Our Stories
When Pete Gonzalez joined the Catholic Information Center’s Leadership Formation Institute, he wondered whether it would lead anywhere.
“I thought it was just going to be another meeting and not go anywhere,” he recalls.
A member of the 2025 cohort from St. Jude Parish in Grand Rapids, Pete had been raised Catholic and already sought to lead by example in parish life. His parents had handed the faith on to him. As the father of two young adult daughters, he wanted that same foundation for the next generation.
“We just want them to still know God, be with God,” he says.
Through LFI at the Catholic Information Center, Pete found a community that helped him think more deeply about how to share that faith. The conversations about God and creation, along with the warmth of the facilitators, made him want to keep coming.
His understanding of leadership began to broaden.
“You don’t have to be a vocal leader,” he explains. He was learning to recognize spiritual leadership in the way people gathered, encouraged one another, and made room for God’s presence.
When asked to describe his experience through an image of weather, Pete chose a rainbow. He spoke about sunlight after a storm and the wonder of God’s creation. For him, it expressed the hope that people could weather life’s difficulties with God.
For his parish team’s project, Pete wanted young families throughout the surrounding community to experience the welcome he valued at St. Jude. The invitation would include parents and children, single parents, grandparents, and guardians.
“Come to our parish anytime,” he says.
The team envisioned a scavenger hunt that would help children discover something about God through nature and gratitude. Pete also imagined families creating something they could take home as a reminder to gather and pray. His concern for passing on the faith was becoming a practical invitation.
That invitation became Seek & Find, a free family event held at St. Jude on October 11, 2025. Inspired by Matthew 7:7, it invited families to follow clues, collect items, and create a family treasure. Fall treats and a pumpkin for each family added to the welcome.
The event was enormously successful. The cohort had carried its formation into parish life through an experience designed to make faith approachable and welcome families from beyond the parish.
Pete wanted that welcome to continue after the event. His cohort’s vision was an open door: a place where neighbors could return and grow in their understanding of faith.
Even before Seek & Find took place; Pete could name a change in himself. What he had expected to be another meeting had become, in his words, “a very open spiritual experience.”
“I can feel God’s presence every time we come together,” he says. “And that’s powerful.”