CALIFORNIA
Orange County Register
BY DAVID WHITING / STAFF COLUMNIST
Bishop Kevin Vann, dressed in black priest’s clothing and sometimes called the Shepherd of Orange, walks through the Christ Cathedral campus discussing the meaning of Easter.
I can’t help but notice Vann is wearing cowboy boots. Could these be the bishop’s famous Our Lady of Guadalupe boots?
Vann grins. He spent the morning in San Juan Capistrano blessing the annual Portola horseback ride. The bishop who still sees himself as a simple parish priest lifts a pant leg.
Blue, yellow and red stitching appears.
Then Vann does something unexpected. He whips off a boot.
It turns out there are layers of meaning in that leather. …
The bishop also doesn’t shrink away from the molestation scandals. English, Spanish and Vietnamese leaflets sit in the administration building’s lobby detailing the diocese’s pledge, “To do everything possible to help the healing process of the victims of sexual abuse.”
So what’s all this have to do with Easter? As a lapsed Catholic – and it’s impossible not to re-evaluate one’s relationship to the church when talking to someone like Vann – I would suggest everything.
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