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Friar Jairo Sandoval-Pliego, O.P.
Friar Jairo Sandoval-Pliego, O.P., Associate Director
friarjairo@gmail.com
Office Hours at Center for Ethics and Spirituality (on campus next to the Cross Cultural Center)
-Monday 9AM to 1PM
-Wednesday 12PM to 1:30PM - Lunch and Casual conversation, "Under the Tree" and 5:30PM-9:30PM (office)
-Thursday 11:30AM to 2PM
Friday 9AM to 11:30AM
About Jairo
I was born in the state of Puebla, Mexico, on September 8, 1970, the day we celebrate the Birth of Our Blessed Mother. There I grew up, a member of a third-generation Baptist family on my father’s side, second-generation on my mother’s side. When I reached the age of sixteen I began to explore what faith and Christian life meant from a Catholic perspective. During this time I met a group of Dominican Sisters and, with their help, was baptized in early 1989.
The same year, 1989, I entered the Dominican Friars of the Province of Mexico and began the process of initial formation. At the end of my novitiate I made Simple Profession in July of 1992 and then I started my philosophical studies. In 1995 I received a bachelor’s degree in philosophy but decided to leave religious life, at least for a time, in order to acquire some pastoral experience.
I came to the United States, then, in 1995 and found a place where I could gain that desired ministerial experience. This was at the Catholic Parish of Saints Peter and Paul in El Paso, Texas, there I worked until 2002. It was then that I returned to the Order of Preachers, but this time in the United States. My second novitiate took place in San Antonio, Texas, from 2002 to 2003.
During these years my family has come, one by one, to the Catholic Church. In 1996 my parents received their sacraments of initiation and the blessing of Holy Matrimony. I feel very blessed by God, who has brought my family in one Church where we can worship together with undivided hearts and great harmony.
As a friar of the Southern Dominican Province, also known as Province of Saint Martin de Porres, I began my theological studies in 2003 at Oblate School of Theology in San Antonio, TX. During the summer of 2006 I had the opportunity to go on a mission trip to Zambia, in the south cone of Africa. We spent a month visiting and experiencing the different ministries of many religious men and women. Their outreach to the unprotected, especially women and children, caught my attention. This experience enabled me to begin to apply the theological and pastoral skills that I had acquired during my years as a lay minister in the parish and as a student of theology.
I believe that “mission” is a journey during which we come to know our brothers and sisters in need, where we learn to accept them for who they are, where we walk with them. Mission lets us find the face of God in the suffering faces of the people and invites us to share our faith with them with the certainty that our God walks with us. I do believe that Christian life is a journey where we learn to see God face to face in the people we encounter.
I am sure that coming to UCSD is a great blessing. What is God preparing for me? I don’t know! But I am excited about it and looking forward to it! God, you know, has his way of doing things… and I know I’ll find him as soon as get there… in your faces, through your lives, by working and learning together, by letting God be part of our journey!
