Here is an open letter to Tod Brown, Bishop of Orange. It goes over some of the recent grounds on his refusing Communion to a kneeling woman, but also details his open support for same-sex marriages and the fact that the vocations director he appointed in openly hostile to devotions to the Blessed Virgin Mary. The letter is long and detailed. Once again showing that liturgical abuses just don’t operate in a vacuum. It is almost always a heterodox attitude in the first place that becomes the grounds for them and they are usually symptoms of deeper problems.
11 comments
Is there a link for this letter? I haven’t had my coffee yet which might account for not being able to find it. Although I might not actually want to read it as this sort of thing tends to turn my stomach.
BTW I’m still snickering over your word verification!
The Orange County diocese seems even worse than the one in St. Paul. Are most of the dioceses in the US of this caliber? I can sort of understand why some of my friends have gone over to the “Dark Side” and joined the Pius X Society.
Dear Lord, when will this end?
Doe the letter mention the dancing girls?
I live in the Diocese of Orange, so I’ll comment.
Catholic life in the Diocese is not all that bad. I have writen in other forums in St Blogs that I would give the Bishop a gentleman’s ‘C’ in his role as Bishop.
I’m at work, so I can’t look up the names, but many of the signatories on the letter are the same people who are protesting at St Mary’s in Huntington Beach (referenced in the open letter). So I would caution that the letter writers are pushing their own agenda.
Is Bishop Brown a bastion of orthodoxy? By no means. But he is no Weakland either.
Brian, look at the Amy Wellborn Blog. I don’t want to repeat myself.
Brian:
Using Rembert Weakland as a benchmark for
assessing the failings of Bishop Brown is like
pleading for the life of a convicted killer
because he’s not Osama Bin Ladan. While the
battle for orthodoxy in our church rages on,
with weak and corrupt bishops remaining
silent- – or dissenting with our church on key
moral issues,a bishop either stands boldly
for the truth, or he doesn’t. Sorry, Brian,
God doesn’t hand out letter grades (a gentle-
man’s ‘c’). Too many souls are at stake. It’s
pass or fail. Sadly, Bishop Brown is in the
latter catagory. There’s nothing ‘gentlemanly’
about what God warns us he’ll do to the
“lukewarmers” (Rev. 3,16). Read it and see.
Dear Brian , things are good in the OC diocese. Brian I signed my name to the open letter, infact My wife and I met with Bishop Tod Brown twice regarding my cousin Fr. Rod Stephens. Read the article linked on that. If you think bishop Brown deserves a C you have your head burried in the sand. Brian you need to pull your head out of the sand and do some investigating yourself. Bishop Brown and his like minded priests(my cousin included) in the diocese persecute what is left of the orthodox priests, will those priests tell you that they are being persecuted, probably not for fear of being thrown out of the diocese. What does that say Brian! What will it take for you Brian to believe the people who signed this open letter? Maybe satan himself getting up on the altar. I believe we are already there, satan is a master of deception and Bishop Brown has fallen prey to this deception and is using his office as a coverup to try to destroy the Church. Brian don’t fall for it too! Beware of false shepherds, they have always been in the church. Oh yeah1 your right my wife and I have an agenda. That agenda is, that we are soliders of Christ and are willing to sacrifice loss of family members and friends for the sake of The Catholic Faith.Those people at St. Mary’s have that same love and devotion as well , they are willing to lose their reputation for the sake of The Truth. If you believe in what the Church teaches , Brian you too will be willing to go to the Cross! It is all done for the Love of Jesus Christ and His Church. We want Bishop Brown to stop the dissent and I want my cousin more than ever to come back and be a Holy priest. This has been those most painful thing My wife and I have ever been through. This is loss of souls Brian!The lost of souls! there is so much too say, but it is very hard to continue now, another time. Michael.
Same type of persecution happens in the Albany diocese.
Bishop Brown is more than a little liberal.
Heresies Tod Brown promotes:
1) He supports homosexual domestic partnerships. He sent a memo to each priest in his diocese indicating his support, thereby encouraging them to be supportive of such things. This is at odds with Church teaching.
2) He has surrounded himself with some of the most liberal priests in the Diocese of Orange and advanced liberals to positions of power. These liberals are known to be at odds with Church teaching. Examples are his liberal vocations director, who mocks devotion to the Blessed Virgin, supports pro-abortion political candidates by allowing them to speak from the pulpit, and has been known to embrace theologies at odds with Church teaching such as liberation theology. His Superintendent of Schools is also a huge liberal. So is his “Spokesperson”.
3) He is demonstrably indifferent to genuine liturgical abuses. The only “abuses” he is keen to correct are when he sees people kneeling to adore God in the Blessed Sacrament. This may seem a small matter to some, but it says a great deal about what Bishop Brown thinks about the Holy Eucharist.
4) General liberal silliness has flourished under Bishop Brown in parishes throughout the diocese. He has hidden tabernacles, forbidden kneeling to receive Holy Communion and after the Lamb of God, and encouraged goofy catechesis by failing to care about determining the orthodoxy of religious educators.
5) He suggested that Martin Luther King Jr. meets the criterion for recognized sainthood.
6) He has failed to teach the faith properly and consequently, Catholics in Orange County, for eight years have been denied a bishop who preaches the authentic teachings of the Church.
7) He has not disciplined erring priests, religious, and lay persons who actively teach heresy.
8) His policies have caused vocations to dwindle to much lower numbers than under his predecessor. His liberal vocations director (appointed by Bishop Brown) has not helped in this regard.
9) He supports the Religious Education congress, which is held in his diocese each year. That congress hosts speakers that teach heresy. He has done nothing to stop this or discourage it. He has instead, shown nothing but support for these events.
10) He clearly believes that homosexuality is another way of being, as though it is just the flip side of the coin to heterosexuality, and not disordered in the sense that the Church teaches it. This can be seen in his writings on the subject.
11) He is closely associated with Cardinal Mahony. They are good friends and of one mind on most issues.
12) He commits liturgical abuses.
13) He has promoted a false type of ecumenism that does not recognize the need for those of other faiths to recognize that the Catholic faith is the religion founded by Christ and necessary for salvation.
14) He has encouraged the dumbing down of the faith and allowed Catholics in Orange County to remain ignorant of their faith. He is in no way zealous for souls. He is indifferent to the ignorance and apathy of Catholics.
15) He wastes lots of money living a lavish lifestyle, thereby setting a terrible example.
16) He does not call people to holiness. In fact, he surrounds himself with people who don’t even like the word holy. I have heard his former secretary, who is to be the rector of his new cathedral, correct people who refer to the Holy Eucharist, saying that it is redundant to say “Holy” before the word “Eucharist”.
17) He has allowed faithful, orthodox Catholics to be persecuted by the liberals he has promoted, thereby strangling and suffocating authentic Catholicism wherever it is in their power to stop it.
18) He has bent over backwards to appear tolerant of homosexuals. His love for homosexuals is the crowning glory of his episcopacy. He has publicly addressed this topic more times (in ways that appear indifferent and even opposed to Church teaching) than any other issue.
19) He has not been a champion for the unborn. Homosexual issues have been of greater concern to him than the right to life.
20) He allows pro-abortion politicians to receive Holy Communion and appear at Catholic functions without challenging their pro-abortion positions.
21) He has appointed liberal homosexuals to positions of power within the diocese.
22) He hates traditional Catholic piety, has personally persecuted its expression, and encouraged his priests to do likewise.
23) He has shown calloused indifference to Traditional Catholics (while lovingly reaching out to non-Catholics and homosexuals). It would be fine if he were consistent and reached out lovingly to everyone, but he isn’t. He marginalizes faithful Catholics and traditional Catholics in exactly the way he condemns marginalizing homosexuals, etc. This indicates a hatred for the way the saints lived, as they were almost universally like the type of Catholic Bishop Brown considers backwards, in need of correction, and in need of theological updating.
24) He supports the false “spirit of Vatican II” and embodies almost all of the ways Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI have made clear are false interpretations of the council.
25) He doesn’t correct priests who support the ordination of women.
Is this enough? Or do I need to say more?
It is so sad that so many Catholics don’t care when Bishops don’t do their jobs and simply allow their diocese to go to seed. It is even sadder to see Catholics who are so used to the apathy that they are blinded to heresy.
Did anyone notice that the bishop doesn’t spell his name, “Todd,” as most men with the name spell it?
Maybe it’s just a coincidence that “Tod” is German for “Death.”
God be with you.