By Doug Irving
Orange County Register
April 17, 2010
http://www.ocregister.com/news/diocese-244425-led-bishop.html
ORANGE – Bishop Norman McFarland, who led Orange County's Roman Catholic diocese for more than a decade before retiring in 1998, died Friday morning at his home in Orange. He was 88 years old.
He had been hospitalized earlier in the week but was taken on Wednesday to his home near Holy Family Cathedral for hospice care. He died shortly after 6 a.m. of cardiac arrest.
"He made a wonderful contribution here," current Bishop Tod D. Brown said. "He's known and loved by many in our community."
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| Bishop Norman McFarland, who led Orange County's Roman Catholic diocese for 11 years before retiring in 1987, died at 6:30 a.m. Friday. He was 88. |
McFarland brought a voice of Catholic tradition to conservative Orange County when he was named bishop in 1987. He refused to allow girls to be altar servers, celebrated special Masses for abortion protesters and once called for a boycott of Holiday Inn because it sold in-room porn movies.
He also stood up to the U.S. government shortly after arriving in Orange County, demanding that immigration agents stop raiding churches for illegal immigrants. At the time, federal agents had arrested seven suspected illegal immigrants as they attended Mass.
McFarland was not nearly so direct with priests accused of sexually assaulting young people, court documents show. He kept a low profile as allegations of abuse began surfacing in the Orange diocese and throughout the Catholic Church during his time as bishop.
But court documents and depositions have since shown that McFarland allowed a priest accused of raping a 15-year-old girl to stay on in the diocese. He also helped script plans to cover up admitted sexual abuse by a pastor and a Mater Dei High School teacher, records show.
"I think the bishop, on the one hand, led a tremendous period of growth in the diocese," said attorney John Manly, who has represented more than 100 clergy-abuse victims nationwide, including those in Orange County. "But on the other hand, he was one of the architects of the abuse scandal in Orange County."
"I'm glad I'm not meeting God with that on my conscience," Manly added.
McFarland was the second bishop to lead the Diocese of Orange, which broke from Los Angeles in 1976. He arrived from Nevada, where he had helped pull the Reno-Las Vegas diocese out of millions of dollars in debt.
He was known among friends as "Big Mac" because of his stature – 6'5" tall, 240 pounds. Pope John XXIII is said to have exclaimed upon meeting him: "Grande! Grande!"
As bishop, he liked to say that he was in sales, not management, according to a church biography of him. He worked to strengthen and bring together the diocese, which he called "this favored portion of the Lord's vineyard."
His motto was "In Veritate Ambulare," Latin for "To Walk in Truth." He began his days with prayer and Scripture reading, and often ended them perfecting his golf swing in the rectory yard.
"He had strong convictions on just about everything," said Rev. Francis Quinn, the former Bishop of Sacramento, who knew McFarland since the ninth grade. "He was a straight shooter. You knew exactly where he stood; there was no phoniness about him."
Like all Catholic bishops, McFarland submitted his letter of resignation to the pope on his 75th birthday.
"My life didn't turn out exactly like I wanted," he said shortly before the pope accepted his resignation in 1998. "I wanted only to be a parish priest. But I was called. It's the price you have to pay to serve, and of course, I'd do it again."
The diocese has scheduled a vigil at 7 p.m. next Thursday at Holy Family Cathedral in Orange. A
Mass of Christian Burial will be said at the cathedral at 11 a.m. next Friday.
Contact: dirving@ocregister.com
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