Chapter 11

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Annual Catholic Appeal

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Annual Catholic Appeal

Advancing Our Mission

The 2025 Annual Catholic Appeal enables us to fund our pastoral center ministry offices and programs that help our community members to live their faith. They include our schools and programs to support faith formation at all ages, to strengthen families, to promote a culture of life, to care for creation, to engage youth and young adults, to assist the marginalized, to sustain our clergy and those preparing for the priesthood, and to extend a helping hand to the marginalized.

Catholic Schools
Two children and an adult are excitedly looking at a colorful board on a table. The setting is a classroom with educational posters and a whiteboard in the background.

Catholic schools provide a quality education in a nurturing, safe environment that treats each student as an individual. The schools continuously invest in staff development to be able to deliver innovative instruction and leadership. Our education is centered on Catholic values that prepare future leaders in our Church and in our society, needed now more than ever.

In synodal consultations throughout the diocese, thousands of Catholics expressed that celebrating the sacraments is a priority for them, as is participating in their parish community. Diocesan pastoral offices provide a wide range of bilingual trainings, conferences and workshops to support those priorities, working with our partners in our parishes, schools and ministries.

A person wearing a wide-brimmed hat and face covering stands by a truck, holding a SunTerra box. The truck bed is filled with similar boxes labeled "Farmers to Families." The person's sweatshirt reads "Southwest Eagles."

Catholic Charities works to meet the basic needs of our region’s most vulnerable. In 2023, the agency opened a day shelter in El Centro, providing services for the homeless struggling to survive the extreme conditions in the Imperial Valley. And the agency continued to help asylum-seekers legally in the U.S., mainly women and children, to reach their final destination.

Four clergymembers in white robes stand with hands clasped in a church, facing the congregation. The setting features wooden pews with seated attendees observing the ceremony.

The Annual Catholic Appeal supports priestly formation, enabling our seminarians to prepare for their vocation. The ACA funds the pastoral care of retired priests, who have dedicated their lives to ministering to our community members. And these funds support the preparation and ongoing formation of permanent deacons. Currently, we have 13 seminarians and 52 retired priests in our diocese.

Parish Materials

2025 Annual Catholic Appeal

2025 Campaña Católica Anual

NOTE:  For your convenience, you can now create your own secure account with the Diocese of San Diego.  This will make it easier for you to make online donations, or to view your entire giving history, or to change your personal profile settings.  Click here to Create an Account or to Log In to your account if you’ve already created one.

 

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Roman Catholic Diocese of San Diego

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.

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