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October 11, 2018
Tom Burke
Joe Pena has been at the helm of Catholic San Francisco’s ad department for all of the paper’s now near 20 years. I think all of us here would say it has been a privilege to work at his side but you never really get to be at his side since his day is mostly spent whizzing around the office on one chore or another. He did sit still though for an office lunch Oct. 4 in his honor. In a note to staff, CSF editor and general manager Rick DelVecchio said it would be “a fond and grateful farewell to our friend and colleague.” Rick called Joe “a pioneer member of the CSF organization who with his sales staff has led the revenue effort over more than 600 regular issues, plus specials.” That all adds up to “something like 10,000 advertising pages,” Rick said. The income from advertising is the primary means of support for the paper’s self-funded program to have CSF delivered free to parishioners. “Very few other dioceses have this kind of a print organization and Joe helped sustain it for nearly two decades,” Rick said. “Thank you, Joe!”
Joe, now 71, like all of us is getting older. “I have decided to retire after almost 20 years at the archdiocese,” Joe said in an email dispatched to all at One Peter Yorke Way. “My health has become an issue for me. Thank you for putting up with me. I will not forget you.”
With his 20 years here and the 25 he put in at other papers in the Bay Area, Joe is truly the newspaper ad-man. He jokes that he even gives his height in column inches.
“Through the years I’ve probably made 100,000 phone calls,” Joe told me. “Not sure what I am going to do now. Perhaps see the grandkids, travel, play golf if my body lets me.”
At one time Catholic publications reached over 26 million households, Catholic Press Association executive director Tim Walter told me in a phone call. While Catholic magazines and newsletters have taken a hit in readership since then “diocesan newspapers have held up pretty well in the last 20 years,” Tim said and not without the help of longtime professionals like Joe, a former member of the CPA board. “Thanks for everything you’ve done for the Catholic Press, Joe,” Tim said. “Your efforts are appreciated by many and I always considered you a treasure of the CPA. All the best on your retirement, may it be wonderful.”
NICE PRIZE: Congratulations to Santiago Moreno, a Mater Dolorosa parishioner and eighth grader at Parkside Intermediate School in San Bruno, recently named to receive a San Francisco Giants’ “Sue and Harmon Burns” scholarship award. The prize honors community service, leadership, and academics, said the lad’s mom, Letty, in a note to this column. His dad, Louis, is a Knight of Columbus. While it is the first time I have heard of the award and its purpose, I am not surprised. Its namesake benefactors Sue and Buzz Burns, both now deceased, were beloved members of St. Pius Parish, known for their kindness and generosity.
SISTERS OF THE HOLY NAMES OF JESUS AND MARY: Celebrated their 150th year of ministry in California with Mass Oct. 6 at Christ the Light Cathedral in Oakland. Among the sisters with roots in San Francisco is Sister Michaeline Falvey, SNJM. Sister Michaeline entered the community from St. Cecilia Parish and made first vows in 1945. “Today, at the age of 93, she is living a life of prayer and presence in Saratoga,” the sisters said.
JUBILEE: Congratulations to Sister Ernestina Molinari, celebrating 70 years as a Sister of Charity of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Born in San Francisco, Sister Ernestina is a former principal of St. Brigid and St. Thomas More schools former member of the faculty at St. Paul High School. She also served as an adult education teacher in Santa Clara and an administrator for elderly low-income housing in Santa Rosa. “One of the reasons I wanted to be a BVM was because I wanted to be a teacher,” Sister Ernestina said.
Congratulations to Sister Kathleen Clausen (Denis Ellen) who is celebrating 60 years as a as an Adrian Dominican Sister. Sister Kathleen holds a bachelor’s degree in mathematics, with minors in chemistry and biology, and master’s degrees in mathematics in education and administration and supervision from the University of San Francisco.
“Throughout her life as an Adrian Dominican Sister, Sister Kathleen has been involved in education,” the sisters said. “One of her earliest assignments took her to the Archdiocese of San Francisco, where she taught at St. Patrick, Larkspur, from 1970 to 1972.” In 2015 she returned to Adrian, Michigan, where she ministers as financial administrator of the Adrian Rea Literacy Center, sponsored by the congregation. Sister Kathleen said her life as an Adrian Dominican Sister has been “a deep blessing and a knowing that wherever I am and whatever my ministry, I know it is where God calls me to be.”
Email items and electronic pictures – hi-res jpegs - to burket@sfarch.org or mail to Street, One Peter Yorke Way, San Francisco 94109. Include a follow-up phone number. Street is toll-free. Reach me at (415) 614-5634; email burket@sfarch.org.