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Christina Bagaglio Slentz is Associate Director for Creation Care for the Catholic Diocese of San Diego. Learn about how her diocese prioritizes climate action here.In this episode, we often refer to Pope Francis' encyclical Laudato si' and the ways that faith communities are living out its stated goals. We also discuss the theme “seeds of peace and hope,” the official theme for the 2025 ecumenical Season of Creation.Many thanks to Christina for sharing her wisdom in this conversation!Christina SlentzTRANSCRIPTChristina Slentz I think this really can help us understand the way that the cry of the Earth, these environmental climate extremes, or the variability that we're experiencing, leads to greater exposure—but how one community can face that exposure and adapt or bounce back fairly quickly and another may not really have that capacity.Debra Rienstra Welcome to the Refugia Podcast. I'm your host, Professor Debra Rienstra. Refugia are habitats in nature where life endures in times of crisis. We're exploring the concept of refugia as a metaphor, discovering how people of faith can become people of refugia: nurturing life-giving spaces in the earth, in our human cultural systems, and in our spiritual communities, even in this time of severe disturbance. This season, we're paying special attention to churches and Christian communities who have figured out how to address the climate crisis together as an essential aspect of their discipleship.Today, I'm talking with Dr. Christina Bagaglio Slentz, Associate Director for Creation Care at the Catholic Diocese of San Diego. Christina has a background in sociology, with a PhD in international studies and global affairs. She's also a Navy veteran. Today, she serves a diocese of 97 parishes, helping to guide and empower people in their creation care work. The Diocese of San Diego is a microcosm of diverse biomes and diverse people, and it's a fascinating example of refugia, because as a diocese, they are doing all the things. Christina and I talk about Laudato si', solar energy, economics, eco spirituality, environmental justice advocacy, the centrality of the Eucharist, and the mutuality between caring for neighbor and caring for the Earth. Let's get to it.Debra Rienstra Christina, thank you so much for being with me today. I really appreciate talking to you.Christina Slentz Thank you, Debra, for having me. I'm really excited to be here.Debra Rienstra So I am eager to hear more about the Diocese of San Diego, because it seems that you have been very intentional and thoughtful and ambitious about your creation care agenda, and we're going to get into the details of that in just a minute, but I want to start with you. So tell us your hero origin story. How did you get into faith-based environmental work and into your current position?Christina Slentz Well, to be honest, I never saw it coming in many ways. I was working in the global affairs area, looking at sources of conflict and cooperation and how political economy intersects with those dynamics, and that was my academic area of focus. And at the same time, I've always been a catechist in the Catholic church since the 90s, and my church life was pretty comfortable, I would say, and active. But I didn't really see those two things coming together until Laudato si', the encyclical written by Pope Francis on the care of our common home, was released in 2015, and this really started to bring more overlap between these two areas in my life. And I would say, increasingly, then there was a lot of interplay between those focus areas for me. And eventually this position became available in the Diocese of San Diego, and a friend mentioned it to me, and I thought that is actually the perfect vocation for me. And I really feel like I understood it to be a vocation, not just a job.Debra Rienstra Yeah, I think I can relate to everything you just said. I think we came to this work from different areas of specialty, but yeah, like you, I feel like we've had these mid-career shifts where suddenly our area of specialty—in my case, literature and creative writing—has become energized by—in your case, Laudato si', in my case, other documents as well as Laudato si',—and we've sort of taken this fascinating and yeah, I would agree, vocational, turn. So let's talk a little bit more about Laudato si'. I imagine our listeners know at least a little bit about it. It's been so enormously influential. It's such an amazing landmark document. Could you talk a little bit about how you've seen Laudato si' diffuse through the Catholic Church, especially the American Catholic Church?Christina Slentz Yes, I think, to be honest, it has had a complicated journey with the Catholic community here in the United States. Very much like the issue of climate change in the global community, the United States has struggled with these dynamics—I think the way that they involve our economics and some of our very strong ideology about economic freedom and what that means to people. And so I think it's fair to say that while Laudato si' was very warmly received around the world, it has struggled in the United States as a whole, and that includes the American Catholic community. That said, there have been—like your description of refugia suggests——there have been these pockets, though, where I think that particular dynamics existed, and there was fertile ground for seeds to be planted. And the Diocese of San Diego is one of them. The Diocese of—the Archdiocese of Atlanta was another. There are a couple around the country, and I do think some footholds were created. In addition, one of the things that is particularly interesting about the encyclical Laudato si'—and an encyclical is just a document that a pope writes and then circulates, right, this is where the word encyclical comes from—circulates around until everyone's had a chance to read it. We can imagine in medieval times, you know, how this must have been a challenge. And I think that, you know, this challenge exists, but Father Emmett Farrell is the founder of this ministry in my diocese, and Father Emmett just celebrated his 60th anniversary of his ordination, and Father Emmett will say he has never seen an encyclical translate to action the way that Laudato si' has. And in particular, there is a Vatican online platform called the Laudato si' Action Platform, where Catholics—either parishes, schools, orders of sisters or religious—can get on this platform and learn about the dynamics that we face. They can see how our values are distilled into seven goals, and then they can reflect on their behavior, using this tool to sort of measure where they are, and then write a plan of action and upload it and share it with each other. And Father Emmett really celebrates how amazing it is that, you know, that we're going to lean into technology and use it for the good.Debra Rienstra Oh, awesome. There's so many things I want to follow up on in that answer. And I want to begin by just thanking you for being honest about pushback to Laudato si' in the US. And I want to go back to that in just a second, if it's okay. And then I want to thank you for the way you've thought about, you know, some of these dioceses like the mighty San Diego and the mighty Atlanta as sort of refugia spaces. And we'll come back to that again too, I really hope, and I want to hear some more details about your particular diocese. Why do you think there has been pushback in the American Catholic Church? You mentioned economic reasons, and you know, Pope Francis and Pope Leo now have both been very pointed in their critique of climate denial, of greed, of exploitation, injustice, war, economic systems that many Americans have sort of held as almost sacrosanct. So what are you noticing in Catholic conversations about that critique? Why are people resisting the critique and why are people saying, “No, that's right”—what are the motivations behind each of those responses?Christina Slentz So, you know, we could probably talk about this all day.Debra Rienstra Probably, yeah.Christina Slentz Because economic peace, I think, is really difficult to think about. You know, if we take the United Kingdom, for example, it's a country very much like the United States. So many of our you know, American culture and tradition and customs come out of that early launching that we experienced from, you know, Great Britain. And yet, as the topic of climate change came forward, Margaret Thatcher, who was, you know, a real compatriot of President Ronald Reagan at the time, she really took the scientific approach in thinking about climate change, and this set them on a path that's really different from the path that we experienced. And certainly, oil is a big factor in our economy. And I think it can be a real challenge for people to weigh the goods, you know, because we have to be honest, there are goods in both sides of these dynamics. When we understand the gravity, though, of climate change, if we're allowed to really get into those dynamics without the noise that has been kind of confronting that potential, then I think we can see that the good outweighs, you know, those alternative goods associated with continuing in the fossil fuel realm. But this is why we talk about a just transition, right? I think that many people who are hearing this noise, right, they don't understand that Pope Francis and others, you know, is really arguing for a just transition, and that would seek to care for the people that are going to be affected by whatever change in economic policy might make.Debra Rienstra Yeah, and more and more, those economic changes are actually positive in favor of transition in ways that they weren't even 5-10 years ago.Christina Slentz Yeah, I think it's amazing. We actually had some good momentum going until recently.Debra Rienstra Yeah, you know, I would love to get us all talking about a just and joyful transition, because it's more and more possible. And maybe we'll come back to that a little bit later too, when we talk about ecological spirituality. But let's go back to these places within the American Catholic Church, even, that are saying, “Oh yes, Laudato si', yes, let's go.” And San Diego diocese is one of those places. You had an action plan already in 2019. I think it's impressive that a diocese could get a plan together in four years. So good job. Knowing how long everything takes in church settings. So just give us a list of your accomplishments. What have you been up to since 2019? What are the kinds of things you've dipped your toes into?Christina Slentz Sure, and to be fair, I want to give some good credit to some others. You know, the Archdiocese of Atlanta had created their creation care action plan. This gave us some really good kind of framework to think about when we created ours. And there was a team that preceded me. They were all volunteers, very multidisciplinary in their backgrounds, everything from theologians to medical doctors who had worked with indigenous communities, you know, theologians, missionaries, energy engineers, and they really pulled this together early on. And this plan I now recognize as what climate action planners might refer to as an aspirational plan. It's all the things you could do in our area, and it serves as a really good resource for our parishes and schools as they think about what they might do in their Laudato si' action platform plans, and those are yearly plans that are really targeted on what we're going to do. So, you know, one of the things that they did early on was really push to solarize. And you know, we do have the great fortune of, one: climate here in San Diego, right? You know, we're sort of famous for that. And then you know, two: the other thing is that, you know, it was very normative to be shifting to solar, and continues to be an economic choice that is not really as politicized here as much as it might be elsewhere. And then the third thing was this is, you know, the magic number three is to have a bishop that is supportive. And so Cardinal McElroy—now Cardinal McElroy, then Bishop McElroy—really promoted this solarization. And at this point we have about 54% of our parishes solarized. And when I think now, you know, the Paris Climate Agreement says we want to have about half of our carbon emissions reduced by 2030 then you know, we're sitting at about half. Our building where I'm located is called our pastoral center. Some Catholic communities call it their chancery. And our solar array here provides over 80% of our electricity to the building. Our local utility is about half renewable energy, a little bit more. So with that in mind, you know, our electricity here to our building is a little over 90% coming from renewable energy, and this lets us have seven electric vehicle charging stations in the parking lot so I can go to work and charge my car at the same time.Debra Rienstra Lovely.Christina Slentz So that was one big thing. I would say our other really big kind of landmark action that also was largely driven by Cardinal McElroy, was to divest of fossil fuels. And, you know, this is a real challenging thing to accomplish. We set a goal of no more than 5% of, you know, the earnings of both direct and indirect investment to be coming from fossil fuel. And after a year, we evaluated how we were doing, and we were actually hitting—not we, you know, the financial folks doing this—were hitting less than 3%. So, you know, we said, “Okay, I think we can say that this was successful, and we're still here.” So that was really exciting, and we didn't do it to be virtue signaling. Just, you know, for some of your listeners may not know, but the USCCB, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, has a document that directs socially responsible investment for all areas. And so this is just one more area of socially responsible investment that the Diocese of San Diego has embraced.Debra Rienstra Yeah, yeah. So we've got money, we've got energy. How many parishes would you say are on board with this, doing yearly goals, selecting from the menu of fun ideas—what percentage of your parishes would you say are involved?Christina Slentz So I gotta, Debra, that's a little bit of a good question. I think, you know, we did just describe two very top-down approaches. And one of the things that our group, you know, when I came on board in 2022, we decided is, you know, we really wanted to push that grassroots. And so we see parishes demonstrating a range of behaviors, and I was initially surprised, but they actually behave a lot like countries around the world. And so, you know, you think, oh, that's going to be different. But, you know, you can also have three children, and they all behave differently, and you know, sometimes that's surprising as well, when they have the same parents. And so one of the things that I have really tried to do was offer more events that are here at the diocesan level. We have 97 parishes, and then we have—so sometimes we'll see individuals that are really on board, and they come from a parish where, at the parish level, not a lot is happening. Sometimes we have individuals that are participating, and they are doing a ton at their parish and succeeding. And then we have parishes where the pastor is leading the charge. And then on top of that, I would say there are parishes where they have solar and they have drought-resistant landscaping, and they have LEED silver certified buildings that, you know, are very environmentally friendly. And yet, you know, at the parishioner level, you know, not as much activity happening. So it is an array of activities. I would say probably half have had some kind of interaction with us, or have had parishioners or students participate in our programs. But you know, we reflect the American Catholic community, which reflects the broader American society as well. So there are places where we struggle, and then there are places where we see a lot of action and shining.Debra Rienstra Yeah, sure. And I really appreciate that. And I think listeners can relate to that range of involvement too. Maybe they are in any one of those categories or some other category themselves. And you know, as you say, it's the modeling of— even if it's a minority, it's the modeling and the enthusiasm and the even implicit sort of educating of others that can make this work spread too. So I want to list the seven goals of the Laudato si' action platform, because I think they're really, really great and helpful to people who are not in the Catholic Church, but in other aspects of the church, you might find these goals useful too. So here are the goals: response to the cry of the Earth, response to the cry of the poor, ecological economics, adoption of sustainable lifestyles, ecological education, ecological spirituality, community resilience and empowerment. So I want to start with the first three. We've talked a little bit about economics and how dicey that can be, but I wonder if you could describe how you see the cry of the earth and the cry of the poor as basically the same cry, as Pope Francis said in Laudato si'. How do you see that, especially in your region?Christina Slentz Yeah, so thank you. I think these two are kind of the crown jewels, right? And they sum up what we see happening very well. I think that the other goals are valuable because they sort of pull out the dynamics that we really understand as informing those two big—response to the cry of the Earth and cry of the poor. So as someone who was looking at this through the lens of being a social scientist, I found these two goals to really sum it up well, because it is not just the exposure to the environment that causes our concern for these dynamics. It's the exposure as well as the sensitivity of that population. And then this helps us understand also, maybe some vulnerability that that population might have. So for example, we had significant flooding about a year and a half ago in January, the month of January, and the same rain fell on a parish in the southern part of the Diocese, close to our Mexican border, in an area that is, you know, less wealthy, probably demonstrates some socio economic features that we would associate with marginalized communities. And then it also fell on a parish in Coronado, California. And some people might recognize the Hotel Del Coronado as an iconic location. It's a beautiful community. There's a lot of wealth. There's a lot of human capital as well. You know, very highly educated group, and so the buildings at two of two parishes in each of these locations were completely flooded. But, you know, the parish in Coronado was up on its feet within a week. And of course, they had repairs that had to be done, but they were able to get a hold of those folks, get them in, pay the bills, get it all done. And the parish on the south side had catastrophic flooding to its school, and the school was a total loss.Debra Rienstra Oh, wow.Christina Slentz So I think this really can help us understand the way that the cry of the Earth, these environmental climate extremes, or the variability that we're experiencing, leads to greater exposure, but how one community can face that exposure and adapt or bounce back fairly quickly, and another may not really have that capacity. And so you can't really pull them apart, because just measuring precipitation doesn't always give you the whole story.Debra Rienstra That's a very, very helpful answer to that. And I sometimes hear in religious circles, you know, “Well, we have to worry about other people, why should we worry about owls or whatever?” And the answer is: well, because what happens in nature affects people. So this is about loving your neighbor. Even if you're not convinced by the idea that we love the Earth for its own sake because it's beloved of God, we still have to love our neighbor. And this is a neighbor issue as well. So thank you. That was very helpful as an explanation.Christina Slentz One of my favorite kind of messages is, you know, having been a student of globalization, you know, I think that we live in a globalized world. You can't put that toothpaste back in the tube, right? Maybe there are some things we can do and that can be helpful, but the bottom line is, our actions have ripple effects, and so no matter what we do, we are going to have these impacts on people far beyond those we know and love on a day to day basis. And when we care for the Earth, we mitigate those effects on people all around the world, and so our caring for creation really is just love of neighbor at global scale.Debra Rienstra Ah, lovely. Yeah, so it works both ways. If you love neighbor, you love the Earth. If you love the Earth, you love your neighbor.Christina Slentz That's right.Debra RienstraHi, it's me, Debra. If you are enjoying this podcast episode, go ahead and subscribe on your preferred podcast platform. If you have a minute, leave a review. Good reviews help more listeners discover this podcast. To keep up with all the Refugia news, I invite you to subscribe to the Refugia newsletter on Substack. This is my fortnightly newsletter for people of faith who care about the climate crisis and want to go deeper. Every two weeks, I feature climate news, deeper dives, refugia sightings and much more. Join our community at refugianewsletter.substack.com. For even more goodies, including transcripts and show notes for this podcast, check out my website at debrarienstra.com. D-E-B-R-A-R-I-E-N-S-T-R-A dot com. Thanks so much for listening. We're glad you're part of this community. And now back to the interview.Debra Rienstra Let's think about some of those more personal goals. I don't know, maybe they're not just personal, because everything is systemic too. But I want to talk about that sustainable lifestyle goal, adoption of sustainable lifestyle. So what does that mean, and how are people doing that in San Diego?Christina Slentz So I have a really amazing parish, St. Thomas More, and they have created a community garden that not only functions as a place for their parish to gather and work together, it also is open to the public, so it has an evangelical capacity as well. And they also collect recyclable cans and bottles and then take those to a facility where they can be paid for that recycling work, and then they take the money, and then they put it into this garden that allows them to gather and have a mission and have evangelical outreach. So I think of this as such a wonderful circular kind of example that is, you know, feeding them in many ways. You know, they have this sense of community. They have this sense of common, shared mission. They have a good relationship with the neighborhood around them, people that may be of different faiths or of no faith at all. And then they're also in good relationship with Mother Earth, and doing what they can to, you know, practice this sort of sustainability, or also a little bit like circular economics, I guess I would say as well. And I think one of the things that the Catholic Church is emphasizing is synodality, and our synodality really calls us to be community, to have a shared mission and really inviting participatory action. So in my building here, where we sort of have the headquarters, you know, we also have gone to compostables for all of our events, and we try to minimize any kind of single use plastics. But, you know, there's that dreaded moment at the end where everybody has to go to the three, you know, receptacles. Everyone panics, especially if I'm near them, and I feel terribly, you know, like, should I step away? Should I give them a moment to give them help? Is that overreach? And so, you know, but we all fumble through together, and that's where I've kind of said, like, “Look, it's not easy for me either. Like, God forbid I put the wrong thing in the wrong can, right?” So I think that there's this way where we all are coming together to sort of take on this work. And, you know, we're not going to be perfect, but, you know, I think that it does foster community when we take this on, and then also recognizing how, you know, now we are living with greater simplicity, and we are impacting the Earth, you know, to a lesser extent.Debra Rienstra Yeah, nothing bonds people like pulling weeds together, or standing over the recycle bins going, “Hmm.” It's okay. We don't have to indulge in recycling guilt, you know, just do your best. So I want to move on to ecological spirituality. I love that phrase. It's not one you hear everywhere. And I wanted to remind listeners that San Diego Diocese is the most biodiverse diocese in the US. Maybe we wouldn't have expected that, but you've kind of got everything there. So I want to talk about ecological spirituality in the context of that actual place. I love the sentiment you quoted from Laudato si' in an article you wrote recently. It was an idea from Pope Francis that in the beauties and wonders of the Earth, we experience God's friendship with us. And so I wanted to ask you how you're helping people in your parishes reconnect to the Earth where you are, and thus, and this is how you put it, “revive something of our true selves.”Christina Slentz Yeah, one of my favorite pieces in Laudato si': Pope Francis alludes to having a place in childhood where we felt a sense of awe and wonder. And I think that that awe and wonder allows us to get back to childhood in some ways, before there was a lot of noise before there was all the different distractions. And I think that that true self is also a little freer to connect to God. I think sometimes about little children and baby Jesus, you know, and that sort of immediate connection that's not really complicated, you know, it's just comfortable. Or feeling the love of God like being a child sitting on the lap of your mom or your dad. And so encouraging people, or providing opportunities for this return to that place of awe and wonder, I think is really important. I think that at the heart of our inability to care for creation is this estrangement from our Creator. So we won't care for something if we don't love it. And in this way, ecological spirituality may be step one in all of this, right? So I think we are really lucky, being here. As I mentioned, our climate is beautiful. It is a beautiful place. We have everything from the ocean to mountains to desert, and many people who live here do really connect with the geography and the beauty of where we are, and so inviting them to take a moment to just pause and think about those places. Think about their senses as they move through the memory of that space, I think is really important before we start any of the other conversations. And so I try to do that, and then we share about it. And I have yet to find somebody that says, “Oh, I just didn't have a place.” Everybody has a place. And many people will say, “I really struggled, because I love this place, and I love that place,” you know. And so it is really great to hear. And I think people really come out of an exercise like that with this new sense of common ground as well. And I think that is so important, right? Because if you ask people like, “Raise your hand, who hates trees?” No one's gonna do it, right? Don't even think anyone does. Or “Raise your hand if you like to litter.” No one's going to say, like, “Oh yeah, I really love throwing things out my window.” And so there is a lot more common ground. And I think that eco spirituality invites us to find out how much we have in common, and actually how much we all yearn for that place of connectedness.Debra Rienstra Oh, yeah. I've noticed, you know, people have so many different feelings that motivate what they might do in a faith and climate space, and there's anger, there's fear, a lot of anxiety. But the trick, I think, is to get to the center, which is love. And the quickest way to do that, maybe, is to find that early love, or a love that's developed over many, even generations, in a particular place, if you're lucky, and you're rooted in some way. I feel like we also, as people of faith, haven't made enough of a case that being closer to the creation is, in fact, a pathway to God. And I see that in a lot of the writings that you have too. It's a way of understanding God better. It's a way of allowing God to speak to us that we sometimes underestimate, I think. There's other ways, of course, but it's one that we tend to underestimate. It is a way to deeper spirituality. So getting people to be in touch with that, it sounds like you've you've worked on that a little bit.Christina Slentz We're very lucky. The Franciscan tradition is pretty rich and present here. The Franciscan School of Theology is located here at the University of San Diego.Debra Rienstra There we go.Christina Slentz I have several secular Franciscans on my team, and a few Franciscan friars. And you know, that's very much at the heart of St. Francis and St. Claire's tradition. St. Bonaventure, who is a Franciscan, actually calls nature, or the environment, the created world, like another book. It's another gospel that tells us something about God's plan.Debra Rienstra Yeah, yeah. So I wanted to quote from Pope Leo's message for the World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation, which was September one. And I found his message so encouraging, and especially this particular paragraph, it's along the line of seeds here. He writes, “In Christ, we too are seeds, and indeed seeds of peace and hope. The prophet Isaiah tells us that the Spirit of God can make an arid and parched desert into a garden, a place of rest and serenity. In his words, a spirit from on high will be poured out on us, and the wilderness will become a fruitful field, and the fruitful field a forest. Then justice will dwell in the wilderness and righteousness abide in the fruitful field. The work of righteousness will be peace, and the work of righteousness quietness and trust forever. My people will abide in a peaceful habitation, in secure dwellings and in quiet resting places.” So we have this beautiful vision and the sense of vocation of who we are and who our communities are as seeds of peace and hope. So it seems like you experience that in the San Diego Diocese. Are there some particular examples that have been really meaningful and important to you, where you see that “seeds of hope” metaphor being played out?Christina Slentz Yeah, I would point to two areas that I would offer up as good examples. One is a parish that is located in what's called Barrio Logan. It is an ecologically marginalized community. The highways literally forced the school to be moved when they put the highway in right down the middle of the community. And that's the I-5. So it runs all the way from Canada to Mexico. Big highway. In addition, the Coronado Bridge connects to the highway right there. The Navy base is there, and the Port of San Diego all intersects there. So their air quality is really degraded, and it's a socio-economically poor area. It is also a predominantly Hispanic community there. But the Jesuit pastor there, Father Scott Santa Rosa, is a very good community organizer. He led the parish when they were confronted by another warehouse that was going to be added at the port. And the proposal by the company violated the Port Authority's standards, but they were seeking a waiver, and Father Scott brought in the Environmental Health Coalition. He brought in a theologian from University of San Diego. He invited the youth to present on Laudato si' to the adults and really empowered the community, which is that seventh goal of Laudato si', it's very connected to environmental justice. And then they learned, they grew, they came to an understanding that this was not acceptable, and that they wanted to be a voice for their community. They—we traveled. I was very fortunate to kind of engage with them in this process.And we traveled to the Port Authority building the night before the Port Authority was going to make their decision on this, whether or not to grant this waiver. And we said a rosary, which consists of five sets of 10 Hail Marys, roughly. And between each set, somebody spoke and gave their witness. And one of the women stood up and said, “I never thought I would speak publicly in my whole life. I can't believe I'm here. I can't believe I'm speaking, but I found my voice because of this issue.” And I thought, even if we lose, that's such an amazing win that people felt connected to their environment. They understood that they have a voice. They understood their own dignity and the dignity of their community, and felt that it was worth standing up for. And the next day we went, there was demonstration and public witnessing and praying, and then they went in and spoke at the actual hearing. And the first thing that the chairman of the board said, in response to everyone's comments was, “Well, I'm a Catholic, and we have three priests that were here today.” And you know, how many times does a public official make a statement of faith? You know, I thought, “Okay, win number two!” And you know, I'll just go ahead and cut to the chase. And they turned down the company that wanted to put the warehouse in and said, “You know, we just don't think that you've convinced the local community that the benefits of this would be worth it.” And it was amazing.And so that place, they continue to also tend to the care of migrants. They have begun the work of accompanying migrants that are going for their court appointed hearings for their asylum process. And you know, those are not outcomes that are generally favorable, but they are just going and being present with them and, you know, we are on the border. We understand how some of these environmental impacts do entangle with human mobility. And so, you know, there's a lot that this community, that is really one of our poorest communities in San Diego, has brought to the wider San Diego Diocese as more parishes and local Catholics are now mimicking what they have done and joining in this mission, and so they've been an incredible source—this tiny little parish in a poor part of the Diocese with terrible environmental impacts, has actually been a place where things have blossomed and grown, and they actually do have an amazing garden as well.Debra Rienstra Wow, that's an incredible story, and exactly a story of empowerment and resilience, as you suggested, and a story of how low-resource people are not necessarily low-resource people. They have other kinds of resources that may not be visible to the outside, but that can be very powerful, and especially when one of those is faith. It was such a great example of people motivated not only by their, you know, sort of survival, but their faith to do this work. Yeah, wonderful.Christina Slentz I think they understand the impact, right? So if you can shut your windows and turn on your air conditioning, maybe you don't get it.Debra Rienstra Yeah, right. So what would you say are your biggest obstacles and your biggest joys in your work right now?Christina Slentz I think the biggest obstacle is coming up against Catholics and/or Christians, or really any person of faith. But I think this may be especially true to Catholics and Christians who think that our social actions have to be an “either/or” choice, and they resist a “yes/and” mentality, and so they put different issues in competition with each other, right? And, you know, sometimes they think about Cain and Abel, right? This sort of jealousy or comparison can be a real problem. Instead of saying, “Okay, maybe we don't fit in a neat box, but as Catholics, you know, we have to do all the things.” And that kind of privileging one issue or another issue makes us vulnerable to those who would seek division and competition. And I think that when we look at God, you know, God loves all of it, right? God is love, and so there isn't that discrimination in the example of our Creator, and I would, of course, we aren't perfect, you know, but we should aspire to that same kind of comprehensive love.Debra Rienstra Yeah, and we do it together. We don't all have to do every last one of the things. We do it together. What about joys? What are your greatest joys right now in your work?Christina Slentz I think that coming together is really a joy. When I first started this work, I felt like a unicorn. I could either be the only person of faith in an environmental group, or I could be the only environmentalist in a faith group. And so it just was a feeling of being awkward all the time. And I do think that just in the three years that I've been in this position, I am seeing momentum build. I think ecumenicalism is super helpful in this regard. And I think that increasingly people are finding each other, and they are starting to get a little bit of a wake up call. I think it is unfortunate that people in the United States have had to experience some significant catastrophes and human loss and impact before they start to awaken to the issue of climate change or environmental degradation. I think plastics are really a pretty significant issue as well, but I think that more and more, people seem to be coming around to it, and whenever we celebrate together, that gives me joy.Debra Rienstra Yeah, I agree. I'm seeing it happening too, and it keeps me going. It keeps me going to connect with people like you, and every door I open, there's more people of faith doing amazing work, and we are building that mycelial network. And it's pretty great. So what is your favorite gift of the Catholic Church, a gift of wisdom on creation care that you wish everyone would receive?Christina Slentz I am not sure I would say that this is my favorite. But maybe I think that it is very important, is that, you know, in the Catholic community, communion, Eucharist, is really, you know, the summit for Catholics, that each week, at a minimum, we are going to celebrate this liturgy. We break open the Word, and then we celebrate the Eucharist. And one of the things I, you know, find very compelling is the fact that Jesus celebrates at the Last Supper with bread and wine. Jesus didn't get grapes and, you know, a piece of meat, to celebrate that these were both chosen items that were not just created by God, but they involved, as we say, in our celebration, the work of human hands. And so this really represents this call to co-creation, I think. And if that is something that you know, is really at the heart of Catholicism, this, you know, summit of our faith to celebrate the Eucharist—in that, we are called to co-create. And so this tells us something about how we are meant to exist in relationship with the Creator. You know, God reveals God's self to us in the beauty of this creation or in the gift of the Eucharist, and then, in turn, we are called to respond to that love. Otherwise the revelation isn't complete, so our response is to care for creation or to receive the Eucharist, and then go and serve as God has called us to serve. So maybe, maybe this is something that we can offer up.Debra Rienstra So beautifully said, and the intimacy of eating, you know, taking the material, the fruit of the earth and the work of human hands, into ourselves, responding by the Spirit, that intimacy, that physicality, there's a reason that that is the central ritual.Christina Slentz And you know, if I could give you one last image connected to that—because then we become the tabernacle, right? And we think about Noah and the ark, right? And how, you know, creation is destroyed, but the ark holds this refugia right and until it's time for this moment of reconciliation and forgiveness and then renewed flourishing. And you may or may not have heard this story, but when the LA fires raged in Pacific Palisades in January of 2025 the fires swept across the parish and school called Corpus Christi Parish, and it is the home parish of brother James Lockman, one of my dear, dear volunteers. And there was a firefighter who went back to look at the ruins that evening, and he was Catholic, and he came across the tabernacle from the church, and it was the only thing that survived. And when they opened it up, it was pristine on the inside and undamaged. And that Sunday, they took it to St. Monica's Parish, which is one of the very animated creation care parishes in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, and they celebrated Mass there because Corpus Christi did not have a parish right to celebrate in that weekend. And I think about that tabernacle as being, you know—it's to reflect that Ark of the Covenant, right, Ark of Noah, the Ark of the Covenant. And then we have the tabernacle now, and that space of refuge that was preserved, you know. And then, of course, when we take the Eucharist into ourselves, we become that tabernacle. We're walking tabernacles, right? So we are also, then, places of refuge and where we know that God is with us and we can go and serve.Debra Rienstra Christina, it has been such a joy to talk to you. Thank you for your wisdom, for your inspiration, for the way that you deploy your expertise in such compassionate and far reaching ways. It's just been a pleasure. Thank you.Christina Slentz Oh, thank you so much for having me. I really enjoyed talking today with you, Debra.Debra Rienstra Thanks for joining us. For show notes and full transcripts, please visit debrarienstra.com and click on the Refugia Podcast tab. This season of the Refugia Podcast is produced with generous funding from the Calvin Institute of Christian Worship. Colin Hoogerwerf is our awesome audio producer. Thanks to Ron Rienstra for content consultation as well as technical and travel support. Till next time, be well. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit refugianewsletter.substack.com

Protesters in the North County are worried about a tech company with big federal contracts and the personal data its collecting. Plus, the rare chance to ride your bike on the Coronado Bridge. And, we have an update our annual Clear the Shelter campaign. NBC 7's Nichelle Medina has these stories and more including meteorologist Brooke Martell's forecast for this, Sunday, August, 24, 2025.

This week's Happy Half Hour takes place from one of the best perches in all of San Diego: Top of the Market. It's a fully windowed and partially outdoor restaurant, separate and with a more fine dining or special occasion bent than its counterpart downstairs, the equally beloved and lauded Fish Market. To our front is sprawling views of Coronado and the bay. Directly to the right, the Midway, and to the left, a bunch of hotels, docks, and the Coronado Bridge. We sat down with Top of the Market's executive chef, Robin James, who is, in my opinion, the most San Diego San Diegan to ever do it. His first cooking job was on the line at the iconic Anthony's Fish Grotto. After that, he got his cooking degree at the Art Institute and became the executive chef at The University Club and Bali Hai. These days, he's slinging creative seafood dishes at Top of the Market. But what makes him deeply San Diego, despite his life resume and of course being born here, is that his parents met while working at Jack-in-the-box. Come on. He's a living local legend, and we get the story of his parents' meet-cute in the episode. In addition to his hometown bonafides, James is a serious cook with an Escoffier tattoo, who is consistently trying to take things to the next level. He said he was always a tinkerer, experimenting with ingredients, often ones that don't seem to make much sense together, to see what happens. He said he did a lot of that during Covid, while temporarily laid off from work, itching to create, and now he's stretching his wings more with his seafood menu. One of his more surprising dishes on Top of the Market's current list are seared sea scallops with Spanish chorizo, dehydrated mushrooms, and big white beans. Scallops, mushrooms, and beans isn't a dish I knew I wanted, but now I can't stop thinking about it. James is also cooking an Alaskan halibut on the menu with many green, spring flavors, and served with a punchy tzatziki heavy on the cucumber; he also has a seared octopus served over hummus with pickled red onions and mandolined radishes. There are crudos, and on the opposite end of the spectrum, there's a chocolate cake a-la Elvis, with bananas, bacon and honey. James assured us there are plenty of classics on the menu, too, like Top of the Market's famed cioppino, a hearty fish stew the restaurant has been serving for decades. There's good drinking at Top of the Market, too, James assures us, and the wine list is evidence of that. James and his team have been running thrice yearly wine dinners with top California producers—the next is in September, with Grgich Hills. In the meantime, they also have one of San Diego's best wine steals: a list of 30 bottles of wine for $30, every Tuesday. We're not talking two buck chuck or plonk; this is from the real wine list, made specially available for those extra fun people who want to clink glasses on a Tuesday. We also talked the news in this episode: Baja came up big in the reveal of Michelin's first guide to Mexico. The French tire company gave one star to Animalon (Javier Plascencia and Oscar Torres), Damiana (Esteban Lluis), and Conchas de Piedra (Drew Deckman and Hugo D'Acosta). Many other Baja California restaurants were recommended or named bib gourmands. Taste of Little Italy will be returning on June 18 and 19, 2024 with over 40 restaurants. And OB's Gianni Buomono Vintners is moving away from its long-held Newport Ave. spot. It'll be opening near Sports Arena soon.

Since the rise of the Chicano Movement in the late 60s, Chicano artists have used a variety of mediums to express historical counter-narratives, encourage political activism, and educate communities. Fifty-three years ago on April 22, 1970, in San Diego, California the residents of Logan Heights, alongside a coalition comprised of hundreds of students, community activists, Brown Berets, and Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano de Aztlán (MEChA) collectively staged a successful 12-day people's land takeover to thwart the construction of a California Highway Patrol substation on land where the city of San Diego had promised to build a public park for barrio residents. Thanks in part to the protest, the city of San Diego agreed to acquire the site from the state and develop it into a park for the Chicano community. In 2023, Chicano Park is widely regarded as a monument to the self-determination and self-empowerment of Chicano people in the U.S. The concrete pillars that uphold the Coronado Bridge that once sliced and divided the community are now adorned with the iconic murals that have made Chicano Park an anchor for the community's strong Chicano identity and its revolutionary spirit and history. Although while Chicano Park has grown and expanded alongside the neighborhood and received a National Historic Landmark designation from the U.S. Department of the Interior in 2017, the park and its illustrious collection of intricate murals continued to lack an official space dedicated to documentation and preservation of its history until Chicano Park opened the Chicano Park Museum and Cultural Center (CPMCC) last Fall. Unsurprisingly, Chicano artists have continued this legacy of Chicanismo into today's contemporary artistic and political movements—taking the moment to express political autonomy, cultural solidarity, and pride in being of Indigenous descent. Lucas Cruz, Chairman of the Chicano Park Steering Committee joins Step Off! Radio to discuss the Chicano Park Museum & Cultural Center, the struggle to make the museum a reality, and what the museums means to the residents of Barrio Logan and Logan Heights.

In the "Today in San Diego" podcast, the Oceanside Police Department teams up with the County's Sheriff's Department to give people gift cards in exchange for their firearms, Medical Tech Company Abbott restarts baby formula production and today San Diegans are biking across the Coronado Bridge for the annual "Bike The Bay" event!See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Was the Coronado Bridge built to disrupt Sherman Heights? Muralist Victor Ochoa gives us some insights, and block-celebrity Lexi Valentino schools me on the secret role freeways play in race. Music: • Surefire Soul Ensemble - Step Down Guests: • Lexi Valentino https://www.instagram.com/ValentinoBoas/ • Victor Ochoa Sr. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victor_Ochoa • J. Smith https://www.linkedin.com/in/jsmith1019 • Tim Felton https://www.sfsemusic.com/ Credits: Parker Edison (Host), Kurt Kohnen (Co-creator), Chris Reyes (Head Editor) and Gene Flo (Score Producer)

- "California Department of Transportation is Looking into Installing a Steel Net on the Coronado Bridge to Help Prevent Suicide Attempts" - "A Major Retail Outlet is LEAVING Costa Mesa - But that Could Actually Turn Out to be a BLESSING for the City" - DAN BRITTON & JIMMY PAGE: 52 Life Principles for a Significant and Meaningful Journey - ALISHA ILLIAN: Chasing Perfect - Peace and Purpose in the Exhausting Pursuit of Something Better

Good to be back!! Lots of great info both educational and ridiculous in the realm of Cannabis Myths... Also proof that certain aspects of weed smoking are true!!! Talking major Bridge Fears and the usual absurd amount of random tangents and stories!! --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app

Sometimes her life feels like one of those photos from the days before digital cameras, when images got bathed in trays of chemicals and came slowly into focus. Bertha Loaiza wants to see the whole picture. She has no memory of the day when she was 3 and her mother picked her up and stepped off the side of the San Diego-Coronado Bridge. She may have been asleep. She survived the 240-foot fall into the water, but her mother didn't, and as Bertha recovered from serious eye and leg injuries, she got it into her head that a car accident was to blame. Kids have active imaginations, especially when the grownups don't say otherwise, and in the grandmother's house where she grew up, nobody talked about what really happened on Aug. 4, 1985. Then, when she was 17, she came across a VHS tape with news coverage of the suicide and the "miracle" child, the first person ever to plummet into the bay and live. "That looks like me," she said of the footage showing a little girl in a hospital bed surrounded by dolls, letters and stuffed animals sent by well-wishers from as far away as Mississippi. She watched the tape over and over, 100 times maybe, and put together the pieces. Her mother, 24-year-old Angelica Gomez, parking a green Ford Pinto mid-span on the bridge. Two fishermen pulling them out of the water. Doctors speculating that she survived because her mother held on to her all the way down and took the brunt of the impact. But finding out the truth only raised more questions, none more troubling than this: "Why did she take me with her?"

The San Diego-Coronado Bridge, the 200-foot-tall span over the San Diego Bay, has spectacular views and a sad history. Since it opened 50 years ago, the bridge has been the site of more than 400 suicides. To prevent such tragedies, 4-inch metal bird spikes were installed were installed on the outside walls. 24 hours after the installation, three people took their lives there. These recent tragedies underscore the need to reconsider whether this beautiful bridge, a local landmark, can be prevented from becoming a beacon to the self-destructive.

SD is unique and great. Eli calls and we talk about the beaches, SD Zoo, and the terrifying SDG airpot and Coronado Bridge. Recorded Monday, June 27, 2016 @TheSIPCast

Nasir and Matt get together in San Diego and talk about outrageous non-compete agreement that Amazon had temporary employees sign. Full Podcast Transcript NASIR: All right. Welcome to Legally Sound Smart Business. My name’s Nasir Pasha. This is our podcast where we cover business in the news and add our legal twist. As you know, my intro is all messed up – because it’s usually perfect – only because Matt and I are recording in the same room in sunny San Diego on top of the Symphony Towers at the University Club. MATT: Yes, and a longer table than before. NASIR: Yeah, a nice and long boardroom. I’m looking out towards the east, towards Balboa Park area, kind of. MATT: I’m just looking at the wall for whatever reason. NASIR: Well, yeah, well, you’re in San Diego so you get to have the views all the time. I need to let it sink in a little bit. MATT: That’s true. NASIR: It’s been a while. MATT: I can see Petco Park, a plane, Coronado Bridge, businesses. NASIR: Legally sound smart businesses? By the way, what did you think about pashalaw.pizza? MATT: You said that to me. I didn’t think it was a real thing. NASIR: It’s real. MATT: Hold on. NASIR: I thought you were just joking as if you didn’t think it was real. No, it’s real. MATT: Uh, man, this is actually pretty funny. NASIR: It’s a good time to talk about. All these top-level domain names are still coming out. I love it. Pretty much pick a noun and it’s available or it’s going to be available soon. MATT: Ah, and this just links to all the podcasts that we’ve had that have mentioned, have a tag of pizza? NASIR: Yeah, pretty much. MATT: Actually way less than I expected. NASIR: I was going to do a link that just searches “pizza” but then that would have been way too many because, for example, this one, just by saying “pizza,” now is on that list because of our transcript. MATT: Oh, okay. I was going to say that makes sense because I know it’s definitely been… NASIR: Actually, we’ll change that. MATT: The four that are on here are all titled with “pizza” in the title so I guess that’s why. NASIR: Yeah. In fact, actually, I’m going to just change it now as we’re talking. MATT: This photo is so funny. This pizza looks pretty good, too. NASIR: It’s the Pasha Law brand. By the way, it does search all pizza anyway. MATT: Does it? NASIR: Yeah. MATT: Okay. NASIR: All right. Everyone enjoy that. And that’s our show! MATT: I really thought you were joking this whole time. Can’t even go on, but we’re going to have to go on because we have a pretty interesting topic for today. We’ve talked about… Actually, I think Amazon was maybe one of the first companies we’ve… NASIR: Oh, someone’s breaking in. Someone almost broke into our podcast, probably a fan. MATT: Yeah. NASIR: I appreciate you guys listening in but, you know, you have to give us space to record. MATT: Take the unruly fans outside – same unruliness that former employees of Amazon are going through with this non-compete that they’ve had to sign off on some of them to get severance pay. Also, that’s temporary workers, nonetheless. So, basically, you know the deal with Amazon, they sell anything and everything online, they have people that work for them in the warehouse and take the products and put them in boxes and, you know, make sure they go to the right people. A lot of these are seasonal jobs – around Christmas time’s big, that’s probably the most seasonal one. But they’re having some of these employees – maybe even all of them – sign this 18-month non-compete agreement which, all right, that’s ridiculous right off the bat. NASIR: Yeah. MATT: What’s it preventing them from doing? Amazon bars their former employees from working for companies with products or services that compete with Amazon’s. So, that’s pretty much as broad as you can get. Just looking at the words, it’s broad, but knowing what Amazon does, it’s so overly broad. I can’t imagine any court upholding this sort of – not even in...

Guest this hour - Mehran Aram (Aramco Mortgage). -Mark reports on a suicide-hotline on the Coronado Bridge being out-of-service. Cal-Trans has never maintained it! -And a Reverse Mortgage UPDATE with our financial go-to guy Mehran Aram! LIVE, LOCAL, news and comment with Mark Larson on IntelligentTalk 1170AM KCBQ!

I asked myself what San Diego political issue is both under talked about and very important to the mayor’s race? The answer for me is Barrio Logan zoning regulations. Now before you yawn think about this … While at first blush zoning regulation don’t seem that exciting, these rules determine what you can do with your land, what business are allowed in a community, even how many people are allowed to live in a neighborhood. So zoning has a direct and very important impact on your life. Barrio Logan is a community created when the 5 freeway was built, bisecting Logan Heights. Under much protest and cries the freeway went through. Then the Coronado Bridge was built and sparking loud protests witch eventually lead to the creation of Chicano Park. Now the community there wants to create some industrial free zones. There is a lot of industry in Barrio Logan, lots of heavy industry. The most notable is the maritime industries. They pay a lot in tax, employ lots of people, and are very important to the city outside of the barrio. This issue is making its way into mayoral election politics is some very interesting ways. The issue has a racial component that could be part of the reason the next mayor wins or why his opponent loses. Barrio Logan was born fighting. And the people from there don’t back down, they are used to long fights. This time on the Bowler’s Desk Political Podcast I sat down with Georgette Gomez from the Environmental Health Coalition. She’s a Barrio Logan native. She has a lot of interesting things to say about her almost decade long fight to make changes to the Barrio Logan zoning rules. Agree or not you’ve got to respect her zeal and commitment. If you want to hop on your political soapbox do that by hopping on ours just call (619) 663-4531 Listen, watch, and share Bowler’s Desk Political Podcast … And please remember to post, re-post, and share. SUBSCRIBE TO SOCIAL FEEDS!!! So you can be kept up to date on what matters. iTUNES: http://bit.ly/12bfoHB YOUTUBE: http://bit.ly/YSNkuL FACEBOOK: http://on.fb.me/16nPkeP TWITTER: http://bit.ly/XpSkJc BLOG: www.BowlersDesk.com # # #

HIGHLIGHTS of the hour - Chief Bill Lansdowne and Bill Wells (El Cajon city council) Bill Lansdowne on overnight Coronado Bridge incident, gun regulation in San Diego - would Dorner abide new laws? Plus more with Bill Wells on red light cameras in El Cajon. They're gone in San Diego - where else? Here? On the Mark Larson Show? We wouldn't bet on it - no wagering please!

Guest this hour - Chief Bill Lansdowne HIGHLIGHT of the hour - Dennis Miller on our country's future! Bill Lansdowne joins the show and talks about the jumper on the Coronado Bridge overnight, gun control, and Chris Dorner! Hour 1 this Friday on The Mark Larson Show!

The centennial anniversary of Naval aviation was celebrated over the Port of San Diego on Saturday, Feb. 12, 2011. The Parade of Flight featured one of the Navy's largest flyovers. More than 250 U.S. Navy, Marine Corps and Coast Guard aircraft, spanning from pre-World War II to the Blue Angels, took flight over the entire length of the bay from south to north. Learn more: http://j.mp/geKGJY