The Rev. Tom Elewaut, defender of St. Junipero Serra and the face of Mission Basilica San Buenaventura, is retiring after 15 years as the mission’s pastor.
Elewaut, 72, told parishioners several months ago he will step down but will stay at the Catholic mission in Ventura as pastor emeritus. On May 1, leaders of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles announced the Rev. Preston Passos will succeed Elewaut as the mission’s leader.
Passos currently serves as pastor at St. Mary Magdalen Church in Camarillo and has been there for 14 years.
Elewaut’s retirement takes effect July 1 and marks the end of an era. The pastor is so ubiquitous his last name is unnecessary. He is known in the mission, Ventura City Hall and elsewhere simply as Father Tom.
He is an institution, said Matt LaVere, Ventura County supervisor and former Ventura mayor.
“He’s someone who’s really touched so many lives in Ventura, someone who I deeply respect,” LaVere said. “He was someone I would often go to for advice.”
Elewaut is a former Catholic school principal born in Wisconsin. He supported the sainthood campaign for Serra, the Franciscan priest who founded Mission San Buenaventura in 1782 — the last of Serra’s nine missions.
When Pope Francis canonized Serra in Washington, D.C., in 2015, Elewaut was there.
Serra has long attracted controversy. Protests erupted over the role of the priest and the mission movement in the devastation of indigenous people. As Serra statues were being topped across California in 2020, Elewaut was involved in marathon discussions that led to the Serra statute at Ventura City Hall being removed in the middle of the night. It was relocated to the mission nearly four years later.
Elewaut also led the more than four-year drive for the mission to be elevated by Pope Francis to a minor basilica. It is the first church in the Los Angeles archdiocese — the nation’s largest — to earn a distinction that makes it a church of the pope.
“It means this is holy ground,” said Los Angeles Archbishop Jose Gomez when the new status was announced in 2020.
Elewaut tackled community issues, too. He advocated at City Hall to keep Ventura’s Main Street closed. Every year, he has helped preside over the Christmas tree lighting ceremony in downtown Ventura along with Santa Claus and others.
After a morning Mass in which Elewaut touched on the leadership change, parishioners said they were glad he would remain at the church.
“We’re not losing anyone; we’re gaining someone,” said Mary Mellein of Ventura, praising Elewaut’s work in and out of the church. “He’s an ambassador for the good of the city.”
In explaining the retirement, Elewaut cited his age and his 35 years as an administrator at Catholic schools and the mission. He said administrative duties will be greatly reduced in his new role, noting with a smile he will “not be responsible or in charge of anything.”
Passos knows Ventura County well. He was ordained at St. John’s Seminary in Camarillo in 2008 and named administrator at St. Mary Magdalen in 2012. Two years later, he was appointed pastor.
He said he was excited by the history of the mission and the opportunity to meet new people. He noted he will be the 31st successor to Serra at the mission and talked about standing on the shoulders of his predecessors.
“It’s not just Junipero Serra’s shoulders, it’s Father Tom’s shoulders,” he said. “I really hope I can continue their legacy.”
Tom Kisken covers health care and other news for the Ventura County Star. Reach him at tom.kisken@vcstar.com.
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This article originally appeared on Ventura County Star: Mission Basilica San Buenaventura’s Father Tom to retire. What’s next
Reporting by Tom Kisken, Ventura County Star / Ventura County Star
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