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In the days following the Pennsylvania grand jury report Aug. 14 that lifted the veil on seven decades of child sex abuse by more than 300 Catholic priests in that state and the church leaders who covered it up, Catholic San Francisco approached daily communicants at local parishes after Mass and asked them for their thoughts.

Catechists and directors of religious education throughout the archdiocese are preparing to begin their faith formation ministries for youth, young adults, and adults. On Sept. 16, the day designated by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops as Catechetical Sunday, the church will highlight the critical role of catechists with the theme of “Enlisting Witnesses for Jesus Christ.”

The granddaughter of one of the first Sicilian seafood merchants on Fisherman’s Wharf told a noontime audience at the Fishermen’s and Seamen’s Memorial Chapel Aug. 15 that “toxic energy,” unresolved trauma and even bad habits can take the wind out of our spiritual sails and cripple our connection to the divine.

Menlo Park’s recent history has been one of disruption, as Facebook and other local companies have shaken and rebuilt American society in far-reaching ways. St. Denis Parish in Menlo Park discussed another kind of change that could be significant: incorporating parents into children’s faith formation.

Thanks in part to public outcry from the Marin County faith community, the children of some 42 low-income families in San Rafael hit with a 40 percent rent increase just as the school year was about to begin are in their classrooms where they should be – for now.

Cuauhtémoc and his wife Sonia Alvarado are excited and full of faith for the opportunity to attend the V National Encuentro of Hispanic/Latino Ministry to be celebrated this month in Texas.

Holy Angels Parish in Colma celebrated Our Lady of Guadalupe a few months early this year. On Aug. 23, more than 100 people gathered to celebrate a half-century devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary called the Running of the Rose.

Archbishop Salvatore J. Cordileone and the teaching choir of The Benedict XVI Institute for Sacred Music and Divine Worship visited San Quentin Prison Aug. 5.

Mary Yanish wasn’t even one year into her retirement after a 40-year career as a licensed clinical social worker when she realized she still had work to do.

The recent reports of episcopal negligence and malfeasance in the face of clerical sexual abuse, coupled with some reports of bishops themselves guilty of sexual predation, have reopened old wounds and inflicted new ones on victims, their families, the Catholic faithful at large, and indeed, the larger society.

Couture and courage appeared together Aug. 15 in Menlo Park at Twilight Fashion Show, a fundraiser for a women’s center funded by the St. Vincent de Paul Society of San Mateo County. In front of a large and appreciative crowd, women from SVdP’s Catherine Center program took to the runway to model fashionable clothing and how their lives have changed.

Writer and speaker Father Ron Rolheiser told a group of about 150 people at St. Agnes Parish Aug. 11 that the Eucharist is Catholicism’s “one great act of fidelity” to Jesus.

Deborah Farrington is delighted to continue her career as the principal of Our Lady of Mount Carmel School. She spent the last 17 years at Sacred Heart Schools, Atherton as a global studies and math teacher and founding director of Global Education, building an international student exchange program.

For members of Legatus, every day is take God to work day. The company owners and executives belonging to the one-of-a-kind organization for Catholic business leaders never leave home without their beliefs so they can spread the wealth of Christ’s teachings to their colleagues, co-workers and communities.

At a backyard dinner in Foster City, new parents at St. Gregory School mingled with each other and were introduced into the details of sending their children to Catholic school: uniform requirements, and how to support the parish festival.

VATICAN CITY – A Jesuit priest who has been on the frontline of advocating for survivors of clerical sexual abuse and developing detailed programs to prevent abuse said the crisis unfolding, again, in the United States is a summons to a new way of envisioning the church and taking responsibility for it.

VATICAN CITY – Building on the development of Catholic Church teaching against capital punishment, Pope Francis has ordered a revision of the Catechism of the Catholic Church to assert “the death penalty is inadmissible because it is an attack on the inviolability and dignity of the person” and to commit the church to working toward its abolition worldwide.

Eight local Catholic organizations have reaffirmed their commitment to the Paris Agreement global climate change accord by signing the Catholic Climate Declaration.

WASHINGTON – Archbishop Theodore E. McCarrick “will rightly face” a Vatican canonical process regarding sexual abuse allegations against him, but the U.S. Catholic Church must take steps to respond to church leaders’ “moral failures of judgment,” said the president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

WASHINGTON – The sexual abuse allegations surrounding now-former Cardinal Theodore E. McCarrick have prompted some church figures to call for a more thorough reckoning of the U.S. church’s clerical sexual abuse policies.