[See also other articles by Gustavo Arellano.]

Congratulations are in order to the Orange County chapter of Voice of the Faithful (OCVOTF), a Catholic laity organization. Yesterday, we reported how Diocese of Orange Bishop Tod D. Brown wrote a letter to former Diocese of Sydney Bishop Geoffrey Robinson (pictured at left)

arrogantly advising him to that "you do not have my permission to speak in the Diocese of Orange" even though Robinson's June 11 lecture at a OCVOTF gathering was to take place at the decidedly secular Costa Mesa Community Center. We placed a call to OCVOTF head Steve Dzida, and he told us the group was preparing a statement. He left it as a comment late last night , and we publish it here in its entirety:

Voice of the Faithful Orange County looks forward to Bishop Robinson's speaking engagement on June 11 at 7 PM at the Costa Mesa Neighborhood Community Center, 1845 Park Avenue, Costa Mesa, CA. While we disagree with Bishop Brown on this issue, we applaud his other efforts to effect change in our Church.

Congratulations, OCVOTF for truly being vessels of Christ; we will definitely attend. As for Toddy Brown--you can learn a bit from your flock instead of the wolves you surround yourself with.

E-mail: GARELLANO@OCWEEKLY.COM