In other Sacramento/Orange news...

VATICAN CITY, OCT 11, 2007 (VIS) - The Holy Father appointed Bishop Jaime
Soto, auxiliary of the diocese of Orange in California, U.S.A., as coadjutor
of Sacramento (area 110,284, population 3,381,449, Catholics 541,321,
priests 260, permanent deacons 127, religious 284), U.S.A.
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Bishop William Weigand is now 70 years old...

Concerned Roman Catholics of America, Inc. (CRCOA) expresses concern over Bishop Soto's lack of concern of abortion and other pro-life issues:

Following in Cardinal Mahony's footsteps, the bishops of Orange have turned their minimal pro-life efforts over to a vast and active Peace and Justice Committee concentrating on issues including third world debt, hunger, healthcare for the uninsured, a "peace quiz" etc… http://www.rcbo.org/site/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=147&Itemid=58

Bishop Jaime Soto has created a dynamic Deanery Program to tackle all the social justice issues…all issues except pro-life. His e-newsletter, issued in January lists two "Priority Issues" for 2006-2007. They are: 1. Immigration and 2. Abolition of the Death Penalty. (Bishop Jaime Soto's Diocese of Orange Peace and Justice Newsletter January 2007) Abolishing abortion is not listed. Pro-life is not even listed as a "Priority Issue". And of all the events listed for the upcoming 3 months for all the parishes (62) in all the Deaneries—NONE ARE ADDRESSING ABORTION OR PROLIFE! And the April 2007 e-newsletter from Bishop Soto is even worse. (Bishop Jaime Soto's Diocese of Orange Peace and Justice Newsletter April 2007) There were "Hunger and Justice Meetings", "Walk out of Poverty" at St. Pius parish, a showing of Democrat (and pro-abortion politician) Al Gore's movie—Inconvenient Truth—at Holy Family, and "an Immigration event" at St. John Neumann. NOTHING IN 6 MONTHS REGARDING PRO LIFE IN ANY OF THE 62 Diocese of Orange PARISHES.

There are NO events, letters, legislative issues or activities, speakers or educational evenings for pro life, even though they were instructed by the USCCB in their Pastoral Plan for Pro-Life Activities http://www.la-archdiocese.org/ministry/life/plan/index.html that Pro Life work MUST BE the place where ALL social justice work BEGINS and that ALL OTHER SOCIAL JUSTICE ISSUES RIGHTFULLY FALL BENEATH Pro Life.

Pro Life is NOWHERE on the Roman Catholic Diocese of Orange website. No attention, no activities, no action, no time, no money, nothing. Pro life is not being addressed by Bishop Tod Brown, Bishop Jaime Soto nor the Deanery Program.

Is everyone praying that our Lord send us good shepherds to guide us?

Back in May 2005, Diogenes posted commentary on "documents from the Diocese of Orange reveal more heartbreaking stories of predation, mendacity, moral cowardice, grotesque refusal to face reality, and, most of all, a blood-freezing indifference to human suffering..." He quotes one, in particular:

It previously had been reported that Andersen was accused in 1983 of molesting a boy. Then-Bishop Johnson ordered him into therapy, but he remained at his Huntington Beach parish, St. Bonaventure, and in charge of the altar boys. Three years later, the priest faced up to 56 years in state prison after being convicted of 26 felony counts of child molestation, according to court documents.

The judge gave Andersen no prison time and instead ordered him to enter a Catholic rehabilitation center in New Mexico. Four years later, in 1990, Andersen was arrested in Albuquerque on suspicion of trying to sodomize a 14-year-old boy, and was ordered to serve six years in prison for violating his probation in the California case. ...

George Niederauer, Andersen's spiritual director at St. John's Seminary in Camarillo and now bishop of Salt Lake City, wrote to Luis A. Cardenas, an Orange County Superior Court judge at the time, and pleaded for leniency. Andersen "might well have misjudged what was appropriate physical expression especially given the atmosphere of adult-child contacts in our society at present," wrote Niederauer, adding that the boys might have misconstrued "wrestling" or "horse play" as sexual abuse.

Jaime Soto, now auxiliary bishop of Orange, also wrote to the judge, downplaying Andersen's crimes. "Our work brings us into intimate contact with people's lives," he wrote. "In a time when the exchange of simple affection within the most intimate of circles has become a rare commodity, our associations with others run the grave risk of being misunderstood by all parties including perhaps the priest himself."

We must pray that good shepherds are found and sent to the faithful, rather than the hirelings so many receive.

It is imperative that we pray daily for all of our bishops, priests, and consecrated religious. We must pray that Our Lord will guide them and protect them from the evil one. We must pray that they may accept the graces God bestows on them so that can share the authentic truth, the Goods News, Jesus Christ, with all of the faithful and with the world.