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A collaboration between the University of Dallas and The Catholic Foundation, the Institute for Homiletics was founded in 2021 for one purpose — to renew preachers to renew preaching in the Catholic Church.
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Welcome to our first newsletter!
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When a preacher connects to something deep within his people, it sparks their hope in a very personal way. When a parishioner tells of being lifted from a deep darkness through a homily at Sunday Mass, that encourages a homilist for a long time. That’s the kind of preaching we work to nurture. That is the kind of connection that makes the Gospel come alive and shine forth.
You are receiving this first edition of the Institute for Homiletics newsletter because in some context, you have shown that preaching matters to you. You may be a bishop or a priest, an abbot or a deacon. You may be a lay person who has contributed or participated in our lay formation program (the Saint Joseph’s Preachers). You may just be a friend of ours. However we got your name and contact number, we are grateful for your interest in improving Catholic preaching.
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Our goal is to keep you updated as to what we are doing at the institute, as well as provide a few insights into preaching on a regular basis. Our website can give you more details, but in this newsletter, we will point you to new articles and research as they come up.
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Praying for our Preachers
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Loving God, we thank you for the gift of our preachers. Through them, we can experience your presence and gain the vision of your Kingdom. We ask that you continually expand their capacity to love people and give them the words they need to spread the Gospel. Allow them to experience joy in their ministry and to embrace the divine grace you provide them. We ask this through Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns as our Eternal Priest.
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News: The "Going Deeper" Summer Retreat
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Our current 2024 cohort of 46 Catholic priests and deacons gathered together at Mundelein Seminary near Chicago in July 2025. The focus of their retreat was to learn to “go deeper” in their homilies. How can they speak to the depths of human experience in order to bring their people closer to God? See the full article here.
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Highlighted Research Report: The Preachers' Progress Report
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In the Institute’s Preaching for Encounter Program, priests and deacons get a unique opportunity to receive input like never before. They have a monthly homiletics coach. They get preaching feedback from their diocesan peer group. They have a parish lay support group. Does this help them to grow in the two years that they receive this feedback? Absolutely. We have concrete data that shows that this program makes a difference in their preaching. Three different measurements reveal that result – from their coaches’ comprehensive evaluations, from their own self-evaluations, and from surveys of their parishioners. Our 2024 graduates showed statistically significant improvement; their homilies are now clearer, more focused, and firmly rooted in Scripture and sound theology. Overall trends indicate that continued practice of their learning results in more creative homilies and more inspired listeners. Many people wonder, “how do we improve preaching?” We are taking concrete steps to research that “how” of better preaching – how to teach, how to measure, and how to continue to grow. To see more about this ground-breaking research, see The Preachers’ Progress Report.
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Make one point. Only one. Ask, what one thing does God want to say to my people on this particular day, through these Scriptures, through me, his willing servant? Then edit out all that does not fit. Make one point. Only one. God bless your preaching!
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The internet swarms with websites about theology and scripture from many religious denominations. For preaching preparation, for bible studies, for discussion groups, or for personal understanding, how can you find resources from a Catholic perspective? Where would you even start to look?
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Thanks to the Lilly Endowment of Indianapolis, we offer a curated Catholic search engine that only searches Catholic websites. You can search by content, topic, and author. If you are looking for input on a particular scripture passage, you can find what Bishop Barron has to say about it, what reflections the SLU library has, and what Fr. Mike Schmitz thinks, and many more. And you will know that it comes from a trusted Catholic source.
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We continue to add additional Catholic websites, but there is already a lot there. One priest in our current cohort uses several internet sites, but says, “Other sites offer an idea or two worth including, but this search engine is where I find inspiration that helps me go deeper.”
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Jim Moroney Named the 2026 Honoree of The Catholic Foundation Award.
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Mark 1:38 - He said to them, "Let us go somewhere else to the towns nearby, so that I may preach there also; for that is what I came for."
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Congratulations, Dr. Karla Bellinger!
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The Catholic Church cannot grow without meaningful preaching. Yet even most homilists admit, preachers often leave us wanting more. Many priests and deacons receive very little training in homiletics, Homily preparation can get lost amid the many demands of parish life. That reality moved Jim Moroney to act. In 2021, partnering with the University of Dallas and The Catholic Foundation and then hiring Dr. Karla Bellinger as executive director, Moroney was instrumental in launching the Institute for Homiletics. With the help of Kris Kramer, fundraising efforts have created a $7.5M endowment fund to provide operational support for years to come.
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Moroney is known for taking action, especially where it can create a better future for young people and for those who live on the margins of our society. Like his father Jim Moroney II and Abbot Denis Farkasfalvy, O. Cist. who was Moroney’s Cistercian Catholic School form master and mentor in his life for decades, he will be recognized as an outstanding member of the Dallas Catholic Community for his distinguished service and support. If you are in the Dallas area, we hope you can attend the annual Catholic Foundation Dinner on Feb. 7, 2026, to celebrate Moroney and his outstanding efforts that include the inspiration to launch the Institute for Homiletics.
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Executive Director of the Institute for Homiletics Dr. Karla J. Bellinger has been named one of Aquinas Institute of Theology’s top 100 alumnus in their 100-year history! She is being recognized for how she serves the Church and the people of God, by working with Catholic clergy to connect with the people in the pew.
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Bellinger’s doctorate from the Aquinas Institute of Theology equips her to teach the formation, tools, and peer support Catholic priests and deacons need to reach people’s hearts more effectively.
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In her work, Dr. Bellinger shows us that “Catholic liturgical preaching is foundational. It’s a relational, spiritual, and communal act within the Mass that invites the faithful into an encounter with God. The encounter depends on both the preacher’s holiness and homiletic skill, as well as the listener’s openness—and, when done well, it can renew the people and the Church.
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Bellinger is the author of the Institute’s curriculum for both the preachers and the lay listeners. “The focus is always the Triune God of the Universe – the God who has come close to us, wants to draw us close. The homily is integral to that mission,” she says.
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This is a big mission. Catholic priests and deacons are serving larger parishes, facing more complex challenges, and shepherding people through an increasingly noisy, fractured world. We can use your help. Please share this newsletter with family and friends and connect with us on social media. Subscribe
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