ARTICLES
June 2004 ARTICLES
Contents © 2004
by Jim Holman.
All rights reserved.
Just Innuendo and Hearsay?
A Retrospect on Bishop Brown
BY ROBERT KUMPEL
"When Brown came here [from Idaho], I spoke with a priest from that diocese and he advised me that I should have a good exit plan in place!" This is what Father Dreimarhder (not his real name), a priest in the diocese of Orange, said of his bishop, Tod Brown. After six years of Bishop Brown's reign, Father Dreimahrder is not more sanguine. And, his distress is shared by other Catholics in the Orange diocese.
Among these disgruntled ones is a coalition of Catholics calling themselves Laity of the Diocese of Orange. In March, the Laity sent an open letter to Bishop Brown and every priest in the diocese, detailing the Laity's dissatisfaction with Brown's leadership and demanding that he clean things up. The letter concluded with a pledge to pray for Brown while continuing to report all improprieties and abuses to Rome and the media.
The letter details what is old news to some. For instance, it speaks of a fax Bishop Brown sent to his priests before the March 2, 2000 primary election, when Proposition 22, defining marriage as "only between a man and a woman," was on the ballot. The fax consisted of two articles by Father Gerald Coleman, then rector of St. Patrick's Seminary in Menlo Park, making the case that homosexual partners are entitled to legal recognition of their unions. Bishop Brown added that the articles express "very well my own thoughts on this subject."
The Laity's letter notes that shortly after arriving, Brown sent two directives through his office of liturgy and worship: all who receive communion must do so standing (prohibiting kneeling for reception), and all newly constructed and renovated churches must have a separate chapel for the Blessed Sacrament.
The Laity's letter takes Bishop Brown to task for poor appointments in the diocesan bureaucracy. The letter focuses on vocations director Father Wilbur Davis, citing accusations "that he is screening out vocation candidates who are openly Orthodox." According to the Laity, Father Davis has difficulties with groups widely perceived as faithful to the magisterium. In a 1998 letter to former diocesan communications director Monsignor Lawrence Baird, Davis criticized the diocese's former monthly, the Bulletin, for featuring advertisements for Catholic Family Radio ("Fr. Joseph Fessio, a key player in this new effort ... represents an extreme position that is neither centrist nor inclusive") and Mother Angelica's EWTN ("Do we really want to encourage people to drink of Mother Angelica's religious intolerance and arrogance? I certainly do not"). Davis criticized the Bulletin for running a major story on the Franciscan University of Steubenville ("This is the home of Catholics United for the Faith, a pathetic organization of bitter people"). Of the Bulletin's editor, Jim Graves, Davis said, "it is clear to me that he is taking advantage of the Diocese of Orange in order to push an extremely reactionary ideology that fails to be truly Catholic.... I object to his using our publication to constantly affront us with his narrow views."
Father Dreimarhder believes Davis is a sincere priest who is a product of poor priestly formation. "He's unable to really produce vocations. He's very, very liberal. [The vocations office] wants young men who are 'flexible' and 'progressive.'" Having a vocations director, said Dreimahrder, "who doesn't believe in the Gospel miracles, in the sense that they were always taught and believed over the past centuries," is not "inspiring to candidates to the priesthood or religious life. And Monsignor Davis falls in that category." Priests end up "really not sure what they believe," he said, "so they're just applying God's grace to live better and try to be a nice person."
Other's of Brown's diocesan officials also criticized the Bulletin. In a September 8, 1999 memorandum to Bishop Brown, then and now diocesan directors of religious education and family life, Ruth Bradley and Carmel Treanor, objected to a September 1999 story, "Bringing the Message of Chastity to Teens." Their concern? The article was about Barbara McGuigan, who has traveled widely talking to teenagers and their parents about the Church's teachings on chastity. Specifically, Bradley and Treanor were worried that "the approach used by Ms. McGuigan in presenting her materials is a pietistic approach and there might be an audience for it among homeschoolers and fundamentalists."
The Laity's letter does not mention what has turned out to be one of Bishop Brown's less popular initiatives -- his drive for a new cathedral. According to some Orange diocese faithful I interviewed, regular benefactors are "underwhelmed" by the project, so the bishop may have to look for new sources of money.
Little has been heard about the cathedral project since the priestly scandals hit the news two years ago. On July 2, 2002, Bishop Brown sent a letter to all Orange County pastors, informing them that he was suspending the capital campaign (the major fundraising tool for his cathedral) until at least the fall of 2003. To date, the campaign has still not resumed, but Brown's July 2002 letter indicates that the new cathedral is inevitable. "During this time of postponement of the public phase," Brown wrote, "there is still much work that needs to take place. Therefore, the campaign Steering Committee will continue to meet and conduct their important work of refining, clarifying, and advancing the campaign under the banner: Let Us Grow God's Gifts."
Father Dreimarhder said that he and other priests he knows are troubled by the cathedral campaign. "People tell me that dirt is being moved around at the site, but nothing else is being said by the bishop," he said. "Lay people are under a great deal of stress. Aside from the current antipathy toward the Catholic Church and priests in general, the economy is kind of shaky. To fundraise at a time like this is very inopportune. I can remember when the Capital Campaign was announced. As I read the information for pastors, it just seemed like another burden. All pastors had to attend mandatory training for fundraising. It was very clear that the Capital Campaign would not replace the Pastoral Services Appeal -- the yearly fundraiser we also have to do for the diocese. So this was going to be on top of that, and it was really strict. It said, 'every parish will have a quota, and the pastor will be responsible for meeting this quota' -- and it was going to be high. Now a lot of parishes are not able to meet their expenses. We even had a collection the other week to help the poorer parishes. The Capital Campaign, when added to the PSA, is just too much."
Dreimahrder said a delegation of senior pastors met with the bishop to ask him not to do the capital campaign. "We have huge areas in the south part of the diocese that are desperate for new parishes; we are not raising enough money for many of the parishes we have," Dreimahrder said. "But if donations are up even a little bit, the diocese says, 'oh, that's a good sign!' But you can't get them to accept that you're still not making overhead. Many parishes can't even pay their bills now, so where are they going to get the money for this cathedral? It's weird. Maybe there's too much fluoride in the water!"
One layman (not a member of the Laity of the Diocese of Orange) told me, "priests are being paid much more but are told they should live away from the parish church in suburban anonymity. When new churches are built a priest told me that the house has to be away from the church. I don't think Bishop Mc Farland would have approved the 'rectory away' business, and he certainly wouldn't agree with the big pay raise!" Father Dreimahrder, however, said that while there is a move to separate rectories from parish churches, this is not being pressed on all priests. Father Dreimarhrder said he thought the rationale was to separate a priest's home life from his work.
Father Dreimarhder, though, said he senses an injustice in Brown's treatment of the clergy, but he is more willing to accept it. "There are a lot of us who feel that we are paying the price for sins of the bishop. Now think about it -- isn't that what Jesus Christ did for all of us?"
Father Dreimahrder spoke of an event with Bishop Brown that disappointed him. When, on January 18 of this year, Bishop Brown posted his "Covenant with the Faithful" on the doors of Holy Family Cathedral to demonstrate his commitment to assuage the pain caused by the clergy sexual molestation crisis (a move reminiscent of Martin Luther's posing of his 95 Theses in 1517), he invited his priests to a luncheon. Father Dreimarhder said he had hoped that he and his fellow priests could spend some time with the bishop, building up rapport and allowing him to explain what was going on. "The whole thing was just bizarre," Dreimahrder said. "When we got to the luncheon, there were cameras all over the place and there were no signs or tags identifying who any of these people were. I was talking in one little group, and I looked over my shoulder and there was a camera eavesdropping on my conversation! We never were told what it was for. We were never told why the media was there. Instead of using the occasion to build rapport with his priests, that event just left us feeling used by the bishop."
Yet, not only priests feel ill used by Bishop Brown. Traditional Catholic laity at St. Mary's by the Sea in Huntington Beach face the imminent repression of the Tridentine Latin Mass. In April it was announced that retiring Father Daniel Johnson, the pastor at St. Mary's for the last 20 years, would be replaced by a "pro-temp" pastor, Father Sy Nguyen. A source close to the parish told me that Nguyen has told Father Johnson that the diocese's ultimate plan is to end the Tridentine Latin Mass. "There is really no good reason to eliminate the Tridentine there," said the source. "A Norbertine has volunteered to celebrate the Tridentine Mass there indefinitely, so it isn't for want of a qualified priest. Many in the parish are very saddened by the impending loss of the Tridentine Mass, and they are looking for ways to save it without ruffling feathers and ruining their hope." Sunday, May 9 was the last time the Tridentine rite was celebrated at St. Mary's. Henceforth, it will be replaced by the Novus Ordo, in Latin.
"St. Mary's is by no means reactionary or extreme in its practice of 'old time religion,'" continued my source, "but the rabid progressives in the diocese called [St. Mary's parishioners] reactionaries because it's the antithesis of all of their goofy hopes and dreams. Bishop Brown apparently sees Father Johnson's leaving as an excuse to rid the diocese of the practice of traditional Catholicism as it was tolerated during Father Johnson's tenure."
Father Johnson, said my source, "has had an announcement read at every Mass at St. Mary's, telling the congregants that communion is for Catholics who are properly disposed. He always provided the option to receive communion in the hand, but Father Johnson did not give it in the hand himself; so the announcement directed Catholics wishing to receive in the hand to receive on the communion rail on the left side of the church, adding that communicants should please remember to show proper respect for Christ's Real Presence in the Holy Eucharist by consuming any sacred particles that remained in their hands. This announcement sent liberals to the moon. Some folks whined that it made them feel 'dirty.' But the announcement didn't bother the parishioners at St. Mary's, because they tend to be better catechized than the average Catholic.
"The fact that they are replacing Father Johnson with a pro temp is bad news. A pro temp has less power and can be removed quickly (canonically speaking). Our fear is that the plan is to cut the heart out of the parish by removing the elements that made it a haven for orthodoxy. The first step is to wipe out the Tridentine Mass, which will result in reducing the number of people who come for Mass each week. As more and more of the trappings of traditional Catholicism are removed (there is an altar rail and it is used; most people kneel for communion there, and we all know how Bishop Brown feels about kneeling), the parish may dry up. We are afraid Bishop Brown wants to hasten the death of the parish so he can sell the property for a tidy sum. It is choice real estate and would fetch a nice price for a bishop looking to build a monument to his ego (a cathedral) or pay off hefty damages from lawsuits coming down the pike."
An event shedding a more positive light on Bishop Brown was his calling for a day of prayer and fasting on this year's anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court's decision that legalized abortion, Roe v. Wade. The bishop also called for penance in a February 21, 2004 letter to the diocese, where he wrote, "next Wednesday the solemn season of Lent begins, a traditional time for prayer, penitence and sober reassessment of our lives before the Almighty. I invite you to join me in making this Lent a special season of prayer and atonement to those who have been victims of sexual abuse by members of the clergy and others acting in the name of the Church."
Like many Orange Catholics, Father Dreimarhder was surprised by Bishop Brown's call for prayer and fasting on the anniversary of Roe v. Wade. "It was really wonderful, although, it wasn't really done very seriously. It was a nice thing, but it didn't make much of an impression." Though Bishop Brown apologized for the scandals, Dreimarhder said, "he wasn't in charge when most of it took place." Still, Father saw reason in Brown's action. "I've been in situations where a person will tell me that they haven't been to confession for 17 years, and they'll tell me about a priest who yelled at them in the confessional. Well, I work for the same guy that other priest worked for, so I'll say, 'on behalf of the whole Catholic Church, I want to apologize to you for what happened, and I hope that you will forgive the Catholic Church.' I will take the guilt of the other priest upon me, and it might be that that's what Bishop Brown is doing."
Diocesan spokesman Father Joseph Fenton told me that he had read the Laity of the Diocese of Orange's letter and had a copy of it in front of him when we spoke. Father Fenton initially dismissed the letter as "full of innuendo and hearsay -- don't you think?"
Asked why the diocese had ordered tabernacles moved to side chapels when new churches are built or old ones renovated, Father Fenton said, "if you go into a cathedral, if you could go into the earliest cathedrals in the Church, the Blessed Sacrament was always reserved in a Blessed Sacrament Chapel. Even at St. Peter's in Rome you will find that. The reason that they moved the Blessed Sacrament to a chapel is so that when they come to worship the Blessed Sacrament, they can do it in the privacy of a small, intimate room, where they can be closer to the Lord than if they were sitting in the church. Also, when they come to worship at the Mass, the altar becomes the undisputed focal point of the Mass, as it should be."
I told Father Fenton that I had thought that large cathedrals reserved the Blessed Sacrament in separate chapels because of the large number of visitors that might offend the reverence due to the Body of Christ. He disagreed. "That was a later answer to the question." When I asked him how hiding the Blessed Sacrament could possibly improve the lack of reverence shown in most Catholic churches today, he replied, "that's another issue."
Given the scandals that have battered the Church lately, I asked Father Fenton why most new parishes were having the priests live at off-site housing, instead of at a rectory where parishioners can see that he is nearby. "First of all, look at the term 'rectory,'" Fenton replied. "Historically, the term comes from the fact that that's where the rector lived, in the days when this was a missionary territory. The idea of a rectory was just a residence, then it became an office. Now it's like living in an office for many of these priests, so the policy has evolved in many dioceses that the parish offices and the priest's residence should be separate. That doesn't mean that they have to be off-campus, and it doesn't mean that they are off campus. They're separating the residence from the parish office because, in many cases, you have 20 people working there, where in the old days, you had maybe one secretary, part-time. That's the rationale behind it."
What the future holds for the diocese of Orange under Bishop Brown is unclear. But Father Dreimarhder has advice for the laity who are concerned about the state of their local church: "you have got to be willing to do prayer and fasting. Especially fasting. You need to do this for the bishop and anyone else you can think of in the diocese, to do any good."