David Kimbell is the CFO for the Diocese of Pensacola-Tallahassee. In this month's Think Piece, he reflects on lessons gleaned from a recent trip to Rome with the 2025-27 Eucharistic Culture Project cohort, a two-year formation program jointly sponsored by the McGrath Institute for Church Life's Center for Liturgy and the Church Properties Initiative.
Seven Notre Dame students minoring in real estate are interning for mission-driven real estate organizations around the country this summer, with placements including both Catholic dioceses and faith-based affordable housing developers in cities like New York, Los Angeles, Boston, and Denver.
The next Church Properties Conference, to be held April 5-7, 2027, will examine the Church as an agent of renewal for communities and environments under the banner of words from Psalm 104: "You renew the face of the earth."
This month's Think PIece is written by Sarah David, ('26), who graduated this spring from the University of Notre Dame with a BBA in Finance, a BA in Political Science, and a minor in Real Estate. She is pursuing a career in National Security and Policy in Washington, D.C., following graduation.
Gilbert Velez (’26) joined the Church Properties Initiative research team in spring 2024, during his sophomore year as a double major in Finance and Spanish, having recently added a Real Estate minor. As he graduates from Notre Dame this spring, the CPI team wants to wish him the very best, and to thank him for his stellar service to CPI, FIRE, and the field of church properties.
The YIGBY moment affords the Church an unusually conspicuous opportunity to demonstrate what is possible when a society treats land and buildings primarily as a means to meet human need and as an arena for personal and communal development.
