Bishop Tod Brown: Facelift Or Photoshop?

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Has Tod Brown, Bishop of Orange, had a facelift, or did the folks at Orange County Catholic employ the magic of Photoshop on this picture of Bishop Brown with Pope Benedict XVI? Inquiring minds want to know...

Whether he has had a little nip/tuck or not, he certainly knows how to live well, as this blurb from last year's OC Weekly demonstrates:

Last month, the Weekly revealed that the Diocese of Orange is aggressively moving forward on plans to build a multimillion-dollar cathedral — despite facing about 100 sex-abuse lawsuits [see "Christ Our Non-Saver," July 23]. Now sources say the diocese is negotiating with Brea-based Shea Homes for a new multimillion-dollar home near the proposed cathedral site.

The home's first occupant: Bishop Tod D. Brown.

The residence is one of 156 homes under construction at the Armstrong Ranch, a gated community in Santa Ana's South Coast Metro, near the 90-acre property where Christ Our Savior Cathedral will stand. Brochures for Armstrong Ranch show that the humblest housing option — what Shea Homes refers to as its "Flotman Residence" — includes two stories, four bedrooms, three and a half baths, a breakfast nook, an office, a butler's pantry, and a three-car garage. Starting price: $1.1 million.

Armstrong Ranch sales representatives aren't shy about the connection. One bragged to a Weekly researcher that the bishop is already in escrow.

This isn't the first time Brown has spent church funds to upgrade his pad. His current 3,800-square-foot manse in eastern Santa Ana includes 11 rooms, three bathrooms, a three-car garage and a solar-heated swimming pool. Officials purchased the property for $388,000 shortly before Brown ascended to the Orange bishopric in the fall of 1998. County documents show that subsequent improvements added $117,271 in value to the property, improvements that included interior remodeling; the conversion of part of the three-car garage into a laundry, bath and pantry; and a lattice-covered patio. But the crown to Brown's house was the addition of a second floor in early 2001 — the year Orange County Superior Court Judge Jim Gray ordered the diocese to pay DiMaria $5.2 million for Monsignor Michael Harris' alleged molestation. (Movin' on Up: Bishop Brown to leave half-million-dollar shack for million-dollar estate, by Gustavo Arellano, Orange County Weekly, Thursday, August 12, 2004)

The above article is also quoted in the Open Letter to Tod Brown, Bishop of Orange.

The Open Letter also reports that Bishop Brown has retained the service of several personal chefs (at the same time), one of them hailing from the five-star Five Crowns restaurant in Corona del Mar (one of the nicer parts of Orange County).

Bishop Brown's life of luxury has definitely ruffled some feathers: Catholics Demand Answers From O.C.'s Reportedly Profligate, Pro-Homosexual Bishop

Meanwhile, Bishop Brown has, through Fr. Martin Tran, parish administrator at St. Mary's by the Sea parish, in Huntington Beach, CA, told Father Eamon Mackin that he would have to move out of St. Mary's by the Sea parish. Fr. Mackin is an 80-year-old, solidly orthodox, priest who has lived and worked at St. Mary's by the Sea parish for the past 11 years. Why – with the wealth (and "priest shortage") in the Diocese of Orange, would Bishop Brown send a good, hardworking priest out on the street?

Bishop Brown has a history of retiring priests and closing parishes. He did it a few times when he was bishop of Boise, Idaho: Yes He Is! No He Isn't! – Opinion Varies On Orange's New Bishop, Los Angeles Lay Catholic Mission, September, 1998

With nowhere to go, Fr. Mackin turned to his friends, who have generously offered to support him financially. With that done, Fr. Tran now says he can stay (so long as parishioners continue to pay his bills).

As you may recall, Fr. Tran is the priest who told kneeling parishioners at St. Mary's by the Sea parish that they were committing mortal sin by kneeling after the Agnus Dei, and therefore not following the new diocesan liturgical norms and inviting a large number of families to leave the parish (and the diocese).

After all the publicity, a good deal of backpedaling occurred and through the wonder of semantics, the charge of mortal sin has been rescinded (more or less): Meeting Bishop Brown – Catholics May Kneel In Good Conscience

So it has been established that Catholics have a right to kneel, although Fr. Tran is now attempting to claim that Bishop Brown only meant that those who had already been kneeling or who had signed the fliers being passed out after each Mass at St. Mary's by the Sea could kneel.

The Cafeteria Is Closed blog discussed Fr. Mackin's situation a couple weeks ago: Father Mackin

The Fr. Mackin debacle prompted a reader to create this amusing image:

(Click on the image to enlarge it.)

Comments

[Andrzej]

If it's true, why would a 70-year-old Catholic bishop need a facelift? Who's he trying to look good for? He's celibate, right? Being a bishop isn't like being in show biz... is it? Why such vanity? Can anybody help me out -- can anybody explain this to me?

[Some Day]

The 1st picture is not working.

[A Simple Sinner]

Starting price: $1.1 million.

Lets have a little contest with that one... What could the Church do to meet the Great Commision with $1.1M?

* How many young seminarians could be brought over from developping countries to serve in parish work and study here?

* How far would that $1.1M go in refurbishing an old convent to help a new order of sisters come in to work in an apostolate?

* $1.1M Is that enough to put a few at-risk kids into the parochial school system?

* Catholic Answers has some fantastic tracts that explain and defend the Catholic Faith. Persons and entities requesting special permission can reproduce the tracts for little or no money -C.A. just wants the info out there.... How many tracts and booklets to evangelize would $1.1M accomadate?

Bishop Brown does not want vocations. He is not intersted in keeping parishes open. He is sponging off the Church. He should sell his home, give it to the abuse victims and the worthy apostolates out there working with near nothing, and live in the basement of the shabbiest rectory in the diocese.

Wait, they do not have basements in a lot of CA homes do they? The garage will do.

[Michael Teissere]

His Excellency Bishop Tod Brown could care less about the Catholic Churchs Teachings. He allows my cousin Fr. Rod Stepehens or should I say ex Father Rod Stephens ,who knows what his status is?, work his Sacra Forma buisness in the Diocese at $300.00 plus an hour for consultation work. All the while Fr. Rod Stephens supports womens ordination, infact he recently was down in San Diego,publically supporting a woman who was "ordained" a supposed catholic priest( picture of Fr. Rod and the women in a San Diego news paper) Oh! I guess I do know Fr. Rods status, that would be excommunicated! instead of teaching what the Catholic Church teaches and defending the Church against dissenters and apostates, he promotes them and pays them with the laity's money! And Bishop Brown makes sure he gets a photo op with The Holy Father so he could look good to the wealthy laity in the Diocese, he has to pay the bills some way! Not fooled one bit seen him up close and personal (the picture sorta looks like he has a smoother face.Maybe it is all the smooth talking he pulls over the laitys ears and eyes) My wife and I do pray for him and my cousin to convert back to the Church, but we don't trust him, we know too much and too much has happen!

[Chris]

I couldn't look at the 1st picture either.

[Mary]

I am not a Bishop Brown supporter, by any means, but this has gotten a little ridiculous. It doesn't look to me like he has gotten a face lift, and we should not be assuming that he has. There are all kinds of "creams" out there that smooth the face and such, though in the photo, I don't notice any real change.

As for his 1.1 million dollar home - how many of you live in Orange County? A 1.1 million dollar home is not outlandish anymore there. The home that I grew up in in O.C. is worth over a million dollars and it is not anything special. A 1.1 million dollar home in O.C. would cost about 300 - 400 hundred thousand in Denver, where I live now. There should be some clarification there.

I am very thankful to have Archbishop Chaput as my shepherd, and to go to Holy Ghost Parish with the Oblates of the Virgin Mary there. I am glad to be away from California and the bishops who were anything but orthodox. However, if you want to remain credible, don't bring up such foolish things as facelifts - it is below you.

[mark]

Mary it is below a Bishop to send out a memo to all priests supporting homosexual domestic partnership. It is below a Bishop to pay an ex priest living in a homosexual domestic partnership $300 an hour to wreckovate Catholic Churches. What is really below a Catholic Bishop is to live a luxurious lifestyle, (Bishop Brown's mansion is an off site,out of the view of faithful Catholics)and it is a big deal when he bullies retiring Orthodox priests by charging them big bucks to live in a rectory and be a priest. It is great that you have escaped the corruption of Bishop Tod Brown. It is great that many people have left for greener pastures. What isn't great are the many Catholics who choose to leave and not expose these wolves in sheep's clothing. I have no idea if Bishop Tod Brown has had a face lift. I do know that he has lifted the real Catholic identity of the face of Catholicism. The only thing that exposed the scandals was the unflattering truth of the media. I hope you took the time before you left the Diocese of Orange, to write to Bishop Tod Brown and voice the actions you think were beneath him.

[Some Day]

how can you post a picture in the combox?

[Michael Teissere]

Mary, It is ridiculous that the laity are putting up with the crap (excuse my language)that is being passed off as catholicism from the diocese of Orange! Yeah! the more I look at the pictures of Bishop Browns face I see no differnce from being a closed room sitting across from him for nearly 6hours , except in the pictures above his face isn't red and eyes fixed to kill! and I second what Mark says!

[A Simple Sinner]

"As for his 1.1 million dollar home - how many of you live in Orange County? A 1.1 million dollar home is not outlandish anymore there. The home that I grew up in in O.C. is worth over a million dollars and it is not anything special. A 1.1 million dollar home in O.C. would cost about 300 - 400 hundred thousand in Denver, where I live now. There should be some clarification there."

I lived in San Diego for a time - never the OC. For what it is worth, I have an appreciation for the fact that even modest homes in certain parts of CA are pricey by the standards of other markets.

But there, dear Mary, is the rub.

FIRSTLY, if those are the sorts of prices OC Catholics are having to cope with in thier struggle to have a small home, a nice job and raise a few kids and support the church, lets be realistic about something - The home prices are significantly higher in CA, but the wages are not. Does the bishop NEED a new home? His old one fall apart? Are they selling his old place to pay for the settlements while he downgrades?

SECONDLY, Is it really the case that there are no empty rectories or other residences a bishop could live in without financing a new home on the backs of the faithful? If he DOES need a new domicle, does he mean to tell us any number of church owned properties right now would not do? I am really asking this question. Perhaps there are so very many vocations and priests in residence, there are no empty rectories he could move in if his residence now is unfit? Is that the case?

THIRDLY, I cannot for a second imagine the Bishop buying the most modest of units in that gated community. I am doubtful he is truly going for the $1.1M unit.

No, Mary, I have never lived in the OC. I am happy to be a resident of a "fly-over" state here in the midwest. (That is to say one of the states some folks only ever see when flying accross it on the way from one coast to another.) But $1.1M for a new build home, when the old one does not seem to be falling apart, and there are alternatives, in ANY state given the state of the Church, seems just a week bit ludicous to me.

[Loyolalaw98]

The commentary about the outlandish prices of homes in SoCal, specifically Orange County, is correct. A standard tract house, 30 years old, 1600 square feet runs in the $600s in an older city like Orange or Placentia. The closer you get to the ocean, the higher the price.

The question should not be the price of his home, but why does he need a separate house?

The first Bishop of Orange - Bishop Johnson - had converted the back part of an old convent into his private residence. It was on the grounds of Holy Family Cathedral, near the parochial grammar school and the Rectory where he frequently ate. (Not that he was perfect - he bought Marywood High School and closed it down to move his Chancery to the hills - also during his tenure the altar rails and candles in front of the side altars were pulled out of the Cathedral. He did leave the tabernacle at the center of the reredos.)

His successor Norman McFarland lived in the same "old convent" residence. He too left the tabernacle in the center of the reredos, but put the Diocese Coat of arms over it. He had removed a small baldacino that was over the tabernacle that had engraved on it JMJ for the Holy Family. Twenty years ago all students at the Holy Family school still had to put JMJ on top of all papers.

Now comes Bishop Brown. Not only is the residence of his two predecessors unworthy of him, but so is the Cathedral. At Holy Family the tabernacle is relegated to a side altar so his cathedra can take center stage, and stage it is. No longer vogue - the notion of a sanctuary is dead at the cathedral, lights, microphones and stands for musicians , extra chairs for liturgical enablers all fill the formerly sacred space. Luther did not go as far in the German cathedrals whose ramsacking he oversaw!

One can only imagine what architectural monstrosity his new cathedral it will be. Perhaps Fr. Rod Stephens will help design it.

[Michael Teissere]

I bet my bottom dollar my cousin Fr. Rod Stephens will build it. Remember also that Fr. Rod Stephens was liturgical director for the diocese under McFarland and had strong influence under Johnsons reign. Yes , it will not look Catholic, because they don't believe in Catholicism! The laity better get their heads out of the sand. Goodnight!

[Michael Teissere]

So sorry I meant "design" it!

[A Simple Sinner]

Loyolalaw98 -

Excellent response, as per usual!

To be clear, I understand that housing costs a lot more in certain CA markets than folks like me deal with here in the midwest. That is how I could afford to have a home here!

I know what a new car costs... that is why I am still driving a paid-off Plymoth Breeze that is ten years old. (To be fair, the engine is newer!)

I just think it is in such BAD taste that the bishop is opting to buy something that he does not need in order to move away from his Cathedral.

Another thing people have not touched on much - is it a GOOD idea for him to be even less connected to the life of his parish - the cathedral - by distancing himself from it? I think one of the magical things about the Catholic Church in my childhood was the fact that on the church grounds mulitple priests had residence. Behind the school there was a convent with a half a dozen nuns. IT was reassuring to us to have this image of priests and consecrated women on the grounds tending to us. I also think that the isolation and privation allowed to many modern Catholic pastors has lead to a great deal of scandal... With no one watching and all that unsupervised time a lone - more than a few have gotten into some serious trouble.

(Oh, don't get me started about what sort of f'ugly [freakin' ugly] building designed by defrocked priests we could likely expect him to propose. Is something wrong with the old one? has there been such conversions the old one is too packed at the seams?)

Remember the joke "A man goes into the doctor move his arm up and down and say 'Doctor, Doctor, it hurts when I go like this' The doctor looks at him and says 'So don't go like that!'"

"Beloved faitful in my OC flock, a new house costs over a million dollars!"

"So don't buy a new house!"

Of course if he just wants a change of scenery and different digs, I charge my roommates $300 a month and they can use both of my spare bedrooms and park a car in my garage. Since he is a bishop, I would be happy to let him drink some of my beer at no charge, and I would not split the cable cost with him. (Least I could do, you know.) If he wants pizza on Fridays (mushrooms no meat) we could go halves... I save coupons. Do you think His Excellency would like midwest winters?

[mark]

Not unless he can bring his California mansion's backyard hot tub!

[A Simple Sinner]

That is fine, he may bring the hot tub. For the sake of propriety I must insist on swim trunks at all times though.