CALIFORNIA
Orange County Weekly
When I imagine working on the Register’s editorial page, I think of alchemists—the Renaissance “scientists” who believed it was possible (as they put it) to “conglutinate” objects, to turn one thing into another. I think specifically of the story of Leonard Turneisser, who in 1677 is reported to have “turned an Iron Nail heated in the fire, and immersed in Oyl, into Gold; done at Rome the 20th day of November after Dinner.” ...
Two days later, and the Register was feeling pretty good about itself. On May 19, it reported that Mater Dei High School choir director Thomas Hodgman and a Placentia priest named John E. Ruhl confessed to sexual misconduct to Orange Diocese officials—more than a decade ago.
Was this revelation the result of dogged investigation? Mmmmm, no.
What the Register did was attend a press conference, hold out its hand, and receive documents related to the Diocese of Orange sex scandal, documents released May 17 following an LA superior court judge’s order.
Understandably, and in the kind of hushed tones one normally expects from professional wrestlers, the Register congratulated itself, saying it was “publishing these papers to give a fuller picture of how the church handled those accused of molestation.”