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care for creation

How to Take Action

The third step in the model of Catholic Social Teaching is to take action!

We invite parishes, schools, and households to join our diocesan annual cycle of Laudato Si’ Action Planning. Using the Vatican’s Laudato Si’ Action Platform, this process of examination, reflection, action, and celebration aligns our behavior with the liturgical calendar. The Creation Care Ministry offers multiple workshops a year in English and Spanish to guide you in this process and will come to any parish or school to provide tailored instruction.

Below is our diocesan Laudato Si’ Action Plan, listing our actions for the year. You will also see our diocesan Creation Care Action Plan—a valuable resource, describing ways to care for creation in our region and identifying actions you might choose in creating your own Laudato Si’ Action Plan.  

Laudato Si’ Action Platform Planning

The Diocese of San Diego Laudato Si’ Action Platform Planning is largely drawn from our Creation Care Action Plan, which states:

It is our sacred duty to preserve the beauty and bounty of our local ecology for generations into the future. The Judeo-Christian tradition mandates care for God’s creation and begins with the Book of Genesis.

 

The Old Testament is filled with beautiful images of nature and the revelation of God in nature. God’s love is the fundamental moving force in all created things. Jesus used nature as a teaching tool many times. St. Augustine, writing in the early 400s, said “Creation is the primary and most perfect revelation of God.”

 

St. Bonaventure referred to nature as a vestige, or footprint, of God. Now Pope Francis, in the face of global environmental degradation, raises the care of creation to a central part of our Catholic faith, defining the Seven Goals of the Laudato Si Action Platform:

  1. Response to the Cry of the Earth
  2. Response to the Cry of the Poor
  3. Ecological Economics
  4. Adoption of Sustainable
  5. Lifestyles
  6. Ecological Education
  7. Ecological Spirituality
  8. Community Resilience and Empowerment

 

These seven goals guide our Laudato Si’ Action Platform Planning.

Read Year Two Plan
Read Year One Plan

Creation Care Action Plan

In July 2021, the Diocese of San Diego finalized an aspirational Creation Care Action Plan (CCAP), guiding and educating our local Catholic Community on the causes and effects of environmental degradation and advising actionable steps to reduce harmful human behaviors in our homes, our parishes, our businesses, and our society–in response to the cry of the earth and the cry of the poor and vulnerable. Cardinal Robert McElroy, Bishop of San Diego, welcomes us to this action, imploring us: “We as the Catholic community of San Diego and Imperial Counties must adopt a radical new commitment to such goals if we as a planet are to survive meaningfully and hand on a life-giving existence to the coming generations.”

This comprehensive source document offers aspirational guidance for all Laudato Si’ Action Planners in the Diocese of San Diego region.

Read Plan

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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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