SAN DIEGO — Christina Bagaglio Slentz, who leads the diocesan Creation Care Ministry, reflected on the passion for environmental stewardship that Bishop Pham has demonstrated in his first year leading the diocese.
She said that the bishop, who came to the United States as a refugee from Vietnam, brings to his office firsthand experience with subsistence farming. This, she said, has given him an understanding of “creation as a gift and a life source.”
Over the past year, the Creation Care Ministry held two pilgrimages.
Three parishes collaborated on a Pilgrimage of Hope for Creation on Oct. 18, 2025. Participants walked the 2.5 miles between from St. Charles Borromeo and Immaculate Conception churches, along the way handing out food and water to homeless individuals and picking up trash.
Another pilgrimage was held Nov. 14 to 16 in Imperial Valley, with more than 100 people from the dioceses of San Diego and San Bernardino participating. The weekend event began with a visit to the Catholic Charities Day Center in El Centro and concluded with a blessing of the Salton Sea.
In late fall of 2025, the diocese prepared its Laudato Si’ Action Platform plan for the year. It was the diocese’s third annual plan, but the first approved since Bishop Pham’s installation.
Among the action items included in the plan is that the diocesan Pastoral Center will take the necessary steps to qualify as a “St. Kateri Habitat” within two years. Diocesan parishes are also being encouraged to pursue that designation, which requires completing at least two environmental action items, such as planting native trees, shrubs and wildflowers.
From Jan. 26 to 29, 2026, Slentz traveled to Washington, D.C., to participate in the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ inaugural Laudato Si’ Leadership Cohort as one of about 20 diocesan representatives. She said that the gathering presented an opportunity to foster greater participation in the Laudato Si’ Action Platform.
On April 20, more than 350 students from across California, including about 45 from the San Diego Diocese, attended the Laudato Si’ Youth Advocacy Summit in Sacramento. Teens from Our Lady of Guadalupe Parish (Barrio Logan) and both Mater Dei and Cathedral Catholic high schools visited their state representatives’ offices and made presentations on behalf of bills that aligned with Catholic Social Teaching.
“It was really exciting to have Bishop Pham and (Auxiliary Bishop Felipe) Pulido there to offer some words of encouragement to the kids” before they headed off to meet with legislators, Slentz said.
More recently, Bishop Pham proposed a new initiative, called “Common Home, Common Ground,” that calls upon every parish and school in the diocese to determine how they can exercise environmental stewardship through gardening and farming projects on their properties. For example, vegetables could be grown on their campuses and then donated to food banks. The initiative will begin in earnest this fall.
Bishop Pham celebrated the annual Season of Creation Mass on Sept. 5 at St. Francis of Assisi Parish in Vista. He used the Mass for the Care of Creation, a new formulary approved last year by Pope Leo XIV.
