Orange County News Blog

Kroll: Wonder if John Urell Ever Apologized to Her for Being an Ass...

​One of the main criticisms Catholic pedo-apologists have against the survivors that dare sue the Church in civil lawsuits boils down to this twisted logic: if the victims just care about exposing the truth, then why are they asking for money? Don't civil suits just show that they're really money-grubbers who wanted it as kids and teens?

This is the official line of the Diocese of Orange, of Bishop Tod D. Brown and his slop bucket of lawyers, one parroted by too many of the faithful. Thankfully, those survivors put their settlements to good use--to reconstruct shattered lives, both their own and others. It's the latter that Elaina Kroll is concerned most with. She is one of the lucky few Catholic Church molestation victims who not only one a civil settlement against the insults to Christ, she also saw her perp do time: Albert Lee Schildknecht, a former choir directory at St. Timothy in Laguna Niguel (home to pedo-apologist supreme John Urell) who plead guilty earlier this year to molestation but whom served jail time only after violating his probation.

With her settlement money, Kroll has started the Innocence Mission, a non-profit devoted to "the eradication of child sexual abuse throughout our society," per its mission statement. They're holding a fundraiser December 4, at the Disneyland Grand Californian Hotel, with entertainment provided by that enjoyable 1990s relic, the Royal Crown Revue Swing Orchestra. Also on the list: honors for Greatest Religion Reporter Ever William Lobdell, and the officers who broke the Jaycee Dugard kidnapping case. Tickets ain't cheap--$250--but know that your donation will help protect kiddies from perverts of all faiths.

I'm glad to see that prominent Catholic church sex-abuse victims advocate and Orange County resident/native Joelle Casteix is publicly criticizing the perverted director Roman Polanski and his apologists.They remind me of those ghouls, many Mater Dei High graduates, who offer every sort of excuse for an admitted rapist, who say forced sodomy was just a misunderstanding, who throw going-away parties for pedophiles, who prop up molesters with cushy jobs, who say the victim wanted it so that makes schtupping an underage teen okay, who give standing ovations to kiddie fiddlers.  Wait a minute: did Polanski ever work for the Diocese of Orange?

Straight up, folks: fuck Roman Polanski. Fuck his supporters. May they get the karmic equivalent of what Polanski's character did to Jake Gittes in Chinatown Yeah, Chinatown! It was a cool movie, right? That makes everything okay!. 

Pervert perforated parole--or something like that...

​What has Catholic Diocese of Orange Bishop Tod D. Brown put in the wine that has his convicted perverts violating parole in record numbers? Time was when you were a diocesan employee and could rape young boys and girls without worrying about the slammer. But as the Weekly revealed last month, one of them--former  St. Timothy choir directory Albert Lee Schildknecht--violated parole last month and served six days in jail. Now comes word that the Diocese's most recent pedo-priest has violated his parole: Luis Eduardo Ramirez.

You'll remember Ramirez as the one who tried to molest a teen in a motel room and only got convicted on misdemeanors for the crime. He did serve 180 days for the crime and was put on three years formal probation. But in August, Ramirez violated it in still-unknown terms. What is known is that he's serving 90 days for the offense.

Ramirez is just the fourth Orange diocese employee to see the inside of a jail for his rapes. Meditate on that miraculous number next time you're reciting the Rosary, Papists!

Schildknecht

​Finally! The Diocese of Orange has its third pervert to ever serve jail time for sexually abusing a minor: Albert Lee Schildknecht, a former choir directory at St. Timothy in Laguna Niguel (home to pedo-apologist supreme John Urell), who plead guilty earlier this year to two felony counts of oral copulation of a minor and one felony of sexual penetration with a foreign object of a minor but amazingly received a sentence of five years probation. The terms of the probation explicitly banned Schildknecht from being around minors "unless in the company of a responsible adult over the age of 21 who is approved by the probation officer or court, knows of your offense(s), and is willing to monitor your behavior."

Well, guess what Schildknecht did? On July 21st, he admitted to breaking the probation, and a judge sentenced him to six days in jail. That, of course, is nothing considering his crimes, but Schildknecht becomes only the third Diocese of Orange pervert to ever serve time for a conviction, following Gerardo Tanilong and Andrew Christian Andersen.

"It's great that Schildknecht finally goes to jail," says famed Catholic sex-abuse scandal lawyer John Manly, who won a civil settlement against Schildknecht on behalf of his victim and helped get the pervert arrested and convicted. "Why [Orange Bishop] Tod Brown allowed this man to remain a choir director for so long is beyond me.

Seriously. In this 1999 article about a teen rock band Schildknecht led, he told a reporter, ""We get to watch the girls shake it. I'm in a state of conflict--she's my daughter."

In the words of the late, great, decrepit-even-before-he-died Wally George: SICK, SICK, SICK!!!

​Priorities, priorities, priorities: The Catholic Diocese of Orange is already heavily promoting the Blessing of the Waves, an easy stab at a national feel-good story they began last year than involves surfers, priests, and prayer at Huntington Beach. "In Orange County our beaches are more than simple geography, they are the cultural and spiritual center of our community. It is important that we recognize this common element in all our lives, regardless of faith tradition," read the event's Facebook page, and ain't it great Bishop Tod D. Brown finds money to pay someone to post status updates and none to invite victims of his pedophile priests to speak before parishioners (hell, they'll do it for free but have never received an invite)?

Waves are fine and all, but the Diocese has more pressing spiritual needs than to thank God for His infinite A-frames. Brown has officially held ONE service in honor of sex-abuse victims, a service quickly exposed as a sham.  And diocesan attorney Peter Callahan never got around to apologize for shouting down a sex-abuse victim after she won a settlement against a Mater Dei high choir teacher (no, not this one: ANOTHER one). Religious hypocrisy? Betcha the surfers who attend this Blessing of the Waves won't care, just like 90 percent of all Catholics...wait, my apologies, Catholics. I meant 95...

Lyons: Pedo-priest has fans at St. John the Baptist

​A dispatch from longtime Catholic Church sex-abuse victim advocate, third-generation OCer, and all-around great gal Joelle Casteix. Happened yesterday at St. John the Baptist in Costa Mesa, where she and other survivors were leafleting because that was one of the parishes where pedophile priest Denis Lyons served. I'd love to get the side of the pastor who Casteix says tried to slap away her fliers with information urging any sex-abuse victims to come forward, but the Diocese of Orange has a policy that no priest can speak with me under any circumstances. Wonder if he'll mention the incident on his blog?

And now, Joelle:

We went there for a Lyons leafleting today, and I - naively - had high expectations.  Since this was Lyons' second arrest, I thought that people would be obliging about taking a flyer.  Since the Norbertines (the doe-eyed, vulnerable, fluffy bunnies of the priesthood) run the parish, I didn't think they would hassle us.

I was wrong.

After the first Mass, the pastor, Fr. Hildebrand came out in his garb and asked me to leave.  I didn't get defensive, but told him that I a victim and that maybe if he just let me passed out the flyers, we could do a lot of good together.  He got very huffy and told me,"I'm going to call the police.  And you know, they will come.  They always come when people like you bother us."  (People like me?)

I said "please" one more time, and he tried to grab my fliers out of my arms like a child in a "Keep-Away" game, panicking and clawing for them.  I told him not to touch me, and that we would step off of the property.  His response?  "I didn't touch you.  I touched your papers."  He looked like he was about to cry.

Brown: Loves his pedo-anything!

​About two months ago, the Catholic Diocese of Orange put out a help-wanted ad for a new position: Associate Superintendent for Finance & Advancement. The job, a description stated, entails the applicant "to offer oversight, support and professional consultation to parishes/schools, high schools, Office of Faith Formation, and to other diocesan organizations on school marketing and full enrollment concepts, financial planning for schools, formal long-range planning, and fiscal management."

True to form, sources say Orange Bishop Tod D. Brown has hired a pedophile protector to the position, but the surprising part is that His Excellency went outside his rotten grove to nab the hire: Tracy Brennan*. Yes: the same Tracy Brennan who was principal at Saddleback High School in Santa Ana last year when one Alonso Manuel Gonzalez was arrested (and later convicted) for molesting a disabled child yet never got around to alerting parents about the pervert and commanded staff to shut up about the incident. Who ignored previous warnings about said pervert. Who did virtually the exact same thing at her previous job for the Anaheim Union High School District.

The best reaction comes from the late, great Wally George: SICK, SICK, SICK!

A diocesan worker (sure as hell not official spokeshole Ryan Lilygren, who wouldn't return a call or email for comment from me if I had proof of the Holy Grail) confirmed Brennan starts work next week. And, finally, the depraved worlds of the Orange diocese and the Banana Republic of SanTana unite...

*This Tracy Brennan is not the same Tracy Brennan who graduated from Cornelia Connelly High in 1986 and is now a major Hollywood agent.

Lyons mug shot

Believe it or not, I have a couple of friends who work for the Orange County Register. Won't name names lest they fall under corporate microscope, but I bet one of them that the District Attorney's Office would never criminally try Denis Lyons, the longtime Diocese of Orange pedo-priest who has cost Bishop Tod D. Brown more than $4 million.

Best lunch I ever lost. Register reporter Rachanee Srisavasdi (not the person I will soon take out for good grub at a SanTana taco truck) reports in today's edition that DA Tony Rackauckas will try him for molestation. If sent to the pokey, Lyons might just become the third priest after Gerardo Tanilong and Andrew Christian Andersen to serve time for his rapes in Orange County pews. Hmm... three out of more than 30 verified OC pedo-priests and other rapist Orange diocese workers criminally convicted. Carry the one, divide the three, and that's a .100 batting average. You just might get to the Mendoza pedo-priest line, Tony Rack--congrats!

A tipster alerted us to the video below, which shows priests from the Diocese of Orange at the desert retreat I wrote about in May. Nothing too scandalous to note, but full confirmation of my argument: Orange Bishop Tod D. Brown, despite a vow of fiscal sanity following his see's $100 million sex-abuse settlement in 2005 and the cutback of numerous services affecting lay people (mostly students) as a result of his fumbling ways, doesn't care at all about the faithful and but will pinch no pennies to show his boys a good time in the desert. Really, Brownie: why didn't you have this retreat at Marywood? See the video before the priest who shot it pulls it from YouTube! And be prepared for a blockbuster revelation (gracias, another tipster) soon!

John Urell, pastor to the powerful (see: Supervisor Bill Campbell, blog king Matt "Jubal" Cunningham), pedo-priest protector supreme, was the victim of a brilliant prank this past Sunday at St. Timothy in Laguna Niguel. Someone created the flyer above, which details at length Urell's role in the Diocese of Orange's sex-abuse scandal, and inserted it into nearly all the church bulletins after morning Mass. Even better, the same prankster slipped the flyer under the windshield of every car in St. Timothy's parking lot and in the surrounding neighborhood. No word yet on who did it or why, but one witness told the Weekly that the flyer got the job done. "People picked up the flyers," said the longtime parishioner, who requested anonymity, "and didn't throw them away." Tee-hee!

What is it about the pastors of St. Norbert Church in Orange and their predilection for protecting pedo-priests? The most recent example was Cirilo Flores, who is now an auxiliary bishop under Diocese of Orange Bishop Tod D. Brown; the most notorious example was John Urell, who famously cracked during a deposition digging into his days as the man in charge of "investigating" the pedophiles who terrorized county parishes for decades. I guess they just learned from their elders; after all, longtime St. Norbert pastor Sinon Falvey was in charge of two pedo-priests during his tenure from 1969 to 1989: John Kenney and John Lenihan. God smote the first John in a 1977 car accident; with Lenihan, Falvey moved him along to my home parish of St. Boniface in Anaheim.

Now, Falvey is the target of a civil lawsuit filed June 25 in Orange County Superior Court. It alleges Falvey repeatedly molested an altar boy in 1990, after he had retired, and that church officials were negligent in preventing it. Falvey won't be able to attend any depositions given his current disposition--dead. But we'll see what Brownie and his boys will do to counter this...

God has blessed me with few deaths in my immediate family--my paternal grandfather of a heart attack when I was four, my abuelito de my mom's side of old age, two cousins at a young age, and the passing away of my maternal grandmother last week at age 95. We buried her yesterday at Holy Sepulcher Cemetery in Orange (when this Catholic dies, I'd be surprised if the Diocese of Orange would even grant my parents a garbage can for my body to rest because of  my pedo-priest-exposing ways). While standing in the shade, my dad pointed something out to me that has gnawed at me ever since and explains this post.

In order to expedite the burial, workers used a backhoe loader to shovel dirt into my Mama Chela's grave. Since Holy Sepulcher's grounds are on a slight slope, the backhoe balanced itself by using two pneumatic arms as anchors. But to do this, the arms rested on top of other memorial markers, protected by thousands of pounds of pressure by cheap wooden tablets.

Call me old-fashioned, but whatever happened to men with a shovel? Getting a backhoe loader to rest against the memorial slabs, or to see it run over them, was offensive to the memory of the faithful departed. If I saw a machine do that to the markers of my grandparents, I'd be pissed. I'm sure this is standard operating procedure for all cemeteries nowadays (I've never been to a non-Catholic funeral), but the practice should stop.

If you want to fight for the side of truth and justice, join members of SNAP (Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests) this Sunday around 8:30 in the morn as they distribute fliers outside Sts. Simon and Jude Catholic Church in Huntington Beach. They'll alert parishioners about what Diocese of Orange Bishop Tod D. Brown never bothered to do: that someone recently filed a lawsuit against admitted pedo-priest Gus Krumm, a Franciscan (pedo-friar?) who served for years at the parish during the late 1990s.

Those parishioners should also know that Krumm is furiously fighting to keep secret his personnel files, the reams of documents kept on all Catholic priests and orderlies that have shown again and again how church leaders actively protected pedophiles at the expense of innocents. The court battle isn't happening in Los Angeles, though; it's taking place in Los Angeles Superior Court, site of a 2006 settlement between victims of Franciscans at St. Antonthy's Seminary in Santa Barbara and the Archdiocese of Los Angeles (administrator over Catholic life in Santa Barbara County). The release of personnel files were agreed to by the Franciscan order as part of the settlement, but individual pedo-priests were allowed to contest their files--with the legal help of the Franciscans.

A judge ruled against Krumm and his pedo-pals in April, but the case is still in appeal. God knows what horrors lie in those files...but, in the short term, protest against Brownie this Sunday for full transparency in his laugher of a regime.

The pedophile time bomb that was Father Gus Krumm finally exploded locally this week, when a lawsuit filed in Orange County Superior Court alleged that Krumm and another priest molested a student at St. Simon and Jude in Huntington Beach during the early 1990s. All I can say is: about time. In 2004, I wrote about how Krumm kept getting shuffled from diocese to diocese after a stint at the now-shuttered St. Anthony's Seminary in Santa Barbara, a notorious Club Ped* for priests. This is the first local lawsuit filed against Krumm, and probably not the last given Krumm has admitted to his pederastic incliniations. One bright note: the Krumm scandal is one case we can't blame on Diocese of Orange Bishop Tod D. Brown; this all falls on the lap of former bishop Norman McFarland. Heckuva job, Brownie!

Lee

The American media is abuzz and aTwittering with reports about how an Anaheim woman who calls herself the Rev. Brenda Lee was removed from LAX this morning after she tried to give President Barack Obama a letter about her opposition to gay marriage. All reported she calls herself a Catholic priestess; the Orange County Register interviewed Lee, who said she's aligned with St. Julia Falconieri in Fullerton and that there's 60 such priestesses worldwide. None reported on what a harmful lunatic she is.

Proof? Try to read through this column. One excerpt:

On what grounds does Rev. Lee speak for GOD? Her credentials out weigh that of Benedict XVI and every other Christian, or religious leader in the world. They have not heard the VOICE of GOD and they do not have the gift of prophecy or healing. None are willing to meet her face to face and call upon the name of GOD, as of the days of old because they know that she ranks with John the Baptist and Saint Peter.

CU-CKOO! CU-CKOO! CU-CKOO! She also claims that former Diocese of Orange Bishop Norman McFarland refused to allow her to become a priest, a claim as believable as that McFarland was friendly to sex-abuse survivors.

The worst part about this is that Lee, by virtue of her actions, has just defamed a great group. There are about 60 Catholic women who call themselves priests loyal to the Vatican. They belong to an organization called Roman Catholic Womenpriests. Lee is not listed among their members and didn't mention them by name, but it's apparent it's this group, as it's the most prominent such organization in Catholicism. Lee also says a relative works in mental health; where's a big net when you need it?

Scene to be seen?

When I was studying for my Confirmation at St. Boniface Church in Anaheim in the late 1990s, I remember that we took a weekend retreat to some nun's convent in Los Angeles--can't remember the name, but it was within the city. We slept in same-sex dorms, and it was a humbling experience that taught us about the importance of the Nazarene's message. And there was Danishes (the pastry, not the people)!

Two years ago, St. Boniface's finances were in such dire straits due to Diocese of Orange Bishop Tod D. Brown and his pedophile priests that not only did His Excellency close down the church's school, but that year's Confirmation retreat was in the church's basement (my youngest sister served as a teacher). Too bad the princes of the Orange diocese can't join young Catholics in forced abstention.

All next week, the Orange diocese will hold their annual priest retreat at the chi-chi La Quinta Resort in Palm Springs, where the amenities include tennis courts, 72 holes of golf, and a men's spa. This is at least the fourth straight year that Brown has partied with his boys in the desert; the source for this is no less than the Orange County Catholic, the official diocesan newspaper. Isn't it comforting to know that the arrogance of Brown and his hierarchy is such that he can tell his herd that while they suffer due to millions of dollars in sex-abuse settlements for rapes that should've never happened, his gang will lounge in luxury with the satisfaction that the faithful won't do anything?

Lenihan, second from right, in a picture Brown Stalinized

The Catholic world is abuzz with the release of a 2,500-page report by an judge documenting decades of physical and sexual abuse suffered by children in Ireland's Papist-run institutions. The report's release is a sad confirmation of the thesis put out by author Joe Rigert in his excellent 2008 book An Irish Tragedy: How Sex Abuse by Irish Priests Helped Cripple the Catholic Church. He posited that Ireland's repressed sexuality created a culture where child molestation was pandemic, and that the exportation of the country's priests to the United States unleashed an invasion of monsters on our shores. Couple that with Roman Catholicism's hierarchy of silence, and an American scandal was born.

Of course, the Diocese of Orange is never far from pedo-priests, and Rigert mentions the most notorious example: John Lenihan, my childhood priest who proved so scandalous that Orange Bishop Tod D. Brown infamously Stalinized him out of a picture in the diocese' official history book. But O.C. also suffered other mick molestors: John Kenney, Richard Coughlin, Robert Foley, and Daniel Murray are just the most notorious. Am I missing any, gentle readers?

Just a reminder to folks that this Friday evening, at Mission San Juan Capistrano's Basilica, Orange Bishop Tod D. Brown will bestow some of his nearest and dearest pedo-priest apologists with papal honors, a ceremony that proves Pope Benedict XVI is still clueless about too much and that Brown and his lackeys have no shame. Why don't those idiot Catholics who protested President Barack Obama's appearance at Notre Dame University protest that? Because it's the fault of the victims and liberals, silly!

Pillon

Your Catholic Diocese of Orange made national headlines again earlier this week when former Catholic priest Ben Rodriguez filed a civil lawsuit in Orange County Superior Court alleging that Father Gordon Pillon molested him numerous times while Pillon served at La Habra's Our Lady of Guadalupe during the early 1980s. Pillon had already been removed from ministry by his most recent employer, the Diocese of Peoria, for this accusation and another one and currently teaches in Prague.

What none of the news stories mentioned, however, was Pillon's assignment record in the Orange diocese. Careful readings of a priest's service can usually divine whether allegations against a padre are legit or bull--and let's just say Pillon's service in Orange don't indicate a bunch of Bevo.

The Official Catholic Directory, the best tracker of priests in the United States, lists Pillon as first arriving in Orange in 1980* at Our Lady of Guadalupe in La Habra, replacing pedo-priest Sofronio Aranda. Pillon stayed until 1983, when King of the County Pedophiles Eleuterio Ramos replaced him; Pillon moved on to St. Juliana Falconieri, where he stayed until 1986. All those years, he served alongside pedo-priest Michael Pecharich.

In 1987, Pillon was at St. Angela Merici in Brea and stayed there two years; 1989 saw him at St. Columban in Garden Grove. From 1990 until 1993, the Diocese of Orange lists him as "on duty outside the diocese," usually a euphemism for them shipping a pedo-priest out of town. In Pillon's case, he worked in campus ministry at Bradley University in Peoria those years until finally getting incardinated in the Diocese of Peoria in 1993.

*Actually, the Official Catholic Directory is always a year ahead. So, for instance, if I write here that Pillon was in a church in 1983, that came out in the 1984 Official Catholic Directory. Sure, it's a byzantine tracking method, but what do you expect from a faith that believes in transubstantiation?

See no evil, hear no evil...no evil!

Blessed are the anonymous sources, for they bring justice to the little ones...

Turns out newly ordained Diocese of Orange Bishop Cirilo Flores has a proud past of defending and condoning child abusers--and I'm not even talking about his treatment of numerous Orange diocese pedophile priests. Nearly 30 years ago, Flores was involved in investigating a nationally notorious child-abuse case in the Diocese of San Bernardino and not only did nothing about it, he agreed with the abuse.

The scandal in question happened at Our Lady of Perpetual Help Catholic School in Indio. In the summer of 1980, reports arose that nuns disciplined elementary-school-age children by tying them to chairs with ropes, taping their mouths shut, locking them in closets, making them stand outside in the brutal Coachella Valley sun for hours at a time, forcing them to assume all fours while arching their back, and smacking them around every once in a while. The San Bernardino bishop immediately created a five-person panel to investigate the charges. On the board was a young lay lawyer named Cirilo Flores.

News accounts from the time report that the panel found such disciplinary measures ''questionable" and ''ill-advised and imprudent,'' and the diocese immediately banned those forms of punishment. However, the board absolved the nuns of any wrongdoing and blamed the media for exagerrating the abuse (the more things change...). "The board was very impressed with the presentation and intent of some of these disciplinary measures,'' Flores told the Associated Press at the time in a story filed July 9, 1980. ''We found no maliciousness whatsoever nor any abusive intent and that is the reason we do not recommend any change in personnel at this time,'' he said.

Niiiice. It's one thing to smack the knuckles of a foul-mouthed kid with a ruler, quite another to tie them to a chair. "The majority of parents supported the teachers' actions," the AP wrote as Flores stating, and, hey, a lot of people continue to support Mater Dei boys' basketball coach Gary McKnight despite him allowing an admitted teen rapist back on school campus. Not only that, but if the Catholic Church sex-abuse scandal has taught us anything else besides that nearly all bishops are agents of Satan, it's that when there's smoke, there's Hell on Earth.

And that's what leads us to the case of Edward Anthony Rodrigue.

Yesterday, a Fresno jury acquitted the Catholic Diocese of Fresno of culpability in the priestly rapes of innocents, and does this news really surprise you given Fresno is Fresno? We really can't expect much intellectually and morally of this town, given its head padre is Bishop John Steinbock, former auxiliary bishop of the Orange diocese. On the witness stand, news accounts quote Steinbock as saying, "I never have returned anyone to ministry that I believe was guilty of sex abuse."

HAHAHAHAHA! Man, did the lawyers going after the Fresno diocese not do their homework? How about Fresno reporters? Fact is, Steinbock LIED--I'd call it perjury, because isn't that the legal term for when someone lies on the witness stand?

Steinbock's statement, again: "I never have returned anyone to ministry that I believe was guilty of sex abuse." Let's work our way back through Steinbock's greatest pedo-priest cover-ups, shall we?

*In 1987, a priest admitted to Steinbock--who at that point was bishop of the Diocese of Santa Rosa in Northern California--that he kissed and molested underage girls. That priest already had a lewd conduct conviction under his robes. Steinbock's response? Let the fucker continue in his children's ministry. STRIKE ONE

*Two years earlier, the most prolific pedophile priest in Orange County history, admitted to molesting a teenage boy while serving at St. Anthony Claret in Anaheim. Rather than report Eleuterio Ramos to the police, Steinbock ships Ramos off to Tijuana. In a note to fellow pedophile protector Michael Driscoll (then an Orange bishop, currently Bishop of Boise), Steinbock wrote that the "possibility of past lapses and this knowledge gives us responsibility under liability to remove [Ramos]." Steinbock, of course, knew Ramos had molested boys for years by that point. STRIKE TWO.

*Steinbock was the actual head of the Orange diocese for little less than a year, serving as the bridge between William Johnson and Norman McFarland, but what a brief period of fun he administrated over! He allowed admitted (Michael Pecharich, John Lenihan, Siegfried Widera) and diagnosed (Michael Harris) teen molestors to remain in ministry. THREE STRIKES! Can someone boot this demon out?

In 2002, Steinbock told the Fresno Bee in regards to all the controversies regarding his pedo-protecting ways over the years that, "I feel like the Lord Jesus when he was condemned unjustly, and I feel it is an honor to be united with the Lord in his whole passion. I'm not worried about defamation of character because I believe the Lord Jesus is with me."

"I think he's Manson-esque," counters John Manly, who has represented victims of the priests who raped that Steinbock let continue in ministry. "There is such a disconnect between the destruction of children's lives he brought to Orange and Santa Rosa. That statement is mind-boggling."

FUN FACT! Steinbock and Orange Bishop Tod D. Brown are classmates from St. John's Seminary in Camarillo.

Why is this man smiling?

I wish I could say it is an April Fools' joke that the Orange County Hispanic Bar Association is going through with its reception for newly ordained Catholic Diocese of Orange Bishop Cirilo Flores despite him never quite getting around to denouncing or disciplining pedo-priests while serving on the diocese's clergy personnel board. At least the president-elect of the OC HBA, Carlos Colorado, has the guts to denounce the cover-up of the rapes of innocents, something that none of the other HBA members who flooded my email and Facebook accounts with angry comments did (sorry, folks, but merely expressing that "the church has gone through a very difficult time in recent years" not only says nothing but takes the side of the church and expresses no sympathy toward the victims)!

But, still: Colorado's rationale for hosting such a reception disturbs me. Using the example of El Salvador's martyred Bishop Oscar Romero (whom I'll remind Colorado was ostracized by Pope John Paul II and the official Roman Catholic hierarchy while he was alive), Colorado wrote that "we could not be blind to the prospect of joining hands with the Church in the struggle for social justice" in a year where immigration reform will eventually be on the table. In other words, since Flores and the Catholic Church is an Aztlanista, who cares about him looking the other way while priests ravaged children*? That's why Los Angeles Archdiocese Cardinal Roger Mahony continues to garner so much Latino support despite his status as a walking snake.

I can't say I'm surprised, alas, both at the reaction of the OC HBA or that the Orange diocese's head Hispanic is so intimately connected to the pedo-priest scandal. A blast through the past after the jump!

From yesterday's ordination of pedo-priest-protector Cirilo Flores as the latest auxiliary bishop of the Diocese of Orange (of which we'll have more on Monday). Uttered by head Bishop Tod D. Brown, per the Orange County Register, a joke so hilarious it deserves bolding, italics, and underlining:

"Bishops are the ones who speak truth in season and out of season."

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

Sorry, where was I? Oh, yeah: HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.

Truths, Toddy? Maybe you want to tell us why you lied about Horacio Edgardo Jimenez Arrunategui back in 2004? And the Orange County Hispanic Bar Association wants to work with these perversions of Christ? Heaven help us all...but, in the meanwhile, HAHAHAHAHA!

For the past two years, I've donated a signed copy of my book and a dinner date* with me to the Hispanic Bar Association of Orange County's annual fundraising dinner for auctioning purposes; in 2007, I was co-emcee of the event. But I'm afraid I will have to boycott this fine organization from now on; they're holding an April 2 reception for the newest Diocese of Orange Bishop, Cirilo Flores, next week at the Monticello-like First American Title Insurance offices in downtown SanTana alongside the pedo-priest-protector apologist St. Thomas More Society.

I winced when I received my invitation to this shindig. The HBA prides itself on helping the downtrodden, more so than other law groups considering so many members are Aztlanistas. Yet the invitation of Flores sullies that legacy. Is the HBA leadership so blinded by Flores' Latino ethnicity and law degree that they're willing to overlook his role in protecting the rapists of so many innocents (a large percentage in the Orange diocese, by the way, of which were Latinos)? There are only two answers to this: hell yes, or no because the organization's leaders still gladly swallow the Communion that is Orange Bishop Tod D. Brown's lies on his sex-abuse scandal. Yeah, I understand too many Latinos still believe in good relations with the Catholic church, but to host a reception for a man that should be jailed is simply insulting to the concept of justice.

Andrade in a 1995 Mater Dei yearbook shot. Probably fatter now, but still evil as fuck

In honor of the Mater Dei boys' basketball team flaming out after a season in which they were ranked #1 in the nation most of this year, let me offer a temporary truce to the Monarchs family: get over your knee-jerk defense of anything that besmirches the evilest high school since Westerburg, and let's pile on coach Gary McKnight's former assistant, Jeff Andrade. I bring him up today because I decided to take another look at the lawsuit Andrade filed against the Diocese of Orange in 2004 while stuck in Superior Court researching another case this morning.

Faithful readers will recall that Andrade sued his former employers for invasion of privacy after they admitted to an Orange County Register reporter that they dismissed Andrade for abuse allegations. Instead of telling Andrade to go to hell, they settled for $100,000. The Andrade affair also brought in the decrepitude of McKnight (who tried to sue me), the ignorance of church officials, and is one of the most illustrative examples of why the Diocese of Orange is rotten to its core. Nevertheless, I've come to the conclusion that the true villain in this case is Andrade.

Need proof? In a March 4, 2004 opposition to a motion filed by the diocese, Andrade's lawyer had the gall to write that his client's reputation "may well have been ruined forever. The Catholic Church's handling of its notorious sex scandal has claimed another victim...Jeff Andrade and his family."

THE BALLS of Andrade to maintain he was the victim! And the stupidity of diocesan lawyers to hand over $100,000 to this cretin who they knew had repeatedly molested a girl. God does have a wonderful sense of humor, though. Google "Jeff Andrade," and my stories on this bastard pop up. How's that for your reputation, Jeff?

Now, for the Mater Dei apologists who will inevitably whine that I'm bringing up the past: stop it. Remember: I'm offering a temporary truce. Last we heard, he's still a fundraiser for Varsity Gold even though he has admitted to repeatedly molesting a teenage girl during the mid-1990s. Alright, Monarchs: if you want to start rehabilitating your reputation, make sure this man never gets near teenagers again.

Leninan second from right, in a picture Brown would eventually Stalinize

Poor St. Edward the Confessor Catholic Church in Dana Point. They have the inglorious Diocese of Orange record of having hosted the most pedo-priests (five) in its history. Just recently, Orange Bishop Tod D. Brown settled another suit involving one of them: Denis Lyons. So, a question: given this sordid past, why on Earth does the parish continue to honor teenage rapist John Lenihan?

On its history page, the St. Edward the Confessor website spins this pretty tale:

In July, 1995, St. Edward parish welcomed its new pastor, Fr. John Lenihan. Fr. John came from St. Boniface parish in Anaheim where he had been a pastor for thirteen years. Full of energy and enthusiasm, he embraced the challenges of Fr. Knight's legacy and worked with the community to face the needs of the future. 

In 1999, Fr. John began a capital campaign to purchase 2.5 acres of adjacent property for additional parking, expand and renovate the religious education building, and replace the old church building (Knight Hall) with a functional parish center. The first 2 phases of construction, the parking lot and Religious Education building expansion, were completed in 2001. With the 2005-2006 school year, St. Edward the Confessor parish school will reach its full capacity of 2 classes per grade level, Kindergarten through 8th grade.

In 2001, Fr. Steve Sallot, the rector at Mater Dei High School, was appointed as temporary administrator at St. Edward the Confessor.

What a swell guy, huh?

Here's what the mini-history doesn't tell:

Urell at the moment he went cuckoo

In 1986, after the death of founding Diocese of Orange Bishop William Johnson, a young John Urell penned a moving tribute in the Los Angeles Times to the man whom set the diocese on its proud pedo-priest-protecting path. Urell--then the secretary to Johnson, now pastor at St. Timothy in Laguna Niguel, always comforter to the comforted--recalled how Johnson asked him to volunteer at a soup kitchen in Wilmington. "Bishop's point was that dignity must be restored and opportunities found for those whose lives had been devastated by mental illness, poverty and unemployment," Urell wrote. "In his quiet and inspired way he worked hard to get me to change my bourgeois mentality. Thanks be to God he did."

Too bad Johnson didn't teach Urell to act the same way with clerical sex-abuse victims, but shepherding to them has never exactly been in vogue at Marywood. Instead, through the antiseptic that is journalists and lawsuits, Urell has been shown again and again to be almost as much of an asshole to sex-abuse victims as the infamous Monsignor Lawrence Baird. If it wasn't him lying to victims about the fate of their rapists, it was Urell not only not believing their stories, but insulting them for daring to speak the Truth.

The latest proof can be found in a deposition taken Dec. 18 of last year for the most recent settled civil suit against pedo-priest Denis Lyons. Plaintiff's attorney V. James DeSimone took the deposition of a previous Lyons victim (the Weekly doesn't reveal the name of sex-abuse victims without their consent) whose younger brother and himself were molested by the pedo-priest at St. John the Baptist in Costa Mesa in the late 1970s. In 1994, the two brothers contacted Urell to speak about their abuse and ask that the diocese dump Lyons.

Urell met with the brothers at Gisler Park in Costa Mesa. The victim testified under oath that Urell told the two that they "were telling lies," that the victims were trying to "deface" the church and "hurt" Lyons. "Goddamn it, let's get on" with forgetting the episode, Urell told the violated brothers.

Infuriated, the brothers then set up a meeting the following year with then-Bishops Norman McFarland and Michael Driscoll, in which the heads of the Orange diocese told the brothers that "they were going to take care what needed to be taken care of." Their solution? Send Lyons off to the St. Luke's Institute, a notorious haven for pedo-priests that counts as alumni Michael Harris and Eleuterio Ramos. Although McFarland and his hierarchy assured the brothers Lyons would be gone, he returned after eight months as if nothing had happened.

The two brothers would go on to be part of the $100 million in settled sex-abuse cases that Tod D. Brown signed off on in 2005. Urell, of course, would famously crack for the guilt he felt destroying so many lives--yet he still has a job. Let's see the Friends of Monsignor John try to spin this latest Urell revelation...

Just got off the phone with V. James DeSimone, attorney for a man who says pedo-priest Denis Lyons molested him as a child during the 1990s. They have settled their civil suit against the Catholic Diocese of Orange for an undisclosed amount. "Our client is pleased with the settlement, and looks forward to working with the district attorney's office," to bring criminal charges against Lyons, who has cost Orange Bishop Tod D. Brown more than $4 million in civil settlements. No personnel files will be released, per the judge's order and Brown's eternal gratitude. More to come Monday...

In recently covering the legal maneuverings of pedo-priest Denis Lyons, the name of his attorney kept bugging me. Donald Steier...where had I heard that name before? Gracias to the magic of Google, I quickly found out who he was: the defense attorney du jour for pedo-priests in Southern California. Steier's short list of previous clients reads like a who's who of child molesters: Michael Stephen Baker, Michael Wempe, Lynn Caffoe, George Neville Rucker, and the first two got criminally convicted for their crimes (Google their names to read about the horror stories those demons inflicted on innocents). In the past, news accounts have reported Archdiocese of Los Angeles Cardinal Roger Mahony has paid Steier to defend his pedo-princes from the law with nary a denial from either party; given that Steier is trying to argue that Lyons is too poor to pay most of the bills in the latest lawsuit against him, wonder who's paying Steier this time?

The Diocese of Orange is legendary for sparing no expense, no legal strategy while fighting off sex-abuse victims or trying to cover up for its pedo-priests. Hell, they even paid for Mater Dei boys' basketball coach Gary McKnight's laughable attempt to shut this wab up. But in the current case of Denis Lyons, Orange Bishop Tod D. Brown is offering the pedo-priest no help at all that doesn't involve saving his own ass.

In a recent court motion, Lyons' attorneys asked that his alleged victim, Jon Kirrer, pay the fees so that a court-appointed discovery referre can wade through thousands of pages of documents and determine which are admissable for the civil suit, and which are not. Lyons is pleading poverty: he "is not reasonably able to pay any costs associated with such an appointment and any requirement that he must do so would cause a substantial hardship on him," wrote attorney Donald Steier. "It is unclear whether one or more of the other parties will agree to pay [Lyons'] portion of the appointed referee's fees."

Lyons is no longer part of the ministry, but the Orange diocese never officially laicized him like they did John Lenihan and other admitted pedo-priests. What does Brown's refusal to pay for Lyons' share of a discovery referee mean? Has Brown finally found a soul and will not help a pedo-priest?