Fr. Eleazar Silva appointed to St. James the Just Parish

Diocese of Salt Lake City

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Fr. Eleazar Silva Galvan

OGDEN — Father Eleazar Silva Galvan has been appointed as the temporary sacramental minister of St. James the Just Parish in Ogden, following the sudden death of the pastor, Fr. Renato Rodillas, who passed away from COVID-19 the first week of January.

Fr. Silva had been serving as parochial vicar of Saints Peter and Paul Parish in West Valley City. His new assignment as administrator will last at least until the yearly diocesan assignments are made; those typically take effect in August.

“I am going to St. James the Just Parish to serve as an instrument of healing in this time of loss,” said Fr. Silva, who is fluent in both English and Spanish.

 One of his main focuses will be to ask the Holy Spirit to accompany his new flock so “we can walk as a community of faith, all united as People of God,” he said.

Fr. Silva was born in Mexico City. He was ordained a priest on April 7, 2001 in the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception by the Most Rev. Lorenzo Cardenas Aregullin, Bishop of Papantla, Puebla, México.

During his first years as a priest, Fr. Silva served as an auxiliary spiritual director, vice rector and fundamental theology professor in the seminary while, at the same time, as sacristan-dean in that cathedral.

Some of his seminary friends moved to Utah, and Fr. Silva kept in contact with them. He was asked to come to Utah several times to cover for them when they went on vacation, and eventually met with the Most Rev. George H. Niederauer, eighth Bishop of Salt Lake City, who asked him to come and serve permanently in the diocese.

Originally, Fr. Silva’s bishop denied his request to move to Utah, but when his five-year commitment to the Mexican diocese was up, his request was granted, and in 2006 he was assigned to Saint George Parish. He served there for three years before going to Saint Francis Xavier Parish, then to the Cathedral of the Madeleine. On March 10, 2011, he was formally incardinated in the Diocese of Salt Lake City. In 2013, he was named pastor of Sacred Heart Parish; from there, he went to Sts. Peter and Paul, where he served for almost two years.

 “I say goodbye to Sts. Peter and Paul with my heart filled with gratitude,” said Fr. Silva adding that he will pray for the parishioners there, and he is “putting them in God’s hands.”

He will be missed, said Zulema Galvan, a Sts. Peter and Paul parishioner, when she heard about Fr. Silva’s new assignment. “I loved your honesty and the way you always said everything how it is. We always enjoyed every time you gave Mass. Good luck to you and may God bless you. Keep us in your prayers as we will keep you in ours.”