Catholics Demand Answers From O.C.'s Reportedly Profligate, Pro-Homosexual Bishop
by Jim Brown
May 1, 2006
(AgapePress) - - Several Roman Catholics in Orange County, California, are criticizing their bishop for, among other things, his support for homosexual marriage and his lavish lifestyle.
Concerned Catholics of the Diocese of Orange has sent a letter to Bishop Tod Brown, asking him why he proudly backs same-sex domestic partnerships and has appointed a number of men to positions of authority in the diocese, even though they reject the church's teachings on sexual morality.
Lately, Bishop Brown has come under fire for shutting down a Catholic school in order to pay a settlement he has reached with victims of priest sex abuse. Some critics have also accused him of using diocesan money to live a life of excess. For example, the Bishop of the Diocese of Orange County reportedly has his own personal chef from a five-star restaurant, as well as his own sushi chef.
Michael Tripoli, one of those individuals who signed the letter to Brown, says the bishop is unfortunately accountable to no one in the church except the Pope. Brown can "spend money as he wills," Tripoli says. "He can take first-class plane trips to Hawaii and Rome, and he can buy million-dollar homes and all of these things, because he has absolute control over what goes on in the diocese."
Meanwhile, Tripoli notes, the lay people in the diocese have virtually no recourse, even if they feel Brown is spending diocese money irresponsibly and ignoring church teachings. "They have nothing that they can say or do in response to that," the concerned Catholic says, "but the power that they do have is to expose things."
And among those things that Brown's critics feel need to be exposed is the fact that he once allowed the diocese's former Director of Liturgy and Evangelization, Rod Stephens, to live with his boyfriend and business partner, Howard Sellers. There are also allegations that the two men were allowed to line their pockets through suspicious business practices involving church property.
"Bishop Brown was aware of all these things," Tripoli asserts. He says the diocese official knew "that these men had a relationship of a questionable nature, and he was aware that they were making a good deal of money -- hard-earned money that Catholics were putting into their collection plates -- renovating or some call it 'wreck-ovating' Catholic churches."
The Concerned Catholics of the Diocese of Orange member says he finds it "deeply disturbing" that Brown did nothing about all this and in fact "countenanced it." And there is no question as to whether the diocese leader knew about the two men's homosexuality, Tripoli asserts, because "Father Rod very proudly told his relatives that Bishop Brown was aware of his lifestyle, as was Cardinal Mahoney."
Also, less than two years ago Bishop Brown raised the ire of conservative Catholics by refusing to intervene when a Catholic school in Costa Mesa allowed a homosexual couple to enroll their son at the school. Tripoli and the other signatories of the open letter to Brown are demanding answers from the bishop about why he persists in rejecting church teachings on sexual morality and apparently supporting homosexual behavior.
Jim Brown, a regular contributor to AgapePress, is a reporter for American Family Radio News, which can be heard online.
