Valley’s Auxiliary Bishop to Focus on Family, Reaching Youth

Msgr. Armando Ochoa, who takes the helm as auxiliary bishop of the San Fernando Valley in February, said Tuesday that he will focus on strengthening family life and encouraging youth participation in the Roman Catholic Church.

Ochoa, only the second Latino bishop appointed by the archdiocese, will join four other bishops in administering the five pastoral regions created earlier this year. The Los Angeles Archdiocese includes 285 parishes serving 3 million Catholics and is the largest in the country.

Formally appointed to the post on Monday by Archibishop Roger M. Mahony, Ochoa said he will represent the archbishop on weekend visits to the San Fernando Pastoral Region’s 64 parishes. During these visits, he said he intends to question parishioners and parish priests and relay their concerns to the archbishop at weekly meetings.

He will also conduct Mass and hear confessions while visiting parishes, which extend from Palmdale to Westlake Village.

Ochoa said he regards his ethnic background as an asset in serving an archdiocese with the nation’s largest Latino population.

“Because my name is Ochoa, I’ve got the advantage of identification with ethnic minorities,” he said.

A friendly, talkative man with a gentle wit, he joked about the Irish origins of many Catholic priests. “My name is Ochoa, without an apostrophe.”

Ochoa served as director of ethnic ministry services for the archdiocese for six months and has supervised Spanish-speaking deacons since 1975.

Although now serving as pastor of Sacred Heart Church in Lincoln Heights, Ochoa said he will move in February into offices in a renovated convent building at Our Lady of Peace in Sepulveda.

As bishop for the region, Ochoa’s priorities mirror those of many of the San Fernando Valley Catholic representatives who met in Mission Hills in October to suggest priorities for the archdiocese.

Strengthening “family life values” is at the top of Ochoa’s list, followed closely by his desire to attract more youthful parishioners. These were also the top two priorities of the 675 Catholics polled at the meeting.

“Our youth is really falling through the cracks,” Ochoa said.

He said he is concerned that young people, and especially young immigrants, are turning to crime and street life as a way of coping with the complexities of growing up. He said he wants to establish outreach programs for troubled teen-agers, particularly those in detention camps or in youth gangs.

Ochoa said he also hopes to establish parent education workshops such as those he supervised at Sacred Heart.

He said he also plans to support the recent efforts of about 2,000 Latino Catholic protesters who spoke out against a Los Angeles Board of Education plan to dispense contraceptives at San Fernando High School.

“The values we hold so strongly we’re really going to fight for,” Ochoa said.

Some of the weapons in this fight would include improved sex-education programs for youths and the establishment of counseling centers, he said.

Although Ochoa regards the archdiocese as a body that sets policy, he believes most strongly in “grass-roots efforts,” he said.

“Change is most meaningful when it comes from the people themselves,” Ochoa said. “The church can give direction, but, when push comes to shove . . . decisions are made by the people.”

Born in Oxnard, Ochoa attended parochial schools in Ventura County and was ordained at St. John’s Seminary in Camarillo, where he received a bachelor’s degree in philosophy.

A priest for 16 years, Ochoa has worked in four predominantly Latino Los Angeles parishes: St. Alfonse’s in East Los Angeles, St. John the Baptist in Baldwin Park, St. Theresa of Avila in Echo Park and Sacred Heart. He became a pastor when first assigned to Sacred Heart two years ago.

Although unfamiliar with the San Fernando Valley, Ochoa said he is eager to take on his new post.

“I’m looking forward to getting out in the Valley and getting to know the people,” he said. “They’ve got anything and everything out there, the very affluent and pockets of the East L.A. experience I know, and everything in between.”

Although priests who have worked with him say he is a good administrator, they maintain that his principal strength is in working with others in a parish setting.

“His real strength lies in dealing with the congregation,” said Arturo Velasco, a priest at Sacred Heart.

“I consider myself a parish priest first and foremost,” Ochoa said, adding that he will miss “dealing with the everyday concerns” of running a parish. As a pastor, he was able to “enter into the lives of people . . . share their concerns and sorrows.”

He is known at Sacred Heart Church for his availability to parishioners.

“When they knock on his door, busy or not busy, he always makes time for them,” said Sacred Heart secretary and parish member Irene Burrola.