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by Jim Holman.
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Yes He Is! No He Isn't!

OPINION VARIES ON ORANGE'S NEW BISHOP

By Christopher Zehnder

Opinion varies over the character of Bishop Tod D. Brown of the diocese of Boise, Idaho, recently appointed bishop of Orange by Pope John Paul II to replace retiring Orange bishop, Norman McFarland. While some in Idaho have praised Bishop Brown as a realistic administrator whose foresight has both fiscally stabilized the Idaho diocese and prepared it to deal with an already present and possibly worsening priest shortage, others have seen in Brown a bishop more interested in the financial bottom line and generally unconcerned with, and even hostile to, Catholic orthodoxy.

Reports in the Los Angeles Times, though acknowledging Brown's unpopularity among a number of Catholics in Idaho, have been positive about the new Orange prelate. A June 30 Times report stated that Colette Cowman, editor of the diocesan Idaho Catholic Register, describes Brown as a bishop who "like McFarland... follows the papal line on theological issues." According to the July 1 Times, Brown is "generally viewed as a firm administrator who, like his predecessor, Bishop Norman McFarland, keeps a tight hold on diocesan finances. 'To keep the diocese healthy, I think to keep the budget balanced is just essential,' Brown said at a morning news conference announcing his appointment, effective September 3. 'I think it's important to have the funds in place before you undergo expansion.'"

Tod D. Brown, 61, attended St. John's Seminary in Camarillo and was a classmate of both Archbishop William Levada of San Francisco and Roger Cardinal Mahony, who has expressed pleasure at Brown's transfer to Orange. Ordained in 1963, Brown was orignally assigned to the diocese of Monterey and, according to the Times, was "active in social justice issues, including undocumented workers' rights." In 1988, the Vatican elevated Brown to be bishop of the diocese of Boise, to succeed Bishop Sylvester Treinen.

When Brown became bishop of Boise the diocese had 80 active priests. Today, only 53 priests are active in Idaho. This decline in the number of priests forced Brown, say supporters, to propose hard, though necessary, measures regarding the organization of parish life in Idaho. These measures included the twinning and clustering of parishes (one priest serving two or more parishes); the formation of "mega churches," entailing the closing of existing parishes and merging them into new, larger parishes with new parish facilities; and the encouragement of lay ministry, including the use of, in some cases, lay administrators.

Bishop Brown's legacy in Idaho also includes measures designed to put the diocese on a sounder financial footing. Father Michael St. Marie, who sits on the presybteral council (now the college of consultors for the selection of a new bishop) for the diocese of Boise and serves as pastor of St. Elizabeth's in Gooding, Idaho, told the Mission that while he was in seminary in the late '80s, Brown's predecessor, Bishop Treinen, "had received some [financial] advice that was not wise and basically ended up using [one] year's diocesan drive to pay past years' bills." So Bishop Brown had to make up two years bills, and other administrative costs, which, say supporters, he accomplished.

Monsignor Dennis Falk, Vicar General and spokesman for the Boise diocese, described other financial triumphs of Brown's reign. "We now have a lay pension plan we didn't have before," said Falk. "We have our new pension plan for the priests, which is good and stable. He [Brown] was able to raise the income [of the priests]; of course, our priests always realized that the neighboring dioceses always did so much better in terms of salaries, benefits, and so on; but now he [Brown] did a very good job on that."

Yet some Idaho Catholics told the Mission that they thought Brown was more interested in finances than in shepherding. Some even suggested that a heterodox "agenda" lay behind Brown's parish reorganizations. Many of those who spoke to the Mission asked that their names not be used.

"I've seen several bishops come and go," said a Boise layman, "and this guy just did not relate to his people. And I want to be frank with you; he was not very well liked."

"I do not like the man," said another Catholic, a public school teacher in Boise, "and I thank God he's gone. Deo Gratias! I don't feel, and I don't believe, that Orange is getting any kind of deal."

Why this dislike of Brown? Father "Maximus," an active diocesan priest, said, "He's largely perceived as being interested in one thing, and one thing only: that's money. There's been a minimum of spiritual leadership; he has spoken to virtually no spiritual faith issues... he's done very little with respect to dissent."

Some to whom I spoke described Bishop Brown as cold and unapproachable. "He does not relate to his people at all," said a man from Boise. "I've never encountered a man in my life who could be so cold and so really indifferent to the thoughts and the feelings of people," said Father Maximus. "He's so devoid of people skills, he's such a poor communicator."

Father Maximus relates the story, attested to by others, that on July 1, 1998, the Boise cathedral rector, Father Don Riffle, held a Mass of thanksgiving in the cathedral. "The cathedral was crowded," said Maximus, "and [Riffle] announced, 'Eucharist means thanksgiving; of course we have a lot to be thankful for.' He held up a copy of the Idaho Statesman, the Boise paper, which carried the news story that Brown was being transferred. There was long sustained applause and whistling throughout the cathedral. That's a measure of the sentiment of the people of Idaho in respect to Brown's being transferred."

Father Riffle, who is now executive director of the Idaho Catholic Foundation, told the Mission that the applause in the cathedral was a light-hearted response to his jocular statement that the Mass of thanksgiving was not occasioned by Bishop Brown's imminent departure. Brown was not unpopular, said Riffle, though he did have to make "difficult decisions with regard to the shortage of priests."

Monsignor Dennis Falk, too, disagrees that Brown was so unpopular. "He did some real good things for our diocese," Falk said. "For example, parish visitations. He was on the road a lot, visiting these different parishes, and he would spend a weekend with the parish, saying parish masses and visiting the people there, especially their pastoral councils, so on, and give the people the opportunity to get to know him."

Father St. Marie, too, did not think Brown unpopular or unapproachable. "I think he was misunderstood," said St. Marie. "He came into our diocese in a very difficult situation. The bishop whom he followed was very pastoral in terms of visiting the parishes and getting out amongst the people, but the administration of the diocese at that time was, one might say, not kept up to snuff, and the parishes had suffered in many ways, and Bishop Brown had to really address those [issues] basically for the good of the diocese."

"As an individual, as a Christian, [he is] a very likeable person," said a priest in Pocatello, Father Xavier Aresseriel. "But there is widespread disagreement on his policies. Many of his policies were not very acceptable to the people. I think some of the decisions were taken without any regard for people." Father Aresseriel thinks that many did not appreciate Brown's "general administrative approach: financial matters and things. I do agree that the bishop needed financial backing for the diocese, and nobody has any difference of opinion. But the way he went about it was not at all appreciated. [Before] people had the freedom to give what they wanted; it became a mandatory contribution, in the sense that you had no option to come up with the amount he would prescribe. Each parish had to cough up whatever amount was prescribed as their share. People felt they didn't have any choice."

Father Aresseriel referred to the cathedraticum, a bishop's "tax" on parishes. As Monsignor Falk pointed out, this tax is accord with a bishop's rights under canon law. However, previous to Brown, there had been no cathedraticum.

Aresseriel also said that consolidation of parishes "didn't go over with the people. There is widespread unhappiness about it. Shortage of priests is the reason that forced him [to do it]. However, there are differences of opinion that other avenues could have been explored."

One lay woman in Lapwai on the Nez Perce Indian Reservation, who thought that other avenues were not explored, said she thought Bishop Brown did not want priests in parishes because he wanted "the nuns to be running things. He does have some in this diocese that are doing that, in these small little parishes." She said the priest shortage is contrived to admit more sisters and lay folk into the running of parishes. She claimed that there are "quite a few of our priests outside the diocese," about ten. "Some left because they couldn't tolerate it, and then I know of at least one that asked to leave. There's one over in Louisiana, from India."

Others besides this Lapwai woman perceive an agenda to increase the use of lay ministers and sisters behind the bishop's parish reorganizations. Ellie Mulberry of Buhl, Idaho, says that the Vitality Study commissioned by Brown to chart the future of Idaho's parishes sought only how to deal with the lack of priests in Idaho, not how to increase their number. An ex-nun, Doris Murphy, hired by Brown to conduct the study, says Mulberry, directed the study "to prepare the Xdiocese for fewer priests [and] increased lay involvement." Parishioners were given a document listing the "Terminology we all need to know," which included, "mega church," "twinning," "clustering," "pastoral wide director," "deacon sister or lay person to be appointed by the bishop to serve as a director of a parish that has no resident pastor," among others. Says Mulberry, "the pope has said we are not to impose a mentality of priestless parishes. Yet, this bishop does that, over and over again."

Priest attrition in Idaho has resulted primarily from retirement. However, said Father Maximus, "there are many priests who have retired who would not have retired had it not been for Brown. He has welcomed their retirement. He has put them in a position where they have virtually had to retire, and able priests who would have every reason in the world to want to continue and Brown has not allowed nor encouraged them to continue. Father Maximus said that, though optional retirement is seventy years old and mandatory retirement, 75, Brown "has allowed the retirement of priests under 70." (Monsignor Falk "passed" on the opportunity to answer these allegations).

"We have a vocations program, of course," said Maximus, "but it's minimally effective and they estimate that there are 16 altogether in the seminary. Considering the normal attrition rate, that means, looking into the years ahead, we have very very few priests forthcoming."

St. Marie agreed with the Los Angeles Times that Brown "follows the papal line on theological issues." "I would say," said St. Marie, "he follows the teachings of the Holy Father and has tried, along with the public issuances from the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops in terms of trying to implement social justice programs." Both Monsignor Falk and Father Riffle agree. "He's very much in union with the Holy Father," said Falk. "Interpret it any way you want to."

"Brown," said Father Maximus, "might be described as theologicaly conservative because he's very clever to never say the things that would allow people to pin the tag on him that he is less theologically conservative. His actions speak much louder than his words." Father Aresseriel said he would not comment on Bishop Brown's orthodoxy.

"Mrs. Schmertz," a laywoman from Boise, said "it's not so much what he said that disappointed people, but what he didn't say or didn't do." She described Bishop Brown as a priest who himself closely follows rubrics, but who tolerates abuses by priests under him, even in the cathedral.

Mrs. Schmertz that very early in Brown's rule she was present at a funeral for a priest who died of AIDS, over which the bishop presided. "The funeral was bizarre," she said. "It was kind of an 'in your face' acclamation of this man's life as a gay man." However, she says, "after communion, before the closing prayer, [Brown] stood up and made a very eloquent statement in defense of the Church's teachings on sexuality and celibacy....He doesn't speak that eloquently normally, he's not a particularly good, smooth, engaging homilist. He is very mechanical. This was such a spontaneously genuine and effective statement that I thought that it was almost not coming from his lips."

Mrs. Schmertz said that in the last year and a half Bishop Brown has tolerated sterilization procedures in Idaho's Catholic hospitals. Jan Edmonds, Director of Women and Children's Services at St. Alphonsus Medical Center in Boise told the Mission that "we do not do any elective sterilizations. Period. You cannot come in for a vasectomy or tubal ligation." However, Edmonds stated that sterilizations can be performed at St. Alphonsus if it is not the primary medical condition for which the patient is admitted into the hospital.

"We looked at this ethical issue for obstetrical service for probably four years," said Edmonds. "Clearly we knew that direct sterilization of either men or women was not permitted for temporary measures in a Catholic health care institution. We do do procedures related to sterility when the direct effect is due to pathology or other particular health care reasons."

"We spent a lot of time and did case studies and reviews and looked at other places across the nation," said Edmonds. "After this was investigated, thought about and studied, our ethics director for our Holy Cross Health Care System and the CEO met with the Rev. Tod Brown to get his input. The terminology I think they used was that he would not sanction it, but he would tolerate it under the guise of indications for medical issues and problems." Edmonds stated that the bishop has no direct authority to veto such hospital decisions.

Two facilities in Idaho under the Holy Cross system, says Edmonds, have an identical sterilization policy which are Catholic. "Another facility," she said, "is using this as a directive for sterilization. I know that there is not any elective sterilizations done at that hospital, either."

It seems that Bishop Brown has tolerated more than just sterilization in Idaho's Catholic hospitals. Ellie Mulberry cited an article published in the Idaho Catholic Register, January 8, 1995, which reported, she said, that two Jesuit scholars, theologian Father Vladislaus Orsy and canonist Father Francis A. Sullivan, analyzed the Holy Father's decree on women priests and said that the issue is not closed. St. John's cathedral in Boise advertized, said Mulberry, a forum called "Room for All: the Place of Diversity and Dissent in Catholicism" at Risen Christ parish in Boise. The forum was billed as providing for "[u]nderstanding the practice of faith in past and present, such as birth control, authority, tradition, ordination of women."

Another such forum, said Mulberry, was held at St. Paul's Student Center on the campus of Boise State University. Sister Jose Hobday, formerly an associate of former Catholic priest Matthew Fox, said Mulberry, citing an advertisement from the January 18, 1997 Twin Falls Times, spoke for two nights at St. Edward's parish in Twin Falls. Her talk was entitled, "Walking Barefoot through the Gospel." Both Mrs. Schmertz and Father Maximus said that Father John Heagle and Fran Ferder (priest and sister therapists who deal with issues of "sexuality"), and enneagram proponent Father Richard Rohr have spoken at diocesan clergy assemblies.

One public act Bishop Brown spoke to in 1994 was the ballot measure Proposition 1, which would, if passed, have prohibited the inclusion of specifically homosexual protection acts into Idaho law. According to the November 11, 1994 Idaho Catholic Register, cited by Mulberry, "[a]t its October meeting the Diocese of Boise Presbyteral Council voted unanimously to support Bishop Tod Brown's statement saying he cannot support the Idaho Citizens Alliance initiative on gay rights as it is written... In his statement, which was released in July, Bishop Brown said that, as written, Proposition 1 would contribute to attitudes of intolerance and hostility in Idaho directed at homosexual citizens and is potentially discriminatory."

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