[Webinar] Pilgrims of Hope: Tools for the Synodal Journey

About the Webinar

Throughout 2025, the worldwide Church will journey through a special Jubilee Year — a celebration that happens every 25 years proclaiming liberation, conversion, and reconciliation — to re-establish a proper relationship with God and others.

CMN kicked off this Jubilee Year with a special webinar to provide tools that will help us answer this year’s call to be “Pilgrims of Hope.”

Panelists explored the Jubilee Year, its relationship with the ongoing call to synodality, how we can manifest “tangible signs of hope” in our midst, and opportunities to engage death penalty abolition and restorative practices in the spirit of Jubilee throughout the year. They answered questions like:

  • How do we accompany one another as pilgrims of hope in a synodal Church?
  • What is our role in helping to establish the liberating justice of God in our world?
  • How can practical education, advocacy, and prayer to transform the U.S. criminal legal system help to mark this special Jubilee year?

Recording

Featured Speakers

Rev. Ivan A. Montelongo, JCL, grew up along both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border. He completed his theological studies at Mundelein Seminary and was ordained a priest in 2020 for the Diocese of El Paso, Texas. He earned a Licentiate in Canon Law from St. Paul University in Ottawa, Canada. Father Ivan served as a delegate at the Synod on Synodality in 2023 and 2024. He currently serves as Judicial Vicar and Director of Vocations.

Marilyn Santos is the Associate Director of the Secretariat of Evangelization and Catechesis at the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB). She previously served as the Director of Mission Education in the National Office of the Pontifical Mission Societies in the United States. A native New Yorker, she taught and served as a youth minister with the Salesians in the Archdiocese of New York.

Paul Jarzembowski serves on staff for the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) in Washington DC, overseeing the U.S. bishops’ engagement with laity ministry, ecclesial movements, youth, and young adults. He is also the author of “Hope from the Ashes” (Paulist Press, 2021), on evangelization, pastoral care, and accompaniment of individuals through Catholic moments of return such as Lent.

Caitlin Morneau serves as Director of Restorative Justice at Catholic Mobilizing Network. She was the lead adaptor for CMN’s faith formation guide, Harm, Healing and Human Dignity: A Catholic Encounter with Restorative Justice, and led the collaborative creation of Paths of Renewed Encounter: A Restorative Justice Engagement Guide for Catholic Communities. Caitlin holds an MA in Conflict Transformation from the Center for Justice and Peacebuilding at Eastern Mennonite University and is trained in circle process and restorative community conferencing.

Emmjolee Mendoza Waters serves as the Director of the Death Penalty Abolition Program at Catholic Mobilizing Network. Emmjolee brings 20 years of experience in education, advocacy, and ministry with a particular focus on young adults. She has organized social justice advocacy and education programs around issues of hunger and homelessness, food insecurity, race and diversity. Emmjolee has extensive partnerships locally, nationally, and internationally; all focused on mutual relationship building.