PHOENIX: Former Univision television reporter Christopher Pereira's five-month training program for those who want to be elevated to leadership positions in the Catholic faith is attracting world attention. It is headed by the Hispanic Mission Office of the Diocese of Phoenix under Bishop Thomas J. Olmsted.

Pereyra discovered that these types of programs are shaping leaders in small towns and large cities across the U.S. While they provide practical guidance and excellent networking opportunities, they also tend to advance a secular agenda that’s at odds with the Catholic faith, he found.

That revelation motivated him to launch the Tepeyac Leadership Initiative, which offers a five-month-long training program designed specifically for lay Catholics. As the initiative explains on its website, the goal is to educate participants “in the core teachings of the Church and their concrete application to the career world.”

Now Pereyra has a book out that distills the program’s key principles: “Catholic Leadership for Civil Society: A Practical Guide on Authentic Lay Leadership,” co-written with Erin Monnin.

what we've been trying to do for the past six years, is to show lay Catholics what it means to be a leader out in civil society. Our true vocation is to seek to become influential leaders in society so that we can influence others for Christ to bring us closer to Christ.

This is particularly for professionals, people who have been blessed by God with a college education and a professional career. The leadership initiative is the flagship program for the organization, Tepeyac Leadership.

In our five-month program we are trying to change the minds of lay Catholics, and we're forming them. Then, we're sending them out with a very concrete mindset and a very concrete mission, and that is to insert themselves into the secular institutions of society.

"I was working for Bishop Olmsted as the director of the Hispanic Mission Office. A representative of the diocese sent me to a local secular civic leadership development program in Phoenix, Arizona."

''Going through that experience opened my eyes to the world and the reality of civic leadership development in the United States.''

''It is in every major city in the United States, as I discovered. They have been placing and catapulting people into local leadership positions in their community.''

''Most of our public elected officials in the United States get their feet wet through this program. I had mixed feelings going through the program because in most of the sessions and discussions, I tended to be the lone conservative or religious voice in the room.''

''Most of these programs around the United States form leaders with values that directly counter Catholic teaching.''

''I think this is not a bad idea. It's a noble concept. Who could be against forming leaders? It is just not being oriented right, the way they're doing it.''

''I think we can do it better. We borrowed a template from the secular world, and that's how Tepeyac Leadership got started.''

''We named this project simply because we were inspired by the story of St. Juan Diego. We wanted to ask Our Lady of Guadalupe and St. Juan Diego to intercede for the future of the program, which they've done, tremendously.''-Christopher Pereira says.

“Where are the Catholics when big decisions are being made?” If there were any Catholics at all, they either lack the information or the courage to speak up for truth.

So our objective as an organization is ultimately to form and prepare to send out and encourage committed Catholics to seek out seats at those tables where decisions are being made.

We simply want to help bring about the decisions, the right decisions, that will bring about the common good, guided by our Catholic faith. To do that, we need to be well-formed and have a seat at the table.