel: Diocesan Renewal - Lessons from the Field

Betsy Bohlen, COO, Archdiocese of Chicago
Jim Perry, Managing Director, Dearborn Partners & Finance Council Member, Archdiocese of Chicago
Bishop Lawrence Sullivan, Vicar General, Archdiocese of Chicago

Day 2 — October 21

7:00 a.m.

Breakfast

8:00 a.m.

Welcome and Opening Keynote

Governance and Leadership in an Era of Digital Transformation
Sr. Raffaella Petrini, FSE, President of the Pontifical Commission and President of the Governorate of the Vatican City State

9:00 a.m.

Morning Panels & Roundtable Discussions

Strong Enough to Carry the Mission: Vision- and Mission-Driven Leadership

Mission begins with leadership. We will go into the weeds on vision- and mission-driven leadership—how leaders set direction, shape culture, and hold an institution to its purpose, especially in the age of AI.

Panelists
Christian Dallavis, Superintendent, Partnership Schools
Fr. Peter Wojcik, Pastor, Saint Clement Parish and Pastoral Strategy Leader for the Archdiocese of Chicago
Sr. Teresa Maya, CCVI, Ph.D., Senior Director for Theology and Sponsorship at the Catholic Health Association of the United States

Moderated by: Kathleen Porter-Magee, Managing Partner, Leadership Roundtable

 

Who is Forming What We Are Making?
A conversation with Fr. Brendan McGuire and Kerry Alys Robinson

In this brief reflection, he offers an unexpected lens. These systems are grown rather than built, and their character is formed by those who make them, so they are never neutral. Drawing on Pope Leo XIV's Magnifica Humanitas, he poses the question the Summit takes up. If these systems are being formed, what does a Church with two thousand years of wisdom about formation owe this moment?

12:30 p.m.

Lunch & Networking

1:00 p.m.

Afternoon Sessions & Roundtable Discussions

Magnifica Humanitas and “The Wise Use of Powerful Tools” 

AI—a tool powerful enough to remake how we think and work— is here and testing the strength of our institutions. This session is about judgment, not what these tools can do, but how a Catholic institution decides how to take up what is new without losing who we are.

Panelists
Ashwin Bharath, CEO, Galent
William O'Neill, S.J., Ph.D., Director of Immigration Ethics, Markkula Center for Applied Ethics & Professor Emeritus of Social Ethics, Santa Clara University
Matthew Harvey Sanders, CEO, Longbeard

Moderated by: Kathleen Porter-Magee, Managing Partner, Leadership Roundtable


Technology as an Evangelization Tool

The panel is the living proof: here is what becomes possible when Catholic institutions put the tools of the moment to work in service of the mission — using what is new without being reshaped by it.

Panelists
Alex Jones, Co-Founder & CEO, Hallow
Kate De Petro, Co-Founder, Pizza to Pews
Fr. Michael Rossmann, S.J., Jesuit Chaplain, Campus Ministry Loyola University Chicago

Moderated by: Susan King, Board Member, Leadership Roundtable

4:35 p.m.

Closing Remarks and Takeaways

5:00-7:00 p.m.

Closing Reception

Drinks and light fare served

REGISTER

J. Donald Monan, SJ Medal

The J. Donald Monan, SJ Medal seeks to thank and inspire philanthropists and leaders of the Catholic Faith who emulate and personify the vision, character, creativity, and commitment to excellence of the late Rev. J. Donald Monan of the Society of Jesus.

 

The Monan Medal has been conferred annually since 2019 to Catholic philanthropists who have invested generously and faithfully in the Catholic Church’s work to lead through exemplary temporal affairs, and whose giving reflects Fr. Monan’s deeply held belief in collaborative excellence and partnership.

 

In 2025, in recognition of Fr. Monan’s legacy in leadership and governance, as well as financial stewardship, we expanded the award to include distinguished leaders who have made a transformative difference in the Church in the U.S.

Meet our 2026 Monan Medalist

Fr. Jack Wall-Bio

This year, we are thrilled to honor Fr. Jack Wall of the Catholic Extension Society with the J. Donald Monan, SJ Medal for Excellence in Catholic Leadership.

Catholic Extension is a papal society that works to build up vibrant Catholic faith communities among the poor in the poorest regions of America by providing resources to develop leaders, ministries and facilities, while inviting more people across the country to invest in their work.

Fr. Wall was appointed by the Holy See to lead the society in 2007 and today focuses his leadership on raising awareness and resources for the dioceses, communities, and people that Catholic Extension supports on the margins. Prior to leading Catholic Extension, Fr. Wall served for 24 years as pastor of Old St. Patrick’s Church, the second oldest parish in Chicago and one of the city’s oldest public buildings. Under his stewardship, this struggling urban church grew from 4 to 4,000 households, making it one of the most vibrant faith communities in Chicago today.

Fr. Wall is also the co-founder of the popular Theology on Tap program for young adult Catholics, which today reaches 180 parishes and dioceses across the United States and at least six other countries, including Canada, Ireland, and Australia.

Like Fr. Monan, who led the revival of a struggling Boston College, Fr. Wall’s legacy of service exemplifies a similar commitment to leadership with integrity, creativity, and an accountable, action-orientation.

© 2026 Leadership Roundtable.