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December 13, 2002 Catholic Foundatons to Examine the Quality of Church Leadership, Clergy and Lay Washington, DC ----- The board of directors of FADICA will be sponsoring a discussion on the theme of "Effective Church Leadership in An Age of Change" when it meets next month in Naples, Florida. The meeting will bring together a range of experts to look at the qualities of effective church leadership today in the context of recovering trust and moral influence following one of the most damaging scandals in U.S. church history. Among those addressing the FADICA board and membership will be: Dr. L. Gregory Jones, Dean of the Divinity School at Duke University and a research scholar on religious leadership in American culture. Also speaking will be Thomas J. Reese, SJ editor of America, a recognized authority on the American hierarchy; Donald B. Cozzens, former seminary rector and scholar on the American priesthood and Dr. Patrick J. Schiltz, a former trial attorney and faculty member of the St. Thomas University School of Law. Dr. Schiltz will discuss the competencies of laity who represent the church. The meeting will include about eighty private foundation trustees who will discuss ways in which their philanthropy might help promote more effective, responsive and participatory leadership at all levels of the church. Mr. Robert S. Bennett, a Washington attorney, and member of the National Catholic Review Board, a lay commission overseeing diocesan implementation of new policies to prevent child abuse will also speak at the FADICA conference. FADICA is a twenty-seven year old association founded for the continuing education needs of major donors. Most recently it has been working to promote better financial stewardship and financial transparency within the nation’s Roman Catholic dioceses. |