The People’s Priest

From the moment Thomas Rush set foot in the San Fernando Valley, it was clear he wasn’t cut from the same fabric as other men of the cloth.

When he arrived at Santa Rosa Catholic Church in San Fernando in the 1970s, Rush startled some parishioners with his long, flowing hair and sandaled feet. By the time he became pastor of Mary Immaculate Church in Pacoima in 1992, he had lost his locks, but not his ability to raise eyebrows.

As a leader of a group called Valley Organized in Community Efforts, Rush protested against price-gouging after the Northridge earthquake and Proposition 187, an initiative to cut public services to illegal immigrants. He also fought for a community say in how $45 billion in private economic development funds should be spent.

Rush said his superiors never pressured him to refrain from participating in protests and instead voiced cautious support for his brand of grass-roots activism.

“About the only thing that one of my superiors said was that he didn’t want to have to bail me out of jail,” quipped Rush, who celebrated the 25th anniversary of his ordination to the priesthood in June.

As he prepares to leave Mary Immaculate this month to accept a promotion, people are looking back on the indelible mark he has left on the Valley and the lives of thousands of community members with his tireless devotion.

The 52-year-old Spanish-speaking priest is so dedicated to his work that when a group of parishioners wanted to surprise him on his birthday one year, they had to be at the church at 5 a.m. to catch up with him. His admirers say he is equally at ease talking to the homeless or visiting a parishioner in the hospital as he is rubbing elbows with the mayor or giving a schoolchild a funny handshake.

“Father Tom is like a light,” said Fred Flores, a parishioner and field representative for Rep. Howard L. Berman (D-Mission Hills). “He’s like a candle that flicks off and lights someone else.”

“You just can’t sit back idly and not get involved when you see someone like Father Rush working so hard,” added Cecelia Barragan, a VOICE co-chair and parishioner at Mary Immaculate.

Rush’s influence has extended beyond Mary Immaculate’s parish. As a co-chairman of VOICE, he forged relationships throughout the Valley’s religious community.

“We became friendly enough that I was very comfortable in inviting him to attend a Passover service in my home and he was comfortable enough to come and participate,” said Jay Goldberg, a VOICE co-chairman and member of Temple Beth Hillel in North Hollywood. “That’s something I’ll never forget. He did come and did participate as a member of our family.”

As a young farm boy in Yakima, Wash., where he was born and raised, Rush considered becoming a plumber, a pilot or a priest. In eighth grade he discussed the last possibility with a visiting priest, who suggested he join the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate.

With his family’s blessing, Rush entered the seminary in the 10th grade and underwent training in Missouri, California and Illinois. Later he spent five years studying at two universities in Rome.

In 1973, during a stint as a deacon in Mexico, he was ordained. When he arrived at Santa Rosa Parish later that year, Rush caused a bit of a stir as the church’s new associate pastor.

“I remember it was the first time I had ever seen a priest with long hair,” recalled Yvonne Lovato, a parishioner. “It gave me hope that the Catholic Church was with the times.”

According to Lovato, it was rumored that the parish priest was going to light a match to Rush’s hair. Flores also recalled Rush’s locks and the impression they made on him as a young boy.

“I tease him about it,” Flores said. “I said to him, ‘You know, Father, when you were over at Santa Rosa with the long hair, you scared me.’ ”

“They used to call me the hippie,” Rush said. “I guess I was a little bit different at that point.”

Rush left the parish in 1976 and spent three years as a parish priest in Billings, Mont., before he returned in 1979. Near the end of his seven-year stay in the San Fernando parish, he began a drive to create a religious-based coalition of community crusaders.

“For me,” Rush said, “our religious beliefs have to bring us to how we live with each other and how we take part in our world.”

In 1988, while Rush was working in Northern California, Valley Organized in Community Efforts was launched by a coalition of 15 churches and synagogues committed to improving life in the Valley. VOICE would claim more than 20,000 families from San Fernando to Tarzana who shared the common goal of organizing the powerless.

When Rush returned to the Valley in 1992 as the pastor at Mary Immaculate, he became heavily involved with VOICE, which has played an active role in Valley politics and community affairs for the last decade.

In 1993 the group managed to extract promises from Los Angeles City Council candidates that the Valley get its fair share of new police officers and funding for programs to combat gangs and graffiti.

The following year, Rush and his colleagues participated in a store-to-store campaign in Pacoima to pressure owners into denouncing price-gouging in the aftermath of the Northridge earthquake.

The quake devastated the parish, damaging the church and school, and forcing Rush and his parishioners to celebrate Mass in the parking lot. As he was beginning the daunting task of overseeing renovation of the church, Rush stepped up the religious resolve against Proposition 187.

He sponsored a call for civil disobedience, urging congregants to ignore the law if the ballot initiative passed, as it subsequently did.

Most recently, Rush and his colleagues at VOICE have tried to reduce the citizenship waiting period and encourage the region’s Latino population to register and vote.

Rush said he has mixed emotions as he prepares to leave Mary Immaculate to accept a promotion that either could keep him in the Valley or cause him to relocate to Chicago or a suburb of Miami. He’s relieved that a $3.2-million renovation and expansion of the church and elementary school were completed this year but sad to leave his thousands of friends.

“When you connect with the lives of people and are involved in various projects, to pull away from them is hard emotionally,” Rush said.

But whether he remains in the area or moves out of state, his admirers vow to continue to remain active at Mary Immaculate and with VOICE.

“He empowered us,” Barragan said. “Now we’re ready to continue to empower others.”