Mr. Fuller, in your recent letter to the editor, you attempt to separate the St Catherine Parish School from the St. Catherine Parish. They are both part of the same Body of Christ. They are both under the supervision of the Bishop of Oakland and governed through the Chancery office in Oakland.
The Parish School is supervised by the Superintendent of Catholic Schools. The Lumen Christi Plan for Catholic School enhancement was brought to the Oakland Diocese by Bishop Barber. It is a Jesuit idea and he is a Jesuit.
It’s a plan not unlike what was done 70 years ago in Martinez when the Archbishop of San Francisco (then in charge of Martinez Catholics theologically) asked the Sisters of St. Joseph to come to Martinez and establish a school (which I attended and graduated from in 1960.) Go Saints! (BTW We were undefeated in CYO Baseball!) The Sisters’ assistance to the Parish through our school was enormous. After thirty years they left.
Now the Bishop has brought in another entity just as Catholic and just good as the Sisters of St. Joseph. (Let us not forget too those Parish stars in between, the great lay teachers of the last thirty years.)
Anyhow, you get my point. The Church is one Holy Body of Christ and your effort to obscure that truth is not realistic or even true. But I wish you well.
And although I am not sorry to see you lose your Gazette platform, I am very sorry to see that our newspaper will now close after 162 years of service in our community. I will pray that somehow that decision be set aside. Perhaps, you can join me in those prayers which are thoughts, words and deeds.
Because, remember John, never before in our common history was the Gazette used to attack the Bishop of the Roman Catholic People of Martinez.
St. Catherine’s Church has been a great gem of beauty, education and joy in Martinez while remaining a Holy place of mercy.
– Tom Greerty