Meet Oc's New Pedo-apologizing Bishop, Same As the Old Pedo-apologizing Bishop, Gustavo Arellano, Orange County Weekly, January 5, 2009

Meet Oc's New Pedo-apologizing Bishop, Same As the Old Pedo-apologizing Bishop

By Gustavo Arellano
Orange County Weekly
January 5, 2009

http://blogs.ocweekly.com/navelgazing/ex-cathedra/meet-ocs-new-pedo-apologizing/index.php

The Vatican announced today that the Rev. Cirilo Flores, currently at St. Anne's in SanTana, is now the new auxiliary bishop for the Diocese of Orange, replacing homo-hating pedo-apologist Jaime Soto. It's obviously an affirmative action hire, not only because Orange Bishop Tod D. Brown needs a token Latino alongside his token Vietnamese, Bishop Dominic Luong, but because His Excellency needs to please the pedo-apologists in his flock, a significant constituency that includes most of the Mater Dei family and too many Republicans to list. No doubt this latter group will be pleased with the appointment of Flores--thrilled, even.

Flores, at first glance, seems innocent of any ties to the Orange diocese sex-abuse scandal. St. Anne's has shockingly only had one pedo-priest in its 80-some-year-old history (Henry Perez), and he was long gone before Flores became head of the church. Flores also never worked alongside a boy-buggerer, at least none officially admitted to by Brown.

No, Flores has an even worse legacy in regards to the rapes of innocents, one only bested by Brown, his brother bishops, the guilty, and a couple of other people in the Orange diocese. From 1995 until the present day, Flores has served on the Orange diocese clergy personnel board, which is in charge of investigating the actions of all priests and deacons--especially the sexy actions. The list of sex crimes committed by OC priests with little to no reprimand by the clergy personnel board while Flores served is so long and massive, we're saving the details for another day. Of special note right now are the cretins who served alongside Flores over the years: pedo-apologist supreme John Urell (whom Flores had just replaced as pastor at St. Nobert in Orange); Daniel Murray, whom the Orange diocese settled a $500,000 civl lawsuit against him in 2004 for sex-abuse; Michael McKiernan, Brown's secretary, someone with whom His Excellency was "together" with for seven years, and a liar; Michael Heher, the man who defended buying luxurious houses for priests; and Jerome Karcher, Carl's son.

Flores is as bad a choice as they come. More, much more in the coming days: in the meanwhile, discuss!

UPDATE: OC Weekly cover girl, all-around bad-ass, and sex-abuse survivor Joelle Casteix has released a statement in her role as Southwest Regional Dirctor for SNAP (Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests). Statement after the jump:

How disappointing that Fr. Cirilo Flores - a lawyer, not a pastor - has been promoted to the office of Auxiliary Bishop of the Diocese of Orange. Because of his longstanding intimacy with the inner workings of the diocese, we can only guess how intrinsically he has been involved with many of the known perpetrators of the diocese, like John Lenihan and Michael Pecharich.

Again, survivors had hoped that the Vatican would have brought in someone who was not already deeply entrenched in the status quo of the Diocese. With this appointment, we don't see how things are going to change for kids' safety or victims in any positive way. The fact that he is a civil lawyer only creates the perception that the Diocese sees victims and advocates as enemies and wants a lawyer in the highest levels of the hierarchy - especially in light of

Brown's 2007 contempt hearing.

E-mail: GARELLANO@OCWEEKLY.COM