Catholic Leadership Institute

Fr. Gregory Cioch is the pastor of Our Lady of the Mountains in Estes Park, CO. Fr. Gregory completed his Good Leaders, Good Training with 26 of his brother priests in the Archdiocese of Denver in April 2008.

When I was asked to share my experience of Good Leaders, Good Shepherds (GLGS) my first reaction was NO! Thank you, but NO! – I don’t want to do this because I don’t have time. I am so busy with the new building project, parish personnel, youth mission trip, Lenten penance service and preparations for Easter. But the most important reason is that I don’t feel confident about doing this. This was my natural reaction to the invitation. The next thought however was,“I have benefited so much from Good Leaders, Good Shepherds and if I can help other priests by sharing my experience I need to make an effort.”

I am a young foreign priest, made pastor at age 30 of a 400 household mountain parish. I have been a pastor now for five years. Recently I was elected a dean. I would have never accepted the nomination if I haven’t gone through GLGS. Now I see an opportunity to put the skills I learned into action and therefore I push myself to do things I was intimidated to tackle before.
In the past, as I was following my natural inclinations. I had a difficult time making up my mind. I was postponing my decisions, and as soon as I made a decision, I instantly regretted it. I was even more intimidated when I had to exercise leadership in difficult one-on-one and small group settings. The program gave me the tools, enabling me to be a more confident and effective leader.

It was amazing to see the connection of the program with the way Jesus exercised leadership and with what the Church teaches in her documents. I wish I would have known the simple techniques the GLGS teaches much earlier. Still, it was encouraging to hear seasoned pastors sharing the same wish. Being, learning, and sharing the success and failure stories with other priests created a wonderful setting to learn and improve my leadership skills.
Thank you to the Catholic Leadership Institute, Archbishop Chaput, and the benefactors for bringing this program to the Archdiocese.