Devils Distributing Communion: Bishop Tod Brown's Kind Of Diversity

The Cafeteria Is Closed had a post about the Halloween Mass at the "Catholic-Christian community" of Corpus Christi in Aliso Viejo, in the Diocese of Orange, California.

Here is the advertisement for this year's Mass (taken from his parish bulletin):

Let your inner child come out to play… For those newly arrived at Corpus Christi since last October 31st you may not be aware of our most wonderful celebration of Halloween on the weekend PRIOR to October 31st…which this year will be NEXT weekend, October 28-29. In anticipation of All Hallows Eve parishioners are invited to come to Mass in costume (yep…that means adults AND kids). In addition, families/individuals are invited to carve a family Fred-O’Lantern (related to Jack but a lot more fun) for placement around the altar. Special treats (and very few tricks) will be available to the young and young at heart at all the Masses. In addition, let the wondering and guessing begin as to who or what FKB (Fred K. Bailey, the pastor) will become at the end of Mass; final clue: I love you, you love me. While some church communities scare their members with silly talk of Halloween being devil worship and other such nonsense, we Catholic-Christians understand that All Hallows Eve is the EVE of All Saint’s Day, an autumn celebration that honors our spiritual heritage. Secure in our knowledge of Jesus’ resurrection we are able to poke fun at the things that used to scare us and see them for the empty threats they always were. Our God is not threatened by carved vegetables; rather, he delights in a parish family that comes together in worship, fun and frolic.

Here are pictures from some of this year's Masses:

Update: Here's a visual take (from Andrzej) on the "It's the Great Pumpkin, Bishop Brown" Masses in Aliso Viejo with Satan giving out Communion:

Here is the latest flyer from Restore The Sacred, a group of Catholics working for the restoration of the sacred in Orange County:

Front and Back (You will need Microsoft Word to open the documents.)

Here is an article about Fr. Fred Bailey where he mentions a previous Halloween Mass: It's Just A Pumpkin, Los Angeles Lay Catholic Mission, January 2001

As many of you may know, Bishop Tod Brown has forbidden kneeling after the Agnus Dei in his diocese, and withdrawn permission for the continued celebration of the Tridentine Mass at St. Mary's by the Sea parish (in Huntington Beach, CA), in the name of unity, arbitrarily forcing the faithful to travel an extra 28 miles across the county to attend an indult Tridentine Mass.

This decision was made by Bishop Brown despite hundreds of letters and 1,200 signatures on a petition, and to the present day, the Tridentine Mass remains forbidden at St. Mary's by the Sea, forcing devotees to drive to the overcrowded Serra Chapel at the Mission San Juan Capistrano, where it is still officially sanctioned. In the Diocese of Orange, there is now one remaining indult Mass location, serving a diocese of over 1,044,191 Catholics in a county of 2,760,948 people. The Tridentine Mass at that location is only offered at 8:00 A.M. on Sundays and non-transferred Holy Days, is attended by 300+ persons every Sunday, and 450+ on the first Sunday of every month. The Serra Chapel is designed to hold approximately 120 persons. Many of these people drive from as far as 50 miles away. The Mass is at 8:00 AM, and they should plan to arrive up to 45 minutes early if they plan to get a seat!

Parishioners at St. Mary's by the Sea who have continued to kneel after the Agnus Dei as most Catholics throughout this country have done for over thirty years (and continue to do to this day) were harassed, accused of serious disobedience, and even mortal sin for continuing to kneel. People were banished from the parish council and barred from parish service and/or membership in parish centered groups like the Legion of Mary. The director of the altar boys was fired. Altar boys were dismissed. Elderly women were brought to tears by Fr. Martin Tran, who insisted upon singling out these kneeling parishioners and pressuring them to violate their consciences refusing to accept any compromise over Bishop Brown's policy of strictly regulating posture at Mass (a policy that, truth be told, was intent on breaking St. Mary's by the Sea parish of the last vestiges of traditional Catholicism that remained since Bishop Brown began "updating" the parish after the retirement of Rev. Daniel Johnson). Eventually, Fr. Tran sent a letter affecting something near sixty Catholics in the parish; inviting them to leave the parish, and the Diocese of Orange.

All of Fr. Martin Tran's actions were done with Bishop Brown's full support and approbation, because Bishop Brown is extremely serious about respecting the sacred liturgy. He will allow Catholics to hear painful words that accuse them of mortal sin, and even banish Catholics from their parish and their diocese, if they do not respect the sacred liturgy and adhere to the liturgical laws of the Church and/or the norms he sets himself for his own diocese.

Many parishioners at St. Mary's by the Sea felt that Bishop Brown's crackdown on St. Mary's by the Sea appeared to evidence a calloused disregard, and even a singular loathing, for the traditional Catholics at St. Mary's by the Sea, since there have been no such crackdowns on other liturgical aberrations in the diocese that are far more egregious than kneeling in adoration of the Real Presence of Our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament after the Agnus Dei.

Case in point: Fr. Fred Bailey's Annual Halloween Masses.

Disrespectful is too mild a word for a Mass with extraordinary ministers of the Eucharist and choir members who are dressed as demons and an altar surrounded by carved pumpkins named in honor of the pastor's ego.

Given Bishop Brown's professed desire to ensure that the sacred liturgy is not profaned by anomalies that are outside of liturgical law, it will be interesting to see how he handles the situation with Fr. Fred Bailey, a pastor Bishop Brown installed, whose eccentricities are well known throughout the diocese.

Will Fr. Fred be allowed to continue these practices? Will the extraordinary ministers and choir members be publicly accused of disobedience and serious, mortal sin, and barred from parish service? Or are Bishop Brown's selective liturgical enforcements only aimed at stamping out traditional piety, as many have suspected all along?

If you are unfamiliar with Bishop Brown, you might want to read the Open Letter to Tod Brown, Bishop of Orange, Vocations director under fire in California, and red through the archives of Roman Catholic Blog.

Any thoughts?

Comments

[Susan Westberg]

I knew things were bad, but these pictures remind me of pagan Rome. I wouldn't be surprised if next we saw the fatted calf at the altar or maybe even the image of Isis to appease the militant feminists in the church. Someone in Rome needs to call this Bishop to task. God deliver us from such clergy who are bringing the faithful down by misleading them away from the truth.

[raj]

Bad enough they came to Mass (if, indeed, it was) dressed in costumes, but as devils? Talk about Exhibit A of "This is Your Brain on Poor Catechesis."

[Anne]

Take a look at Fr. Fred's take on "kneeling is mortal sin" - in his parish bulletin.

http://www.avcatholics.org/Bulletin/2006/b_2006_06_11.pdf

He says, "The ongoing issue has been, and
continues to be, humble respect and embrace of the authority of a local bishop to implement the liturgical practices of the Church as approved by the Pope"
YAH!!!

When's the last time YOU FOLLOWED ANY LITURGICAL NORMS, Fr. Fred?

These guys lie for a living (the actively homosexual ones). It's gotten to the point where they don't remember what lie they told yesterday.

[Ygnacia]

Archbishop Fulton Sheen said that when the Church is holy, she is persecuted from the outside, and when she is not holy, she is persecuted from the inside...

[Mona Alona]

This just goes to show that anything goes in the diocese of Orange except orthodoxy.

How many more years until Brown retires?

Benedict, please save us.

[Brigida]

PLEASE all of you as sickened by this as I am, write to His Holiness and let him know that we are not supportive of this-let him know you will attend a Tridentine Mass along with your parents and grandparents who left the church years ago.Give him your support and tell him we accept him as Successor of Peter, not the BISHOPS.
Keep praying, but also do this eathly thing of human contact. The Bishops e-mail him with their complaints this way.
The e-mail is: benedictxvi@vatican.va
or write,send these articles, :His Holiness Pope Benedict xvi
Vatican City State Italy 00120

[Ellen]

Could you please post the source and dates of the photos? Were they from the most recent Mass, a previous year, or what? I'm not comfortable discussing this in a broader forum unless I know.

[James]

Well, I've seen it all now: parishioners costumed as devils-demons serving Christ's body and blood. What the "hell" were they thinking? And notice how the priest was referred to in the bulletin FKB (the PASTOR). I guess FATHER Fred either forgot he is a priest (if he wrote the announcement) or his parishioners have (if they wrote it). Either way, it is illustrative of their discomfort at being Catholic and comfort at profaning the holy things that make us distinctive: the Eucharist, the priesthood, and reverence. Devils and demons? How cute. How funny. I wonder, though, if anyone would show up dressed up as a klansman? I guess that would be overboard. Nice job Corpus Christi disgracing yourself and your parish NAME. Thanks FKB for not acting like the priest you are, whether or not you or your parishioners see it that way.

[James]

All my comments, of course, will be premature if these pictures turn out to be fraudulent. I mean, that looks like a pretty weird Church. It looks more like a church hall or auxiliary room of some kind, not a Church. But put together with the church bulletin, it seems compelling.

[James]

as a joking aside: is that Mark MacGuire taking communion from the She-Devil?

[Mona Alona]

I heard that one year Fr. Fred dressed as the pope and rode around in a golf cart that was fashioned in a way to look like the popemobile.

[Carol Blankfield]

Ellen and James:

I attended this mass (I attended because I had seen the bulletin for the week before)- It was 5 PM Saturday, October 28, 2006, last weekend. It was at 6 Liberty, Aliso Viejo (temporary home of Corpus Christi Parish pastored by Fred Baily)It is an office building - they are moving to their "Mass in the Round" Grand hall - first mass- this weekend.

Check out their website and bulletin dated Oct. 22 - inviting parishioners to come in costume and that Fr. Fred would be dressing as - surprise "I love you, you love me".
He did.

Go here for an interview with Fr. Fred from 2001 (which means the article is in reference to his donning his Superman costume under his vestments for Halloween in 2000) This has been going on under B. Brown's approval for at LEAST 6 years.

Bishop Brown was installed in 1999.
Bishop Brown has given this sacriligious, spiritually sick priest a PASTORSHIP in the fastest growing area of the diocese - Currently Fr. Bailey's new Grand Hall seats 800.

He's been doing this since B. Brown arrived - same class at St. John's seminary?? or just a protege?

Bishop Brown in supporting and promoting this type of parish and parish activity.

The FAQ's on the Corpus Christi website quotes Fr. Fred Bailey as saying that the Diocese of Orange (Bishop Tod Brown, CEO) GAVE him the property - worth approx $2,700,000 (that's 2.7mllion) to build this parish.

We must pray and write the Holy Father, the Sacred Congregations and the Nuncio, Pietro Sambi, in Washington D.C.
You can find their addresses on

http://www.catholic-hierarchy.org

Please - if you've done nothing yet. Do this. Faith without works is dead.

[Carol Blankfield]

VIDEO!!!!!!

There is a 5 minute video clip of this mass available on a link at www.CRCOA.com (Concerned Roman Catholics of America - the people who set up the donation fund for Fr. Mackin at St. Mary's by the Sea)
It's in the second post on their homepage.

Sorry, I left this out of my last post.
Here's the link to the interview w/ Fr. Fred

http://www.losangelesmission.com/ed/articles/2001/0101bd.htm

[TradCathYouth]

"Restore the Sacred" is one of the very few groups, in my opinion, that has enough guts to fight against such irreverence, banalities, and even sacrilege promoted by Bishop Brown. I wish someone would start a group like that here in VA, as some of these Novus Ordo Masses in Virginia Beach(though i'm in Richmond at the moment) may not be as bad, but are banal nonetheless. I sincerely pray for other priests in the N.O. to embrace Tradition.

Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart, pray for us!

[TM Lutas]

I would guess that the appropriate letter writing chain would be to write Bishop Brown, asking for clarification under what circumstances is the wearing of costume horns appropriate during liturgy. I'm reasonably certain that this comes under the ban against spectacle masses. A cc: to his metropolitan, Cardinal Mahony would be appropriate as well as a cc: to the nuncio.

My point is don't forget subsidiarity. You can have all the expectations in the world that Bishop Brown will round file your letter, Cardinal Mahony too. But clogging up the lines to Rome without even trying to solve it locally is not going to be received as well as a protest that respects the legitimate principle of subsidiarity. It's worth an extra $0.80 to be visibly seen as obeying the principle.

The first impulse of the central authorities is very likely to ask Bishop Brown what his actions were to date. How well will it sound when he says "I have received no complaints, no letters from the people you tell me about. It's a pity that they feel it's ok to act in such a disrespectful manner." With that simple response, Bishop Brown is halfway to getting off the hook and certainly can stymie action for several months as he asks for time to gear up an investigation/internal process.

By letting Bishop Brown get first crack at fixing things prior to being asked about it by higher authorities, you shave some time off his available delaying tactics and make it more likely that something will actually get done to fix the situation.

btw: along with a request for clarification on the horns, the wig and the short sleeves are other areas to ask about. I'm not sure either is part of an acceptable dress code. Defining deviancy down is a real issue.

[Thomistic]

Roger Cardinal Mahony is not Bishop Tod Brown's "metropolitan". He has absolutely zero authority over Bishop Tod Brown or any of the goings on in the Diocese of Orange.

It is erroneous to suggest that writing a letter to Mahony would be productive in any way when the subject of the letter is a matter like this in the Diocese of Orange.

By all means, write the nuncio, and the appropriate offices in Rome, and even Bishop Brown, but don't waste your time carbon copying Mahony. He's not in the chain of command. Tod Brown's immediate superior is the Pope. The Holy Father does utilize the intermediaries in the various Holy Offices in the Vatican, and the nuncio has a role, but you should only include Mahony when you are writing about the Los Angeles Archdiocese (and Orange isn't part of that – it's a separate diocese).

[TM Lutas]

Thomistic - You really ought to set those wikipedia folks straight here as they are putting a metropolitan overlay on the entire US. Mahony is listed as Brown's metropolitan bishop.

Now the post of metropolitan might have such attenuated powers that you're absolutely correct that Mahony couldn't do anything even if he wished. But please remember the stated intent which was to notify everybody so nobody has an excuse to say "they didn't tell me". If I am wrong, letter writers waste $0.40. If you are wrong, we can all waste 3 months.

[Greg Mont]

It is obvious that Bishop Tod Brown hasn't a clue and allows the impaired judgements of young adults to define his ministry. The Diocese of Philadelphia is run the same way: young adults define what young adults need. They create young adult groups, allow only young adults, mostly those who rolled out of bed only last week, to lead them and protect them. The clergy just show up and accommodate whatever the emotional need is for that week. Shame on them!

[Andrzej]

"...from some crack the smoke of Satan has entered the temple of God."
-- Pope Paul VI, June 29, 1972.

[Gary]

Don't send a letter to Cardinal Mahony!
We don't need to be giving him any more ideas.

I wouldn't be surprised to see him include this in next year's Religious Education Conference liturgies.

[mary ann in pittsburgh]

Does the Vatican know about this? one picture is worth a thousand words.

[George A. Cooney, Jr.]

Matthew: 7:15-20 -
Beware of false prophets, who come to you in the clothing of sheep, but inwardly they are ravening wolves.
By their fruits you shall know them. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles?
Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit: and the evil tree bringeth forth evil fruit.
A good tree CANNOT bring forth evil fruit: neither can an evil tree bring forth good fruit.
Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit SHALL BE CUT DOWN AND SHALL BE CAST INTO THE FIRE.
wHEREFORE BY THEIR FRUITS YOU SHALL KNOW THEM.

(This is spoken near the end of the Sermon on the Mount by Our Lord Jesus Christ.) I refer you to the Second Vatican Council and the Norvus Ordo Missae to examine their fruits.

[Carol Petrone]

Sed libera nos a malo.

what an excellent example of the schizoid nature of what has become a "mass" after Vatican II - yes, a mass...like as in carcinoma, malignancy, tumor, etc...

Not in any way a Holy Sacrifice of the Mass.
OREMUS !!

[Donald]

The Vatican needs to hear from all those blogging and watching these actions from around the world....this is a continuation of the test from the devil...he is saying..."this dumb flock...how far can I push the envelope before they finally speak up..." Erosion of the Church will come from within, laity...if you don't speak up now, and, frankly, stop giving money to promote this continuing erosion, it will continue...they only will go as far as WE let them. God bless "Restore the Sacred" from St. Mary's...these people have spoken on OUR behalf...they opened my eyes to fight back for what is good and holy, have they opened yours? Speak up now to help save all parishes from these hypocrisies and abominations...Letters and prayers!

[joseph]

If you are reading this, Father Fred, please – will you make up your mind whether you want to be a priest – or a game show host. You can't be both!

Another bit of advice: Bishop Brown has been asking for you to give him back his "I'd Rather Be Shopping At Nordstrom" license plate frame. He suggested you can
borrow his other frame "He Who Dies With The Most Toys Wins". You can pick it up at his mansion next week.

The "devil" with Poverty of Spirit, the disenfranchised, and all that tripe, right
Fred?!