Name: Dr. Alberto Benito “Al” Javier
Date of Birth: 4 June 1941
Place of Birth: Chino, California
Place of Residence: Garden Grove, California
District: California’s 46th District (Garden Grove—Santa Ana)
Party: Republican
Religion: Roman Catholic
Previous Occupation: Academic
Alberto was born as the first of the seven children of Daniel Javier and Maria Javier (nee Villar) in Chino, California, where Mr. Javier ran a lumber mill and agricultural supply store. As a child, Alberto was put, like many Catholic children of his day, in parochial schools, first going to St. Magaret Mary School in Chino, then Aquinas High School in San Bernardino, where he graduated as salutatorian in 1959. Admitted to Notre Dame, he graduated with a B.A. in Political Science in 1963. He then joined the United States Army as a Second Lieutenant, and was posted in Indochina in 1964 as an officer in the 7th Cavalry. He was wounded in the leg in Ia Drang, which earned him a Purple Heart. He resigned his commission in 1968, and used his GI Bill money to attend Loyola Marymount University, where he received his M.A. in 1971 and his Ph.D. in 1974, both in Theology. He served as an assistant professor at Harvard Divinity School from 1975 to 1979, when in the latter year he became a full-time professor of Religious Studies at UCLA, specializing in post-Vatican II Catholicism. He received tenure in 1986, despite his (at the time) controversial work in hermeneutics, which largely echoed the work of Josef Ratzinger. In 1988 he was elected to the Garden Grove City Council with the support of the Republican Party, where he served for four years, before running in the Republican congressional primary against firebrand Congressman Robert Dornan, in what observers initially called a “no-hope” race – Dornan was an incumbent who appealed to the Republican base, while Javier was relatively more moderate and with comparatively little political experience. However, the race changed course when an “anonymous source” told the Orange County Register that several of Dornan’s campaign officials had ties to right-wing extremist Catholic splinter groups, who had plotted acts of domestic terrorism (Many claim that Javier, who had investigated sedevacantists and traditionalist dissenters in his post-doctoral work, was the source, which Javier to this day refuses to comment on.). Javier narrowly won the primary, and then won the general election.
Personal life: Alberto married Mary Schweiker (b. January 1, 1944) in 1963, and together they have seven children: The triplets Mark/Marcos, Matthew/Mateo and Luke/Lucas (December 20, 1964), John/Juan (December 9, 1969), Maria Concepcion (April 2, 1971), Francis/Francisco (May 1, 1972) and Joan/Juana (May 2, 1975).
Francisco’s siblings are the following:
Fr. Juan Diego Javier, OSB (born July 4, 1946) – friar based in San Diego
Maria Carlota Martinez (nee Javier) (born October 5, 1947) – owner of Chino Lumber Mill
Fr. Martin Javier, FSSP (born October 5, 1947) – Professor of Theology at the International Seminary of Saint Peter, Wizgrad-Opfenbach, Germany
Fr. Constante Mateo Javier, SJ (born January 1, 1950) – Professor of Mathematics at Loyola Marymount University
Jose Prudente Javier (born October 17, 1952) – California State Assemblyman in the Chino area
Dr. Maria Pilar Viljoen (nee Javier) (born September 21, 1954) – Assistant Professor of Biology at the University of California, Riverside.
Memberships:
Knights of Columbus (4th Degree)
UCLA Faculty Association
UCLA College Republicans (Faculty Advisor)
UCLA Catholic Campus Ministry (Observer)
Friends of Saint Michael's Abbey
Mission San Juan Capistrano Preservation Society
Catholics United for the Faith
.