[See also other articles by Gustavo Arellano.]

In a county where ostentatious pomp and circumstance is the rule of the day, few events are more despicable than the Red Mass, an annual event held by the Diocese of Orange where Bishop Tod D. Brown virtually guarantees no prosecution for his pedo-priests by honoring the entire legal system--judges, attorneys, and cops--in a night filled with uniforms. I've written about previous versions of this ceremony (but can't find the damn hyperlink right now...), but none will be as offensive as the one being held this coming Monday. Scheduled to deliver the homily is Thomas Paprocki, a bishop from the Archdiocese of Chicago.


Paprocki is infamous amongst sex-abuse survivor circles for a sermon he gave last year during another Red Mass in which he blamed the victims (!) of pedo-priests for the financial pits many Roman Catholic diocese face in the United States. What's more, Paprocki then told his brother bishops and priests at the same Mass, ""We must use our religious discernment to recognize that the principal force behind these attacks is none other than the devil."

Nice, Toddy Brown. Not only is your lead sex-abuse counsel Peter "Callous" Callahan, not only do you tolerate the apologists over at Mater Dei High School, but now you're inviting a degenerate like Paprocki who compares those who seek justice for your hierarchy's many sins to Satan? What's next-you're not going to tell us about allegations of boy-fiddling brought upon you? Oh, wait-that already happened...

E-mail: GARELLANO@OCWEEKLY.COM