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Social Ministry

Catholic Charities Steps Up in Unprecedented Crisis

On March 12, 2020, the pandemic was beginning to pick up steam in the San Diego region and beyond. Health authorities had begun to shut down one sector after another. 

 

“What can we do?” Bishop Robert McElroy asked the executive director of Catholic Charities, “Vino” Pajanor. 

 

The agency mobilized, building on contacts its staff had already developed
at parishes. 

 

It launched the Emergency Food Distribution Network on April 6, just 18 days after Gov. Gavin Newsom ordered all but essential workers to stay at home to slow the virus. 

 

The network was initially composed of 21 parishes in San Diego and Imperial counties that distributed food to low-income families and homebound individuals from parishes.

 

Volunteers handed out packages of non-perishable food items to people in their cars who drove-through. They also delivered them to the doorstep of those unable to leave their homes.

 

In the first week of the distribution, the parishes served a total of 2,500 households. The next week, they served about 5,000, with that number surging to 10,000 by the fourth week.

A person wearing a straw hat and face covering stands by a pickup truck loaded with SunTerra Farmers to Families boxes, holding one box. The person is dressed in a sweatshirt and gloves, preparing for delivery.
Catholic Charities scrambled to deliver fresh food during the pandemic.

Compassionate Creative Response to Emergency

The director has a simple way to explain why Catholic Charities helps the most vulnerable in the community, whom he describes as “our neighbors.”

 

“It’s what we do,” Pajanor said. “It’s in our DNA.” It’s what the agency has been doing for a century, putting faith in action. In 1919, a branch office of the Catholic Welfare Bureau opened in downtown San Diego. That would be the beginning of a tradition of providing service to the region’s neediest residents — along with hope for a better life.

 

In the last few years, the agency has stepped up its work to meet the basic needs of residents of the region on two fronts, food and housing. They have done so by forging or strengthening relationships with parishes and other organizations and by seeking new grants and public funding, all the while continuing to work in a manner that is efficient and economically sound. The agency had initially planned for the Emergency Food Distribution Network to last a month, until the health crisis had eased and people could resume their lives. 

 

But the conditions on the ground changed quickly and the agency had to adapt to continue to provide emergency food indefinitely.

 

For instance, the agency partnered with the City of National City to expand free food distribution to low-income families affected by the virus, with St. Anthony of Padua Parish serving as a distribution point.

 

The food came from the San Diego Food Bank or Feeding San Diego, which delivered the goods in pallets to Cathedral Catholic High School. Once a week, teams from the parishes arrived to pick up their allocation to take back to their churches. 

 

But when the high school could no longer spare the space, the agency responded by renting a warehouse in Carlsbad to receive the donated
food there. 

 

At one point, the agency wanted to lessen the burden on the volunteer drivers. So, it bought two used trucks to deliver the food to the parishes in San Diego and Imperial counties.

 

Catholic Charities continues to look for ways to serve the food insecure. For instance, the organization returned to Cathedral Catholic High School to open a food pantry there in the fall of 2024.

A large white truck is parked in a lot under a cloudy sky. The side displays an advertisement for Catholic Charities with images of people helping each other, and the words "You & Me Brought Together By."
Catholic Charities bought two used trucks to deliver the food to the parishes every week in San Diego and Imperial counties.

Topics

About the Coat of Arms

Bishop Pulido’s coat of arms is divided into four quarters with wavy horizontal lines from top to bottom. The blue and white lines represent the Blessed Virgin Mary. They also suggest water, which alludes to Jesus washing the feet of His disciples and to the waters of baptism. The red and gold lines represent the Holy Spirit and fire. The colors also can be seen as referring to the Blood that (along with water) poured from Jesus’ side at His crucifixion, as well as to the bread (gold) and wine (red) transformed into the Eucharist. At the center is a roundel featuring a symbolic representation of the “mandatum” (washing of the feet), which he believes exemplifies service to all humanity. The roundel’s outer edge is a line composed of small humps; it is borrowed from the coat of arms of the Diocese of Yakima, where Bishop Pulido served as a priest before being named a bishop.

About the Coat of Arms

Bishop Pham’s coat of arms depicts a red boat on a blue ocean, which is crisscrossed by diagonal lines suggesting a fisherman’s net. This symbolizes his ministry as a “fisher of men,” as well as how his own father had been a fisherman. The boat is also a symbol of the Church, which is often referred to as the “barque of Peter.” At the center of the sail is a red beehive (a symbol of the bishop’s baptismal patron saint, St. John Chrysostom, who was known as a “honey-tongued” preacher). The beehive is surrounded by two green palm branches (an ancient symbol of martyrdom; the bishop’s ancestors were among Vietnam’s first martyrs). The eight red tongues of fire around the boat are a symbol of the Holy Spirit and a representation of the diversity of ethnic and cultural communities. The red of the boat, the beehive and the tongues of fire allude to the blood of the martyrs.

About the Coat of Arms

The coat of arms combines symbols that reflect Bishop Bejarano’s spiritual life and priestly ministry. The main part of the shield shows four wavy vertical lines on a gold background. These represent flowing waters. This alludes to his chosen motto and also symbolizes the graces that come from the Divine life to quench our thirst for God. The upper third of the shield is red because it is borrowed from the coat of arms of the Order of Mercy, of which the Bishop’s patron saint, Raymond Nonnatus, was a member. The central symbol resembles a monstrance because St. Raymond is often depicted holding one. The Eucharist is Bishop Bejarano’s inspiration for his vocation. It was through the Eucharist that he received his call to the priesthood at age seven and which keeps his faith and his ministry going. It represents the call to offer oneself as a living sacrifice. The monstrance is flanked on either side by an image of the Sacred Heart, alluding to the mercy of God and echoing the idea of a sacrificial offering of oneself united to the sacrifice of Christ, and of a rose for Our Lady. It is an allusion to Our Lady of Guadalupe, patroness of the Americas, and highlights the bishop’s Hispanic heritage.