History a Personal Mission for Rector

The gravestone of Msgr. Francis J. Weber, which lies in a Culver City cemetery, reads: “Born 1933, Ordained 1959. Priest-Archivist- Historian.” A fitting epitaph but a bit premature.

Weber is still very much alive. The rector of the San Fernando Mission for 16 years, Weber is still saying Mass every day, still writing books--three have already been published this year--and still laboring to pass along the history of the San Fernando Valley to future generations.

This year marks the 200th since Spanish monks settled the Valley and constructed the mission out of adobe blocks. A bicentennial celebration is scheduled for September. Time and natural disasters, including earthquakes, have battered the mission’s buildings in recent years, but they stand, due in large part to Weber.

“I’ve helped provide a window to the past,” says Weber, 64. “I think in my time we were able to bring the mission back into the mainstream of Valley life.”

The mission, located between Brand and San Fernando Mission boulevards in Mission Hills, was a collection of ruins before Weber took over, says Kevin Feeney, the mission’s business manager. Weber oversaw the rebuilding of the mission’s church and convent buildings, which were badly damaged in both the Sylmar and Northridge earthquakes.

“He had to fight to get people to care, to pay attention,” said Feeney, who added that 25,000 people visit the mission annually.

Beyond his work as rector, Weber is the archivist for the Archdiocese of Los Angeles and a prolific writer. In June, he published a two-volume work on the late Los Angeles Cardinal James Francis McIntyre.

Feeney calls Weber a scholar, but Weber says: “You don’t become a scholar until after you die.”

And the gravestone? Weber enjoys reading epitaphs and wanted to write his own so it would be accurate about his contributions, “but I always just think of myself as just an old country priest,” he says.