Cardinal Bestows Rare Honor on Monsignor With a Mission : Achievement: The modest Msgr. O’Brien of Mission San Buenaventura is guiding an ambitious project to spruce up the city’s birthplace.

As day breaks and the downtown district stirs to life, Msgr. Patrick J. O’Brien leads his flock through an exercise in faith even older than the historic mission that marks the place where this city was born.

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In a rhythm well practiced during his 14-year stewardship of Mission San Buenaventura, he orchestrates early morning Mass, exhorting parishioners to stand, kneel and pray.

He offers them Holy Communion. And he asks forgiveness of their sins.

The cavernous chapel--filled with row upon row of blond wood pews parted by a strip of well-worn carpet--is one of the few places where O’Brien is completely at ease in the spotlight.

If only every day could be taken up doing just those things with which he is most comfortable: spreading the good news and answering the needs of his flock.

But in recent months, the 64-year-old monsignor has waded, and sometimes been thrust, into the public eye. He is spearheading the effort to build a new school and multipurpose auditorium on the grounds of the 213-year-old mission.

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What better way to contribute to the rebirth of downtown than by sprucing up the city’s birthplace? O’Brien reasons.

The spotlight got even brighter Saturday as Cardinal Roger M. Mahony visited the mission to confer upon O’Brien the title of protonotary apostolic, the highest rank of monsignor.

More than 100 parishioners packed the Saturday evening Mass to watch Mahony bestow the rare honor, announced by Pope John Paul II in July.

For his part, O’Brien is pleased with the promotion, but just as content to get beyond the moment and get back to his duties as spiritual leader of the mission church, which counts 2,000 families on its rolls and holds an average of 200 baptisms a year.

“It is one of these things I did not expect and I did not seek,” said O’Brien, a crown of white hair framing his head like a halo. “It’s just not my style. I’ll be just as happy Monday morning when it’s all over.”

A native of County Clare, Ireland, O’Brien is the oldest of six children, five of whom went on to become priests or nuns. O’Brien came to the United States in 1956 and served as associate pastor at St. Anselm’s Church near Inglewood for eight years.

He went on to earn a master’s degree in social work from Chicago’s Loyola University in 1966 and immediately went to work for the agency now known as Catholic Charities, heading up social services work in Ventura and Santa Barbara counties.

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He moved into the mission’s rectory in 1967. His only move since has been down the hall to the pastor’s quarters when he became leader of the parish in 1981.

“This is a very special place,” he said of a church that serves the very rich and the very poor, its boundaries stretching from Seaward Avenue north to Sulphur Mountain Road and the Santa Barbara County line on the west.

“I consider myself very fortunate,” O’Brien added, an Irish accent still firmly rooted in his words. “God has been good to me.”

Among the special things in this special place is O’Brien’s relationship with adjoining Holy Cross School.

Strolling the grounds of the kindergarten through eighth-grade campus, his eyes grow wide and his smile even wider as he views the buzz of activity in the classrooms.

It is clear that parents, teachers and students feel the same kind of connection with him. Fifth-graders painted banners last week for Saturday’s ceremony honoring the monsignor.

Darleen Ramirez of Ventura, whose 7-year-old daughter Alexandra is a second-grader at the school, said her husband, Jorge, prepared a banquet for O’Brien that followed the Saturday evening Mass.

“He is very modest. I’m sure all of this attention is embarrassing for him,” she said. “He is used to moving quietly.”

Principal Dorothy Reed, who took over the top administrative post at the school in July, said O’Brien’s drive to get things done is impressive.

“He’s a very strong leader, a wonderful spiritual leader,” Reed said. “And he really is dedicated to getting a new school.”

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For months now, O’Brien has been the engine driving the development effort on the grounds of the old Catholic mission--the ninth to be built in the chain of 21 California missions and the last established by Father Junipero Serra before he died.

Plans include a three-story school complex to replace the aging Holy Cross School and a 750-seat multipurpose auditorium. In addition, O’Brien said he hopes to lease a portion of the mission’s four acres to developers to build hillside condominiums near Poli Street and a series of shops and offices along Main Street.

O’Brien’s vision for the future, laid out in a model in the mission’s gift shop, is far different than what he saw when he first came to Ventura back in 1967.

“There were a lot of boarded-up storefronts. Downtown was really pretty sad at that time,” he remembers. “But I think downtown has grown in its appreciation of the mission. And now we would like to fold in very closely with the resurgence of this area.”

The school and auditorium project will cost an estimated $5 million to $7 million, O’Brien said, and a fund-raising plan is starting to come together. O’Brien hopes to break ground by next summer.

“It won’t happen overnight,” he said. “But if you don’t ask, you don’t get.”

O’Brien’s zeal is a source of wonder around Holy Cross. After all, here is a man a few months away from the age most people retire, leading the charge into the future for the school and the mission.

“He has a lot of energy and a great dream for this area,” said Michael McLean, father of two boys--Kayle, 7, and Tyler, 4--who attend Holy Cross. “He does his job and he does it well. It’s kind of hard to explain, he’s just a wonderful human being.”

O’Brien shakes off the compliments. He knows that he is simply fulfilling his role as spiritual shepherd of his flock. And he knows that modernization is aimed at addressing the growing needs of that flock while at the same time securing the mission’s place in history.

“You don’t touch the mission, you just maintain it,” he said. “It’s going to be a fixture and it’s going to be a constant. The main thing now is that we stay the course, don’t overreach and keep moving forward.”