Villanova University announced on April 20 that it will participate in a new national initiative aimed at fostering listening, dialogue, and discernment within the Catholic Church. The project, known as the Catholic Education Network to Enact and Resource Synodality (CENTERS), is led by Loyola University Chicago and supported by a $10 million grant from Lilly Endowment Inc.
The initiative brings together Villanova and 15 other Catholic colleges and universities to encourage engagement, participation, and communion within the faith community. CENTERS will fund projects such as regional seminars, retreats, national assemblies, and leadership programs for students.
Villanova will serve as one of four core partners alongside Loyola University Chicago, the University of Dallas, and the Jesuit School of Theology of Santa Clara University. In this role, Villanova will help coordinate regional efforts and host an annual symposium focused on theological and pastoral topics.
Kathryn Getek Soltis, director of Villanova’s Center for Peace and Justice Education and principal investigator for the university’s CENTERS subaward said: “Synodality requires us to always expand the circle and see that everyone has expertise to contribute. It asks us to appreciate the presence of one another, even across tensions and divides.” She added: “We often speak of the Augustinian focus on community, and the questions of how to serve, grow and be responsible to community are at the heart of synodality. Interiority too is a synodal point of contact with the Augustinian charism. Synodality requires us to speak out of our experiences, and interiority is essential to that act.”
Since 2021, Villanova has engaged its campus in studying synodality through academic courses, participation in local listening sessions attended by Archbishop Nelson Perez of Philadelphia, visits to Rome during major Church events such as the 2024 Synodal Assembly, organizing a regional network called SCHEAP (Synodality in Catholic Higher Education in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia), and securing grant support for an Augustinian center specializing in synodality.
Getek Soltis said she sees CENTERS as an opportunity for Villanova “to contribute our gifts” more broadly: “With CENTERS we are invited into this new and exciting question: ‘What are the capacities and resources that we have at Villanova that need to be given out in service to the Church and world?’ As an Augustinian institution now is the moment to contribute our gifts.”
Founded in 1842 with more than 10,000 students across six colleges today—including business law engineering nursing liberal arts sciences professional studies—Villanova describes its tradition as rooted in critical thinking compassion service ethical leadership.
