Priests benefit from leadership training

Father Walter Austin, pastor of Ascension of Our Lord Parish in LaPlace, addresses his 19 classmates from the Archdiocese of New Orleans and the Dioceses of Baton Rouge and Houma-Thibodaux in the “Good Leaders, Good Shepherds” program of the Catholic Leadership Institute. The two-year program equips clergy with leadership skills needed to shepherd a parish. “It was very beneficial,” Father Austin said. “The process begins with understanding yourself and then understanding the people with whom you are interacting. Then you move from there to one-on-one to working with small groups and teams. The process helped me make decisions that were beneficial. I wasn’t just doing things haphazardly.”