Welcome to Catholic San Francisco magazine

Archdiocese launches new communication tools

By Archbishop Salvatore Joseph Cordileone

God’s revelation in Jesus Christ is the foundation of all Christian faith. As followers of His, He calls us to be “Church,” that is, a people assembled to worship Him and give Him honor and glory. The distress of the restrictions on worship all throughout the COVID-19 pandemic made it more evident than ever just how important this aspect of our faith is in our lives. The pandemic revealed a truth – the importance of communication as a crucial aspect of relationship. It was never clearer how important it is for us to be connected as a community, worshipping God and supporting each other. It’s never been clearer that communication is at the heart of any positive relationship.

With this in mind, I directed some of my advisors to work during the past six months toward achieving a couple of goals:

• Assist our parishes with communications resources that help them foster greater community

• Establish better channels so we can inspire, assist, and help our community to grow spiritually

I am delighted by the steps we’ve taken to do both while reducing our overall costs significantly.

The Catholic San Francisco Magazine you hold in your hands, the updated archdiocesan website, a weekly Catholic San Francisco e-newsletter, and our parish support initiative are all first fruits of a new communications approach for the Archdiocese of San Francisco.

This magazine is designed to inform and inspire. The new website, still at sfarch.org, is attractive with more video and photos to draw in the casual web browser and the Catholic seeking specific information. Now we also have a second website that offers specific information on and about parishes, ministries – news you can use. It links from the sfarch.org website.

Catholic San Francisco Magazine, with its feature-length articles, will come to you 6-8 times a year, including Advent/Christmas and Lent/Easter. The magazine, our website, and Friday e-newsletter are successors to a long line of archdiocesan publications dating to the 19th century when the first San Francisco Archbishop Joseph Sadoc Alemany founded The Monitor in frontier California.

I am so proud and grateful for the faith, hope in God, and charity so many demonstrate daily and particularly in the past months. Through the pandemic, our ministries stayed alive and our parishes, priests, religious men and women, and dedicated lay people continued to pray and work for the Lord, helping each other and those in need.

My hope is this magazine, and all of our new and updated communications tools, will help us fulfill Jesus’ injunction found in Matthew 5:14-16: “You are the light of the world. A city set on a mountain cannot be hidden. Nor do they light a lamp and then put it under a bushel basket; it is set on a lampstand, where it gives light to all in the house. Just so, your light must shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your heavenly Father.”

As we move forward together, the great Church Father, St. Augustine of Hippo offers pithy advice: “God provides the wind, Man must raise the sail.”

Let us continue together, raising the sail in our beautiful home.

You are in my prayers always, and I ask you to pray for me as we continue in faith, hope in God, and love of God and our neighbor. ■