ARTICLES

LETTERS

NEWS

ROAMIN' CATHOLIC

Contents © 2004
by Jim Holman.
All rights reserved.

All That Perceptions Stuff

Ex-priest Rod Stephens Still Works in Orange Diocese

BY ROBERT KUMPEL

While still a priest and liturgical director for the diocese of Orange in the '90s, Rod Stephens made little attempt to hide his relationship with Howard Sellers. Stephens' obstinacy caused a scandal that reached beyond the diocese of Orange and would be continuing were it not for the intervention of concerned relatives.

Though Stephens is no longer a priest, he is still involved in Catholic worship. Stephens' liturgical consulting firm, Sacra Forma, operating from Howard Sellers' Irvine address where both men live, still plans the renovations of Catholic sanctuaries across the country. Stephens was recently hired by Mission San Juan Capistrano as a consultant for the "renovation" of its Serra Chapel, the only surviving chapel standing in which Blessed Junipero Serra said Mass. Though the mission is located in the diocese of Orange, the diocese's spokesman, Father Joseph Fenton, denies that the diocese is paying any money to Stephens.

Michael and Susan Teissere were married in 1993; their wedding was witnessed by then Father Rod Stephens, Michael's cousin. Susan related that Michael's mother insisted that they invite Howard Sellers to their wedding, though neither she nor Michael knew him. Michael said, "I later found out that my mom knew all about [Father Stephens and Sellers]. And whenever we had to contact him at night, it would always be at Howard's residence in Irvine."

Over the course of seven years, the Teisseres took note of a number of deviations from the norms of priestly behavior by their cousin. By 2001, they decided that something had to be done.

Michael said that when he and Susan were becoming serious about their faith, their family told Father Stephens, who "said that we were turning into fanatics and terrorists."

Susan: "We were excited about our new-found faith and wanted to share it with [Michael's family.]" But because of Father Rod's comments, "the evangelization in our family stopped, because they believed whatever Father Rod said."

The next strange event took place four months later.

Michael: "My family is related to Blessed Brother Andre Bessette (founder of the St. Joseph Oratory), and they started celebrating his feast day, January 6, and having a Mass and celebration at various parishes. In 1994, it was at St. Kilian's in Mission Viejo. After Father Rod finished offering Mass, he fled out the side door to the courtyard, flung off his robes and, wearing a suit, stood as best man for my brother in a civil ceremony. It was a big scandal to us, and it was also a scandal to another cousin who was there."

Susan: "Father Rod even had them walk down the aisle during Mass, even though they weren't getting married in the Church."

The last straw came when Susan attended a funeral for Michael's aunt, a former Immaculate Heart of Mary nun, at St. John Fisher parish in Palos Verdes. Father Stephens, who was the celebrant of the funeral Mass, allowed several ex-IHM nuns to "concelebrate" Mass with him, each holding her own ciborium and chalice and extending her arms at the consecration. Sitting in the back, Susan walked out. At the reception afterward, Father Stephens told Michael's sister, "I know that Rome is coming down on these things, but I don't care."

The Teisseres' spiritual director affirmed their conviction that if no one else in the family would speak up, it was their duty. In June 2001, after the national Catholic weekly, the Wanderer, published a story exposing Father Rod's lifestyle and lavish vacations with Sellers, Michael said he was threatened with bodily harm by a family. In spite of the threats, the Teisseres decided it was time to move.

The couple arranged a meeting with Stephens.

Michael: "When we met with him, I said, 'your participation at my brother's wedding was completely wrong and scandalous, especially for the family. I said that any priest who was living the homosexual lifestyle should leave the priesthood -- 'do you agree?' He said, 'yes.' So we said, we know that you're living with Howard, and you shouldn't be living there.' When we told him that, he said, 'well, the bishop knows about it and so does Cardinal Mahony, and they approve of what I'm doing.'"

Susan: "He asked us what we wanted him to do, and we told him that we wanted him to set things straight -- to start teaching what the Catholic Church teaches -- 'even if you don't believe it yourself, at least teach it to the family.' He was visibly upset, especially when I told him if he didn't do what we asked, we were going to go to the bishop. And we didn't mean just giving up the homosexual lifestyle. We told him to end his consulting business that was destroying Catholic churches."

Michael: "We then called Bishop Brown's office to try to arrange a meeting, but nothing happened. A friend knew an attorney who offered to help us, pro bono, and another priest we had spoken with told us to call Monsignor Lawrence Baird, who, at that time, was in charge of media relations for the diocese of Orange. We met with him at his residence on Balboa Island, but he didn't know in advance why we wanted to talk with him. This was just before September 11, 2001. Monsignor Baird said that he would arrange for a meeting with Bishop Brown the next day. And he said it would not be at Marywood, but at the bishop's house!"

Three days later, the Teisseres said Monsignor Baird told them that he had spoken with the bishop, and the bishop had a couple of questions for them.

Michael: "One question was, 'do you know if Rod is living at Howard's right now?' A couple of days later, I made a phone call to Howard's, and his answering machine came on for Sacra Forma [Stephens' liturgical consulting and renovation business]. So we went with that.

We called the diocese and were told that we were to talk to the bishop's secretary, Father Michael McKiernan. I said, 'no. We want to speak to the bishop.' He kept trying to get information from me, but I wouldn't answer his questions. Finally McKiernan said they would contact us. We waited and waited and waited, and nothing happened. So our attorney wrote up a declaration of what we wanted from the bishop and, finally, in March 2002, the diocese called and said, 'let's talk.'"

The first meeting took place in a conference room at Marywood Center. The Teisseres were not allowed to bring their attorney, but Bishop Brown was accompanied by his secretary, Father McKiernan.

Susan: "We told him that we had come there simply out of love for Christ and His Church. I said, 'we're not here asking for money. There's something wrong and we want you to make it right. We don't want to play games here. You know what we're about and we know what you're about.' If the scandals hadn't erupted about that time, [the bishop] would have never given us the time of day. He had brushed us off for too long."

Michael: "[Bishop Brown] tried to tell us that he didn't know about Father Rod and Howard, but we knew that he did. He then tried to deny that he had been putting us off. He started playing word games with us when it came to Father Rod. He said, 'what you perceive is different from what you actually know.' We told him, 'look, we know. It's within my family that we see all of this stuff.'"

Susan: "It wasn't until toward the end of the meeting that the bishop admitted that he knew that Father Rod did have a relationship; then he asked me if I could be sure they were having one now. When we told [Brown] that Rod had said that he and Cardinal Mahony approved of his lifestyle, [Brown] said, 'I don't approve of that. This is what the Church teaches' -- and started quoting the Catechism. Then he said that he believed that they had had a relationship before, but it wasn't going on anymore. Then he said he would have an investigation. I said, 'this is his nighttime phone number, at Howard's in Irvine! We know what's going on here!' But the bishop tried to talk about St. Kilian's [when Father Stephens assisted at a civil marriage], and that he had talked to Father Rod about that and told him it was wrong. At the end [of the meeting, Bishop Brown] kept asking us what we wanted, and we made it simple. We told him we wanted a letter of apology [from the bishop] to our family, and we wanted Father Rod to resign from the priesthood. Father Rod finally did send a letter himself, apologizing to several family members for the St. Kilian's incident, admitting that he was told to write it by the bishop.

"We argued that it was a Church matter and that he, the bishop, was responsible for Father Rod. He said, 'no, I'm not.' Then he said that if Father Rod was to resign that he [Stephens] would have to make that decision, and as bishop, he could not force him to resign.' So he asked us again what we wanted, and I said, 'we've told you what we want, Your Excellency, and if you won't help us, we are going to Rome and we are going to talk to the news media.'"

After two hours, the Teisseres had had enough and walked out, with the bishop begging for another meeting. They went outside to call their attorney, who said, "let me call you back. I'm on the phone with Father McKiernan." When their attorney called back, he advised them to give the bishop a second meeting. They reluctantly consented and met with Bishop Brown and his canon lawyer, Father Doug Cook, two weeks later.

Michael: "At the second meeting, it was just more of the same."

Susan: "The only difference this time was that we had the canon lawyer quoting all these canons at us. He was giving us excuses about why the bishop can't force one of his priests to resign and all that perceptions stuff. The bishop was even more nervous and kept asking us, 'what do you want from me?' When we repeated our request for the letter, Cook told us that that wasn't the bishop's responsibility. I said, 'excuse me! The Holy Father just apologized for all the past sins of the children of the Church, and you're telling me that our bishop can't apologize for this priest who has scandalized our family and the laity in the diocese?' [Cook] just said, 'that's not his responsibility.' For another two hours we just went around and around. We told him again that we were going to contact Rome and talk to the media."

Michael: "Father Cook said, 'Rome will just kick it back to us.' And the bishop said that Father Rod denies all the charges."

Susan: "Then they wanted another meeting! This time we met at our attorney's office, and the only person who showed up was Father Cook."

Michael: "He wouldn't even talk with us unless we would sign an oath first. Our attorney didn't know anything about canon law, so he just told us to sign it. Father Cook wouldn't even tell us what the oath was, only that we had to sign it. It was scribbled on a legal pad and was illegible. Finally, we signed it. After we signed it, Father Cook said that we had agreed to keep a specific part of the meeting secret. He also wrote a couple of questions down. One was, again, 'do you know at this moment if Father Rod is living with Howard?' We said, 'at this point, it doesn't matter. We don't know if he's in the house right this minute.' Finally, we wrote down our answer and signed it. When we did that, Father Cook snapped his briefcase shut and said with a big grin, 'I'm done!'"

The Teisseres, however, were not done. During the "confidential" part of the meeting, Father Cook told them that the diocese was conducting its own investigation and that Father Rod was under strict instruction not to spend the night at Sellers' house in Irvine. In spite of this "discipline," though, Stephens and Sellers were allowed to vacation together. The Teisseres knew what kind of investigation they could expect from the diocese, so they turned to another interested party, who hired a private investigator to stake out Sellers' house.

Michael: "Father Cook said that the bishop couldn't be 'around him [Stephens] like a watchdog, 24/7' and that he had assigned Father Rod to live at St. Catherine of Siena parish in Laguna Beach. We knew their investigation was fake."

After the Teisseres sent a letter to Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, the head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in Rome, Ratzinger turned the information over to the Congregation for the Clergy, who in turn wrote the Teisseres several months later. The congregation had immediately referred the case back to the diocese of Orange, which would investigate the problem. A friend of the Teisseres contacted a member of the secular media in Orange County, disclosing everything on condition that he leave the bishop's meetings out of the story.

The private investigator hired by the Teisseres soon had irrefutable proof on videotape that Father Stephens had been spending his nights at the Irvine residence rather than at his Laguna Beach parish -- in direct violation of Bishop Brown's orders.

Susan: "[Stephens and Sellers] had also taken another vacation together, this time practically around the world. The results of the investigation were then revealed to the bishop by another source. We were told that the bishop knew then it was over. Then two weeks later, we heard that Father Rod was telling the family that he was going to resign from the priesthood and not to blame me or Michael. He told them that he'd been thinking about it for 20 years! And at the same time, the chancery at Marywood announced that [Stephens] would no longer be the liturgical director for the diocese. But, in spite of leaving the priesthood and losing his position at the chancery, he was still intent on working with his liturgical consulting business."

Seeking justice from the Church has cost the Teisseres dearly. They are estranged from Michael's family, who blame them for a "crusade" against Stephens and courting bad publicity in the media, a charge they vehemently deny.

Susan: "What we told the bishop was true. We did this because of our love for Jesus Christ and His Church. We love Father Rod and we love the bishop, and we love them enough to tell them the truth. We tried to use the proper chain of authority before turning to Rome and the secular press. Our pleas fell upon deaf ears. All the bishop cared about was bad publicity; and if that investigator had never got the evidence on Rod, he would still be a priest while living with Sellers."

TOP