New archdiocesan director of communications excited to ‘blend my faith and my profession’

New archdiocesan director of communications Sally Krause, second from left, poses with her husband John, left; their sons Max, third from left, and Charlie, right; and her parents Jane and Jerry Allsop on May 23 in Our Lady of Lourdes Church in Indianapolis at the 2024 Baccalaureate Mass for Father Thomas Scecina Memorial High School in Indianapolis. All six are members of Our Lady of Lourdes Parish. (Submitted photo)

By Natalie Hoefer

Sally Krause sensed God had her on a journey. She didn’t know the destination until she accepted the position of director of communications for the archdiocese in mid-October.

“Looking back, I can see that he was preparing me for this next step and giving me the courage and confidence to move outside of the familiar place I’d been in for 25 years,” says Krause, who started her role as archdiocesan director of communications on Nov. 4.

That “familiar place” was Indiana University Indianapolis. She began there in 1999 as a development writer for the IU School of Medicine then switched to the IU School of Nursing in 2004, where her most recent role was as director of communications.

“We are excited to have Sally join our archdiocesan staff as director of communications,” says Archbishop Charles C. Thompson. “In addition to an evident devotion and commitment to the Catholic faith, she brings an array of gifts, skills and experience to enhance and develop archdiocesan communications in various ways.”(Related story: New communications effort hopes to connect with new and younger audiences)

Krause sees her new position with the archdiocese as more than a job.

“It feels like home, like the place I’m supposed to be,” says the member of Our Lady of Lourdes Parish in Indianapolis. “It is 1,000% a calling and a path that God led me here. There’s no doubt about it.”

A focus on prayer and surrender

Krause was hired after a survey was conducted in central and southern Indiana to determine the communications needs of the archdiocese—needs that would help shape the requirements for a new director of communications.

“We worked with communications experts to assess the needs of that office here and produce a job description based on these priorities,” says Ken Ogorek, executive director of the archdiocesan Secretariat for Evangelizing Catechesis, which oversees the communications department.

“Two of the professionals with whom we worked sat in when we interviewed candidates, adding excellent questions to these conversations. They helped us narrow the field of candidates, conduct follow-up interviews and zero in on our applicant of choice.

“We’re confident and pleased that a collaborative effort between diocesan leaders and experts in the communications field helped us fill this position well—by God’s grace and mercy,” adds Ogorek.

Meanwhile, as Krause says, God had been preparing her for the role.

“Among the first whisperings that change was coming for me was that my work with the [Our Lady of Lourdes] parish council had come to an end,” she says of her second term on the council.

Then her boss of more than10 years at the IU School of Nursing announced her retirement. Krause took the news as “another whisper that it might be a great time to take a look around and see what was out there. It felt like I needed a shift from communicating about the ways we physically heal people to the ways we spiritually heal people.”

Around this time, her sister-in-law, Joanne Mages, a member of Little Flower Parish in Indianapolis, mentioned seeing a notice about the archdiocesan director of communications job and how the description called Krause to mind.

“As I was discerning these changes, a friend and I started to go to daily Mass” at St. John the Evangelist Church in Indianapolis, she says. “That focus on prayer, on surrendering to God’s plan, on trusting that he knew where I should go next is what guided me to apply for the position.”

‘The main thing that attracted me to the job’

Krause’s eyes light up with enthusiasm for her new role.

“I’m very excited to be part of this team,” Krause says. “I love working in a team environment—it’s where I thrive.

“And I love the opportunity to blend my faith and my profession and use my gifts in that space. That’s probably the main thing that attracted me to the job.”

She describes her new role as having three primary areas of responsibility. One of those areas is considering the different means by which the archdiocese communicates in light of the earlier survey results.

“The Criterion is a valuable and key method of communication for the archdiocese,” Krause says. “But as you look around, what other pieces might need to be present? My job is to work with the folks here and see what kinds of communication tools and plans we can put in place to expand and build upon what’s already here—which is a great, solid foundation to jump off of and grow.”

Another task involves public relations, “being in spaces to be able to communicate on behalf of the entire archdiocese,” she says.

The third primary area is in promoting a unified voice in archdiocesan communications.

“It’s important to speak in all areas as one voice and to unify that voice more sharply,” says Krause. “There is a unification already present, and the more tools we have in place and the more we can talk to each other, the stronger that will be.”

She calls herself a “cautious adopter” of new technology.

“I like to see if a new tool or technology is going to have legs, so to speak, and stick around,” says Krause. “I don’t want to steer an organization down a path that’s not going to be available for very long, and I’m always very cautious about the impact of that technology on an organization—is it going to serve us well?

“But I also don’t want to miss out on where things are going. I always stay in touch with people younger than me, honestly, because they usually have their thumb on what’s going on.”

Not the ‘cool parent’

Krause says she has “always been drawn to communications—the storytelling, the learning about people, their journeys.”

She was raised in a strong Catholic family in South Bend, Ind. She studied English for two years at IU South Bend, then completed her degree in 1992 at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Ind. She later earned a master’s degree in library and information science from IU Indianapolis in 2003.

After graduating from Purdue, Krause moved to Atlanta, Ga., where her parents were living at the time. She gained experience in promotions and public relations, but by 1994 she “really wanted to come back to Indiana, to set my roots down closer to home.”

Soon after moving to Indianapolis in 1995, she met John Krause. The Catholic from Shelbyville was studying at the IU McKinney School of Law in Indianapolis. He was also in a band, making him “definitely the cool parent,” she admits.

The two met through mutual friends as John was finishing his last semester of law school. They married in 2000 at St. Monica Church in Indianapolis, her parish at the time.

“God led me to marry the absolute perfect person for me,” says Krause. “He’s kind, supportive and the smartest person I know. We have the words “A Gift from God” engraved in our wedding bands, and I am grateful for John every single day. ”

The couple moved to the east side of Indianapolis, with Our Lady of Lourdes “literally at the end of our street,” Krause notes.

Their two sons—Charlie, 21, and Max, 19—are now in college. Both graduated from Our Lady of Lourdes School and Father Thomas Scecina Memorial High School in Indianapolis, where Max earned the honor of salutatorian in May.

“I love spending time with them,” says Krause. “They make me laugh, and seeing the world through their eyes is a blessing. I’m so proud of them.”

‘It’s the perfect job for me’

She had more than John’s help in raising their boys.

“As a mother, many, many times I have prayed to Mary for patience and guidance,” says Krause, who calls the Blessed Mother a guiding light. “She was present throughout Christ’s life. She’s the vessel through which [Christ] came to Earth and was present until the foot of the cross. There’s a lot to be learned there, I think.”

The role of faith in her life began well before children arrived on the scene.

“I’ve always had a deep faith, which was nurtured by my parents,” who also are members of Our Lady of Lourdes, says Krause. “With that gift of faith they gave me, I have stayed involved with the Church all my life.”

Her new position as archdiocesan director of communications takes that involvement a step further—and her excitement is hard to contain.

“Every single person I’ve told about my new job has said that it’s the perfect job for me,” says Krause.

“I cannot stress enough how happy I am to be part of this team. I am incredibly respectful of and amazed by all the great things that have been going on before I got here, and I’m blessed to be a part of the journey to see where we can go next.” †