He Says He Wants a Reformation

By Gustavo Arellano
OC Weekly
January 29, 2004

http://www.ocweekly.com/news/ex-cathedra/he-says-he-wants-a-reformation/20308/

[See also other articles by Gustavo Arellano.]

Bishop Tod D. Brown says he wants a Reformation. Following an afternoon Mass on Jan. 18 at Holy Family Cathedral in Orange, the lavender-robed head of Orange County's Catholics tacked a copy of his "Seven Theses" to the church's door, mimicking pound for pound Martin Luther's nailing of his Ninety-Five Theses to the doors of the cathedral in the German town of Wittenberg in 1517.

[Note from BA.org: This is an image of the theses as nailed to the Orange cathedral door. See also a web page of the text. Below is a diocesan photo of the event.]

Luther's posting remains history's most influential use of a bulletin board; Brown's "Covenant With the Faithful," however, isn't likely to foment the same social change. Promising to end decades of sex abuse among Catholic priests and to handle sensitively the rising wave of legal claims that resulted with his seven-point plan, Brown merely reiterates old sex-abuse policies that his diocese has promised to live by for years but never followed.

Photo by James Bunoan

Brown would be best advised to ignore himself. His first thesis—the promise that church officials will "do everything possible to help" victims of priestly molestation—would bankrupt the diocese. Consider the church's handling of the 2001 Ryan DiMaria case. DiMaria sued the dioceses of Orange and Los Angeles for alleged abuse inflicted by defrocked principal Michael Harris while DiMaria was a student at Santa Margarita High School. All DiMaria sought when he told church officials of his molestation in 1997 was $100,000 to cover counseling. "When we submitted our offer, church lawyers laughed at us and said, 'No way,'" says DiMaria, now an attorney with the Costa Mesa-based law firm Manly & McGuire, which has about 20 sex-abuse lawsuits pending against the Orange diocese. "It wasn't my intention to file a lawsuit initially, but the reaction I got from them was that they didn't care what happened to me or other victims." Four years later, Superior Court Judge Jim Gray made them care. He ordered the two dioceses to pay DiMaria $5.2 million in civil damages, then the largest pretrial settlement ever against a diocese in the nation. Gray also forced the Orange diocese to adhere to some of the toughest zero-tolerance policies in the United States Catholic Church—precisely the policies that Brown plagiarized for his "Covenant with the Faithful."

Other points in the document speak more about a diocese smarting from a reputation as long-coddling pedophilic priests. Thesis three "endeavor[s] to heal the hurt among the clergy, religious and laity who have been humiliated, scorned and disgraced" by molesting clergy and the leaders who looked away. Helping to heal that hurt is the Softness Group, a New York-based PR firm the Orange diocese is paying $90,000. That's some high-powered balm!

Elsewhere, the covenant is an open lie. The fifth thesis, for instance, promises that local church officials "will be open, honest and forthright in our public statements to the media and consistent and transparent in our communications with the Catholics of our Diocese." Even Brown choked while reading that one at a Jan. 15 press conference at Garden Grove's Crown Plaza Hotel. The press conference finished soon after, and those in the media wishing for an audience with Brown had to sign up for a one-on-one, time-limited opportunity; he is virtually inaccessible at all other times. And the diocese refuses to make public the personal files of priests despite repeated requests from the OC Weekly, Los Angeles Times and The Orange County Register.

Indeed, many of the church's problems come down to ham-fisted media relations. It's a surprise, really, given the high-priced PR flaks involved and positive media coverage the Softness Group has so far orchestrated.

Despite the professionals, diocesan officials undermine themselves through almost daily excesses. Take this moment to remember: minutes before Brown spoke at the Jan. 15 press conference, Patrick Wall chatted amiably with reporters in the Crowne Plaza's Mazatlán Conference Room. Wall is a former Benedictine monk with the build of an NFL linebacker but the gentle touch of Mr. Rogers. He is also an attorney with Manly & McGuire—a fact that may account for what happened next: diocesan spokesman Father Joe Fenton moving quickly through the room toward Wall.

"Who are you?!" Fenton barked at Wall from a distance. "Are you a member of the media?"

It was a disingenuous question, but Wall calmly replied that he was attending on behalf of victims.

Fenton snapped, "Out. Media only."

Wall asked a higher-ranking priest if he could remain. The unidentified priest agreed, and Wall stayed.

Defeated but unrepentant, Fenton began harassing two other sex-abuse victims trying to enter the room.

"Fenton pounded on a table and told them, 'Pay attention! No one gets in without a press pass!'" said DiMaria, who said he witnessed the altercation and was also barred. "He was acting like a king walking into his throne room."

Fenton hectored the victims, then quickly scurried toward Brown, whom he led to the press podium. Brown said nothing.

GARELLANO@OCWEEKLY.COM