Very Rev. Efrain Bautista

Pastor
Phone: 619-482-3954
Email: Click Here to Email

I am originally from the Imperial Valley, born and raised in the border town of Calexico which is the eastern most part of our diocese. I spent all of my childhood living in Calexico and studied there in the Imperial Valley.
I have a business background and worked for a few non-profits before entering the seminary in 2002 for the Diocese of San Diego. For my first four years of seminary, I lived at St. Francis Center for Priestly Formation located on campus at the University of San Diego, where I obtained my B.A, in Philosophy. After finishing my philosophical studies, Bishop Brom, then Bishop of San Diego, asked me to go to the North American College in Rome for my theological studies. I spent about four and a half years in Rome studying theology, three of which were at the Pontifical Gregorian University, where I obtained a Bachelors in Sacred Theology. The rest of the time, I spent at the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas, where I obtained a Masters in Dogmatic Theology. After returning to San Diego, I was ordained a priest for the Diocese of San Diego on June 11, 2010 by Bishop Brom at St. Therese of Carmel in Del Mar. After my ordination, I made my return to the Imperial Valley, being assigned to serve as Associate Pastor of Sacred Heart Parish and St. Margaret Mary Parish, both in the city of Brawley. After only 10 months there, Bishop called to inform me that I was being appointed Associate Pastor of St. Francis of Assisi in Vista. I arrived in Vista on May 14, 2011. I served as Associate of Vista for one year and then in May 2012, Bishop Brom named me Administrator of St. Francis of Assisi and Pastor in October of the same year, where I have had the pleasure of serving.
I am very excited about coming to Corpus Christi and being part of this great community. Since my appointment as Pastor of Corpus Christi, people have asked me: “what is your goal as our Pastor?” My response is very simple; that all of us together here at Corpus Christi may grow together in our faith and our love for God and that we might each have an encounter of love with the one who is love itself, Jesus Christ. I look forward to getting to know each of you better as together we work to build up the Body of Christ, especially in this parish community which so adequately has as its name, Corpus Christi.