Word on New O.C. Bishop Expected Soon

ORANGE — Sometime in the next few weeks Orange County’s 609,000 Roman Catholics likely will wake up to news from the Vatican that they have a new bishop.

Exactly when that news will come, and who the new bishop will be, remains a closely held secret.

“There always is [speculation],” said diocese spokesman Msgr. Lawrence J. Baird, reciting what has developed into a diocesan catch-phrase: “The people who talk don’t know, and the people who know don’t talk.”

But they’re all curious.

Following church policy, Diocese of Orange Bishop Norman F. McFarland submitted a letter of resignation to the Vatican in February, coinciding with his 75th birthday. That put into motion a chain of events that church-watchers say will likely mean the naming of a new bishop in the near future for California’s second-largest diocese.

The new bishop would be only the third in the history of what is a relatively young diocese. Orange County was split off from the Los Angeles Archdiocese in 1976 and shepherded into existence by Bishop William R. Johnson, who died in 1986. McFarland, then bishop of Reno-Las Vegas, succeeded Johnson six months later.

McFarland established himself as a direct leader with a firm grasp on the diocesan budget and fund-raising while serving as a financial trouble-shooter for the church. Yet, he also has helped the Diocese of Orange begin dealing with demographic changes from the large influx of Latino Catholics.

“He has taken a young diocese and he has developed a strong financial base for the next bishop,” said real estate developer Art Birtcher, whose longtime support for the Catholic Church included a $15-million donation in 1990.

“I think his biggest legacy is being a conservative teacher of the Catholic faith,” Birtcher said. “He has always been clear as to right where he stands on issues. I think it did away with any confusion that could have developed between all the different varieties of cultures and economics and ethnic influence. He gave a great bit of stability by his strength and conservatism.”

It’s unclear how much of a role McFarland will play in naming his successor under a process that the church shrouds in secrecy.

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Select local Catholics are queried on the needs of the diocese, but the real weight lies with high-level church officials. Such choices ultimately are made by Pope John Paul II, usually acting on recommendations from what is, in essence, an internal executive search committee.

Few expect radical changes from whoever succeeds McFarland.

“What the pope has been doing is looking for people who agree with him on issues of theology and church practice,” said the Rev. Thomas J. Reese, a senior fellow at the Woodstock Theological center at Georgetown University and author of several books on the Catholic Church.

“You’re not going to see a bishop who is out of step,” said Reese, a native of Altadena whose mother lives in Capistrano Beach. “On some of the internal church issues [such as married clergy and ordination of women], the bishop would probably be more traditional than most Catholics. But on social and economic and political issues, the bishop is apt to be more liberal than the average Orange County Anglo Catholic.

“It’s more than likely that somebody will be appointed that the people in Orange County have never heard of.”

Speculation, though, has involved names both familiar and unfamiliar.

Auxiliary bishops often have inside tracks, yet Diocese of Orange Auxiliary Bishop Michael P. Driscoll isn’t seen by church-watchers as a likely choice. However, Msgr. Jaime Soto, diocese vicar for Hispanic Communities, and McFarland’s secretary, Msgr. John Urell, are considered possible and popular candidates.

From outside the diocese, possible candidates include Stephen E. Blaire, auxiliary bishop and vicar general in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, and Bishop Tod D. Brown of the Diocese of Boise, Idaho.

In fact, Catholics in Boise say they’ve heard rumors of their bishop leaving twice before to posts farther west, rumors that have resurfaced with the Diocese of Orange opening. Brown follows the papal line on theological issues, is a fiscal conservative, speaks Spanish and currently runs a diocese with a high Latino population.

None of that, though, may matter.

“Speculations of who the next bishop of Orange will be are a waste of energy,” Soto said. “But they [church-watchers] do it anyway. It becomes a sport at the time of transitions.”

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Church lay leaders and clergy said in interviews that they would like a bishop who would continue McFarland’s business-like approach to finances, yet who would take a collegial approach toward church involvement in social issues while continuing the church’s embrace of growing Latino and Asian parishioners.

The bishop need not be Latino, they said, but the ability to speak Spanish would be critical. Reese, from the Woodstock Theological Center, said church leaders might find this the right time and diocese to appoint the U.S. church’s first Asian American bishop.

“I would want a bishop who can listen to his flock, his priests and laypeople together, that he has a human face, a kindness, a friendliness,” said the Rev. John A. Bradley of San Felipe de Jesus in Capistrano Beach. “A key quality of a bishop would be that he be willing to listen. He’s going to have to make the decisions, but I’d want him to be open to input, that kind of thing.”

Birtcher said he thinks the new bishop would need to be sensitive to the growing diversity of the diocese, supportive of his priests and religious followers, and have “the capability to understand the fiscal framework of our diocese.”

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Carl Karcher, founder of the Carl’s Jr. burger chain and another active Catholic, said he hoped the new bishop would share McFarland’s financial grasp, a critical trait in dealing with what he sees as one of the diocese’s most pressing issue in the coming years.

“The growth of the population is a big thing,” Karcher said. “There is no doubt they’re going to need more Catholic churches.”

Dwight Smith, director of the Catholic Worker Community, which provides services to the poor in Santa Ana and involves itself in social justice issues, said he hopes for a bishop who would be politically active, particularly on issues dealing with the poor.

“I hope our new bishop would express concern over welfare reform and anti-immigrant legislation,” Smith said. “I think that the most pressing problem facing any diocese is the state of health, education and welfare of the poor. Not just the poor within the Catholic Church, but all the people.

“Our religion must always bring us back to the welfare of the poor.”