The Lilly Endowment has made an extraordinary commitment to help bring to life Santa Clara University’s new Pope Francis Institute for Pastoral Flourishing, and you are invited to be part of it.
Through this special matching grant, your gift will have an even greater impact. For every $1 you contribute to the Pope Francis Institute for Pastoral Flourishing, Lilly will match it at 1.5 times the rate—adding $1.50 for every dollar you give. Your generosity has the power to go even further than you might imagine.
This is more than a fundraising goal. It is an opportunity to shape the future of pastoral leadership, to nurture communities of faith, and to carry forward a vision of hope, compassion, and human flourishing inspired by Pope Francis.
Your gift is not just matched, it is magnified in impact and meaning.
Join us in building something lasting.
A message from President Julie Sullivan about the Lilly Endowment Match
Dear alumni and friends,
As we reflect on the one-year anniversary of Pope Francis’s death, I am inspired to invite your support for a historic challenge match that will forever honor his legacy on SCU’s campus and strengthen our Jesuit identity. The Lilly Endowment, a national foundation, has extended a generous matching grant to establish Santa Clara University’s new Pope Francis Institute for Pastoral Flourishing.
The funds will help the University's Jesuit School of Theology (JST-SCU)—an international leader in contextualized theology and synodal approaches to pastoral leadership—create and launch the Pope Francis Institute for Pastoral Flourishing. It will do so in partnership with the University’s Department of Religious Studies—comprised of internationally known scholars of theology, ethics, scripture, and religion—and the Graduate Program in Pastoral Ministries (GPPM)—which offers master’s degrees, graduate certificates, diaconal formation, and pastoral enrichment workshops to Catholic ministers.
The new Institute aspires to be the leading Catholic hub for studying the future of pastoral ministries, envisioning new ministerial models, and forming pastoral leaders for the Church to come. It will reach outward from our campus, partnering with parishes, dioceses, and other pastoral organizations, housing pastoral centers that:
- co-educate theologians and pastoral leaders,
- foster synodal approaches in scholarship and practice,
- support young people on their faith journeys,
- foster inter-faith community action for the common good, and
- prepare leaders to serve the significant Hispanic and Asian American Catholic populations in the Western U.S.
This vision is of the utmost importance to Santa Clara’s future—a rare opportunity to strengthen our Jesuit character and transform how we partner to support a flourishing local and global Church. It also comes at a historic moment as we prepare to relocate the Jesuit School of Theology to SCU’s Mission campus. This will bring one of the world’s great centers of theological education together with outstanding faculties in religious studies and pastoral ministries. When this happens in 2027, Santa Clara will be home to the largest faculty of Catholic theology, pastoral ministries, and religious studies in the West. Santa Clara recognizes that this great capacity of scale and excellence also entails a great responsibility to give back to the Church and society. Through the new Pope Francis Institute, we prepare the University to answer this call.
It will also nourish our campus community by collaborating with the Divisions of Mission and Ministry and Student Life to host programs and embed graduate interns and fellows across a wide variety of mission-focused campus programs and initiatives.
In my message to the campus community last April, I reflected upon my own time with Pope Francis. He was a figure of monumental importance to Catholics and many, many people around the world. The first Jesuit pope and a man who brought a joyful disposition—and humor—to sharing the Gospel message, the Holy Spirit so powerfully radiated from this humble, gentle, and extraordinary human. At Santa Clara, we have felt a special bond with Pope Francis and remember him as an inspired leader who called us all to cultivate a reflective, prayerful interior life and to take committed action for the welfare of the most vulnerable. He was a loving pastor and a compelling teacher. He advocated tirelessly for the voiceless and powerless, shaped the Church “as a field hospital” that heals wounds and warms the hearts of the faithful, taught respect and understanding among those of different faiths, and ardently fought for peace in our world. It is only fitting that we at Santa Clara take on the mantle of his pastoral approach to uplift future generations of leaders. I hope you are inspired to consider a gift to realize this ambitious vision!
With gratitude,
Julie H. Sullivan, President
Donors
View All Donors