About

Central Coast Catholic is a regional Catholic news aggregation website founded by Geoffrey W.M.P. Lopes da Silva in 2018, with the soft launch of the original MontereyCatholic.net on the First Sunday of Advent.

In the two years that he was conducting research for Grace upon Grace: A History of the Diocese of Monterey in California (Éditions du Signe, 2017), Geoffrey Lopes da Silva noticed something missing in the life of the local Church that had existed once before. He had been spending a lot of time in the diocesan archives, going through old copies of The Observer, the official newspaper of the Diocese of Monterey in California from 1969 until 2008.

One of the benefits of the diocesan newspaper was that local Catholics always knew what was happening at a nearby parish—whether it was a special liturgy, festival, music concert, or bake sale. This helped the people of the Diocese to keep in mind that not only were they part of a parish family, but that they were also part of a wider family—the diocesan family.

Since 2008, there has been no single mode of communication so that the members of one parish know what their neighbors at another parish are doing. Parish bulletins have only so much space to promote what is going on in nearby parishes, as much of their limited space is dedicated to their own parish events.

Geoffrey Lopes da Silva had informed the late Most Rev. Richard J. Garcia, the fourth Bishop of Monterey in California, as to his thoughts and ideas via email. In reply, the late Bishop R. Garcia wrote:

I like your idea about reaching our people in the Diocese, and beyond as well, about what is occurring or about to occur in our Diocese. We have a lot of activities and events that we could all share in better […] if only we could get the word out to all.

Garcia, Bishop Richard J. “Re: Permission request for new initiative”. Message to Geoffrey Lopes da Silva. 30 September 2016. E-mail. 

CentralCoastCatholic.net, the “front page” of what may be considered an online regional Catholic newspaper, is divided into “local” sections covering Catholic events in the six counties of the central coast:

Faithful to the Magisterium of the Church, Central Coast Catholic seeks to reflect the life and mission of Saint Junípero Serra, Apostle of California, by getting the Word out to all.