
New has its advantages
By Chris Fisher
Being new has its advantages. As the new superintendent, I have had the remarkable privilege of beginning to visit each Catholic school in the Archdiocese of San Francisco, introducing myself to all our principals, pastors, teachers and students. Each visit brings something new: new faces, new expressions of school pride and traditions, new student artwork lining the walls, new questions in each classroom (though our first graders are remarkably consistent in asking if, given my last name, I like to fish! One principal suggested I respond: “Yes — I am fisher of men!”).
At a deeply personal level, I have also been struck by the renewed spirit of hope and gratitude I experience after each school visit: renewed hope because each school visit brings me into an encounter with the beauty of Catholic education.
In each classroom, I have had the opportunity to meet teachers who are dedicated to their craft and to their students. These teachers do the important work of laying the foundations of lifelong learning, helping students from 5 to 18 exercise their God-given reason. In their classrooms, teachers encourage students to contemplate the mysteries of physics, to delight in new words that help them describe the world and to discover the great people and events of human history.
In one fourth grade class I asked the students to tell me their favorite Roman emperor; to my delight, I met several like-minded fans of Emperor Augustus. One particularly energetic eighth grade class had a robust debate diagnosing a patient whose symptoms they read as part of a story in a biology class. I told them that I didn’t need my doctor anymore, I just needed to visit their classroom!
Most of all, I’ve been blessed to encounter the very heart of the Church’s mission, witnessing students grow in the love of God. More often than I can recount, students have shared with me their favorite saints (Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati, Blessed Carlos Acutis, St. Jose Sanchez del Rio and St. Francis have been popular choices). One second grade student defined the word “martyr” for me: “someone who loves Jesus more than themselves.” I have met students who have memorized the Beatitudes and who strive to imitate Christ, who pray as teammates after athletic competitions, who wear with pride miraculous medals around their neck and recite the rosary with care and affection.
But most of all, I have been filled with hope each time I have had the chance to join students in the celebration of the Mass. Cantare amantis est, St. Augustine wrote — “only he who loves can sing.” There are few greater expressions of pure and sincere love of God than the voices of elementary school students singing hymns glorifying Christ, from eighth grade students to their first grade Mass buddies and everyone in between. To worship alongside students is to understand Christ’s words in the Gospels when He instructs His apostles to “let the little children come to me, and do not stop them; for it is to such as these that the kingdom of heaven belongs.’”
I have also been blessed with a renewed sense of gratitude each time I visit one of our schools from Marin to San Mateo. Gratitude for the opportunity to serve Archbishop Salvatore J. Cordileone in my vocation as a Catholic educator, helping school leaders and teachers to grow in their vocations as we advance the mission of the Church. Gratitude for the chance to meet so many people dedicated to helping form and indeed transform the lives of boys and girls, young men and women, as they grow intellectually, morally and spiritually as children of God. Gratitude for the warmth and hospitality with which this community has welcomed me. Gratitude for the chance to hear the sound of hope and joy in our students as they pray and learn and play. And gratitude for the great gift of Catholic education, which presents to students the Church’s beautiful intellectual, aesthetic and spiritual tradition – in the words of St. Augustine, a “beauty ever ancient, ever new.”
In this issue of Catholic San Francisco celebrating Catholic Schools Week, we explore new developments in Catholic education in our Archdiocese. We are proud to highlight to new academic programs in the Archdiocese, including a new Catholic independent high school, Nativity Academy of Arts and Sciences, which is dedicated to celebrating the richness of the Church’s intellectual and spiritual traditional; St. Brigid Academy’s new academic program specially designed for students with learning differences; and a new dual-language immersion program at St. Peter Schools, which offers students an opportunity to learn both English and Spanish.
We also explore the relationship between academic excellence and what St. Paul calls “the renewal of the mind”: the power of the true, the good, and the beautiful to transform lives of students. In particular, we consider the role of assessment and accreditation in assisting schools with continually renewing and advancing their academic programs.
And we proudly highlight the work of Catholic school students across the Archdiocese who bring the love of Christ to incarcerated individuals through a partnership with the Archdiocese of San Francisco’s Restorative Justice Ministry called Cards of Mercy.
As we encounter that which is new in our schools, we remember that it is Christ who has made all things new, and who invites us in His grace to continually be “transformed by the renewal of our minds”—a renewal which is at the very heart of the mission of Catholic schools.
Chris Fisher is the superintendent of the Department of Catholic Schools of the Archdiocese of San Francisco.
This article ran in the January 2025 issue of Catholic San Francisco magazine.