The Diocese of San Diego now has a full-time staff member devoted exclusively to environmental stewardship and care for our common home.
Christina Bagaglio Slentz, a member of Sacred Heart Parish in Coronado, joined the staff of the diocesan Office for Life, Peace and Justice on July 15 as associate director for Creation Care Ministry.
This ministry was started in early 2017 by Father Emmet Farrell, a retired priest who has led it with a team of volunteers. The ministry’s accomplishments include the publication of a 55-page diocesan climate action plan, as well as an ongoing tree-planting campaign.
Thanks to an anonymous donor, the new associate director position is fully funded for the next five years.
Paz Artaza-Regan, of the Catholic Climate Covenant in Washington, D.C., hailed the creation of the new position as “incredibly significant.” The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops helped form that organization, which helps Catholics to respond to the Church’s call to care for creation and the poor.
Artaza-Regan noted that, in most dioceses that have a creation care ministry, it is either one of several issues handled by the same staffer or has been entrusted to volunteers.
“San Diego joins only a handful of dioceses with full-time creation-care staffing,” she said. “San Diego has been a leader on creation care with Father Emmet and with a vibrant and robust creation care ministry, but having a full-time staff person will truly propel it to the front of diocesan efforts.”
Michael Lovette-Colyer, vice president for Mission Integration at the University of San Diego, similarly greeted the creation of the new position as an “exciting development.”
“I hope, and expect, that Christina will continue and expand the excellent work begun by Father Emmet Farrell and the Creation Care Team over the past five years,” he said. “They have done tremendous work, establishing a firm foundation that Christina will be able to build upon.”
Father Farrell, who will continue to be involved in the ministry, acknowledged that the new position is a big deal for a ministry that, until now, had been entirely volunteer-run. He expressed hope that having a full-time staffer entrusted with this ministry will give it greater “legitimacy” in the eyes of pastors.
Born in the Bay Area, Slentz grew up in a Navy family and moved around a lot. She later served in the Navy herself, for five years as an active-duty naval intelligence officer and another five years in the U.S. Navy Reserve.
Slentz earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of Notre Dame in 1995, double-majoring in Government and Russian. She earned a master’s degree and a PhD in International Studies from Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia, in 2012 and 2021, respectively.
Her doctoral dissertation was on environmentally related human movement and potential for socio-political instability.
In 2019, Slentz helped to start the local nonprofit Emerald Keepers, which educates Coronado residents on sustainability practices and encourages environmental activism. She continues to serve as a board member.
She is a member of the Coronado Climate Action Group, advising the City of Coronado on its climate action plan.
Slentz also has ministry experience, having served for almost 25 years as a catechist and, since 2018, as the marriage preparation coordinator at Sacred Heart Parish in Coronado. With her husband, Tim, and their three children — Gabby, Grayson and Matthew — she has been a member of the parish since moving to San Diego six years ago.
This past June, she completed the Laudato Si’ Animators program, an online leadership training course offered through the Laudato Si Movement. The program, which prepares participants to become environmental leaders in their communities, is named after Pope Francis’ 2015 encyclical, “Laudato Si: On Care for Our Common Home.”
Slentz said one of her goals as associate director for Creation Care Ministry is “not to create another silo of activity” in the local Church, but to present the ministry as “a lens through which all of us can approach our day-to-day lives.”
In other words, creation care ministry isn’t something “just for the tree-huggers at the parish,” she explained, but rather should guide all parish decisions, including everything from construction projects to grocery shopping for pancake breakfasts….
The above comes from an Aug. 1 story in the Southern Cross.
Unfortunately I have to endure this crap in San Diego diocese. Our little church is falling apart and needs repairs to the roof and the hall. I guess this not a priority for McElroy.
I’m afraid we’ve slipped into madness. This ideology of climatism is the latest great deceit thrust upon us by the bishop of San Diego. As an accomplished, volunteer environmental activist in Coronado, Mrs. Slentz now occupies a paid position so that, to paraphrase Father Farrell, …..”having a full-time staffer will give it greater ‘legitimacy’ in the eyes of the pastors.” This says it all. Most pastors know that they’re being asked to embrace and “legitimize” a bogus and vapid new ministry. The Emperor is wearing no clothes.
Interesting and encouraging to see that the USCCB helped create the organization Catholic Climate Covenant showing that abortion and homosexuality and not the only issues they know about.
USCCB does not spend much time on homosexuality. But they do spend time on freedom of religion, abortion and other life issues (of which climate changes and their effects on human life and dignity is one). They do stand up for traditional marriage of one man, one woman, permanent and exclusive. They have not tiptoes much into the transgender issue or gender identity but it is starting.
Coronado.
Median Home Price: $2.2 Million
Glad to see McElroy picked a representative
of the struggling serf class ekeing out an
existence on that God-forsaken island
Her husband is the commander of the Naval Base.
Even if they live in a million dollar home, they are military and deserve our support.
So we should hire her for a gasbag job at our expense? Another reason any Diocesan envelopes I receive go into the shredder.
Her position is fully funded by an anonymous donor. You are not involved at all.
Lot of military haters here. I am surprised.
2.2 million on Coronado gets you what $220,000 get you outside of California
Ms. Slentz, thank you for your service in the military and the sacrifices you made to serve.
May God bless you in your new endeavor.
The faithful of San Diego are voting with their feet as they flock to St. Anne, the home of the Traditional Latin Mass, which continues to grow also because you don’t hear such liberal claptrap there, but the unchangeable truths of the Catholic faith and morals.
Waste of time, waste of money. Which is why they don’t get any of mine.
This virtue-signaling position is as useless a bureaucratic addition as is a chief diversity officer.
Of course she thinks her work will be to make everything in every parish about caring for creation instead of just a few activities for tree huggers. So you better get your pancake batter from a sustainable source or you’ll be called in. Your bulletins had better be printed using recycled paper, and parishes should look into installing electric vehicle charging stations and solar panels. Just like diversity officers are trying to make everything about gay and race.
This is madness.
I wish the anonymous donor who fully funded this job for five years had instead restricted his gift to be used to hire and pay better catechists or musicians. That would help parishes. Not this utterly useless non-job that is an extravagance for wealthy diocese. When the drinking water runs out in California, when there’s no electricity to power or cool your homes, when gasoline automobiles are outlawed, you can thank green bigots/tyrants like this woman who thinks she knows better than you all, and whose environmental policies have resulted in energy and water shortages “for the good of the earth.”
Every new home in the state must have solar panels on it. Over a fifty-year period that will result in the need to build fewer electric plants. If the home has a battery, it can charge the car at no cost. The fewer cars emitting fumes the better. Maybe in 40+ years we will have more clean air. The windmills in Palm Springs produce the majority of the electricity needed in the valley. Some northern California utilities are producing some of there energy at solar farms in New Mexico and Arizona. In twenty years or so most people will drive the length and breath of the state without using one drop of gas. How can that be wrong? We are called by God to be good stewards of the earth, are we not?
Do you know how environmentally destructive lithium-ion batteries are? I guess green only extends to what you can see in your own neighborhood. Internal combustion engines will come roaring back once people wake up and realize the lies they’ve been told about clean energy and zero emissions.
You seem to be under the impression that solar panels are free, and high-capacity batteries are free. They have to be paid for, either by the homeowner or the taxpayer (if subsidized, which they have to be to be ‘competitive’). And that there is no environmental cost to obtaining the exotic elements used to manufacture EVs, batteries, and solar panels. And that there is no environmental cost to dispose them, as the ability to recycle them is limited. Check the per-kilowatt-hour cost of solar or wind power (intermittent) vs generation by natural gas turbines. All this boutique energy is for the rich (or the beneficiaries of government largess confiscated from the taxpayers), and does very little to expand access to affordable energy – which is the prerequisite for any possibility of escaping poverty. And should we ignore the risk to raptors and other birds from wind turbines, or the loss of habitat from carpeting the desert with solar panels?
Although I do not reside in the diocese of San Diego, I am mailing a donation to the office in which Dr. Slentz serves. Thanks be to God the Church is addressing issues related to climate change and fostering initiatives to help the laity do what it can to reduce human impacts. After living through a catastrophic wildfire and a flood, I know climate change is real. May God Bless Dr. Slentz as she leads this important effort.
The depth of your confusion is profound.
Thank you Bernard for your support and for your witness! You speak to the truth of Catholic meaning UNIVERSAL, meaning we don’t just care about one issue or one group of people, but we care for the well-being of our planet which is our home, all of ours, universally, whether baptized Catholics or not. We all call this place home, this Earth, and right now she’s suffering – so we do what we can! You have my support San Diego and Bernard and Mrs. Slenz!
Better headline:
Tree-Hugger Climbs to Branch Manager.
I hope she goes out on a limb and it snaps
Rainbow flags on her Facebook page…..
Yes, of course. Green totalitarian bigots aren’t much different from gay totalitarian bigots. I read on some sites about people concerned with Freemason infiltration of the church. Wrong focus. Be concerned about gay and environmentalist infiltration. The person who funded this job for the diocese is as bad as George Soros funding elections of leftists all over the country. They are using their money to undermine the church and the country, and Bishop Big Mac is party to it.
Anyone older than 40 knows that irrational climate alarmism has been going on for decades, stretching back to the 1970s and fear of a new ice age. Then Al Gore told inconvenient lies to become very wealthy shouting about the need for others to change their behavior to save the earth while he didn’t change his. It’s all a bunch of hooey. Sad to see the diocese of San Diego buy into it this way.
Her McPancake fixation is Crêpey.
Leonard “Laudato Spock” Nimoy warns Ice Age dead ahead (1979) – 2 Min. Version:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NQSBn50o_8M
Full Version:
Sometimes the correct and prudent decision by a bishop is to say no to a donation of money with strings attached. This is an example. Just because someone else is willing to pay for it doesn’t mean you should do it.
she majored in Russian?
Good for her!
As to this new job?
“Нет” Nyet! No! Hell No!
“Чушь” Nonsense!
Okay, I won’t call her a Tree Hugger. I’ll call her a Green Nazi.
She’s Navy (by marriage).
Why not have hubby ground all navy aircraft
at North Island and Miramar?
They must create a huge carbon footprint.
She is a veteran of of the US Navy and Naval Reserve.
2 people don’t like facts.
Almost everything “green” or “environmental” is a ruse and corrupt and makes no economic sense when you look at the details and implications.
What makes no sense is pursuing a path in which we spend more on disaster mitigation and reconstruction than we would ever do fixing the problem in the first place. But Im Sure you’ve run the spreadsheets and calculated the projections yourself, otherwise you wouldn’t make such a bold statement.
You’re assuming that we can ‘fix’ the problem. What if what we’re seeing is the result of natural variations, as we’ve seen over the centuries? (Roman warm period, medieval warm period, little ice age, etc.). Then you’re throwing a lot of money and resources, and condemning millions if not billions of people to inescapable poverty, to fight a problem that actually isn’t a problem at all – because it’s just nature taking its course. And in that case you’ll achieve almost nothing for all that effort. The real problem is us failing to adapt to the various challenges that nature presents (or that we’ve magnified, if that’s the case). You can’t stop earthquakes, and it is expensive to rebuild wrecked structures as you point out, but we can avoid building on fault zones. If you look at it that way, you can arrive at commonsense strategies that are economically defensible. And you don’t have to subscribe to the conceit that we have the power to fundamentally alter the planet.
she should figure out how to refill Lake Mead
“But she might want to see what your serving for pancake breakfast”
‘You’re” What YOU’RE serving!!!
If you’re gonna save the environment, you better use correct spelling
and grammar. Sheesh!
She did not write that. This website did. There are lots of errors in this website’s headlines and subheading. Calm down.