Meeting Bishop Brown – Catholics May Kneel In Good Conscience

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Bishop Tod Brown is shown above at a celebration for "The Close of Christian Unity Week". On Thursday, January 25, 2001, Bishop Brown gathered with leaders from three Christian denominations at Mission Basilica San Juan Capistrano for an ecumenical prayer service, according to the Los Angeles Times. Episcopal bishop J. Jon Bruno, Lutheran bishop Murray Finck, Presbyterian elder Jane Odel, and Bishop Brown, each led a part of the service in which a crowd of 500, including 40 clergymen and clergywomen, participated. The service included a choir composed of the members of five churches and liturgical dancers moving interpretively in the aisles.

The paragraph above is a good example of Bishop Brown's willingness to extend a loving embrace to other Christians.

However, despite hundreds of letters and 1,200 signatures on a petition, 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!

Does that sound pastoral? Does it sound like a "wide and generous application of the directives issued by the Apostolic See for the use of the Roman Missal of 1962"? Or does it sound like an attempt to discourage attendance at the Tridentine Mass?

These things should be kept in mind while reading this Los Angeles Lay Catholic Mission article on the meeting between members of Restore The Sacred and Bishop Tod David Brown.

Here is the article: What Do You Mean by "Wiggle Room"? – St. Mary's by the Sea Parishioners Meet with Bishop Brown

Important to note: At the meeting, Bishop Brown allowed that those who choose to kneel after the Agnus Dei are free to do so, in conscience. He also admit that it was wrong to accuse kneeling parishioners of mortal sin.

For more details on Bishop Brown & the Diocese of Orange, see: Open Letter to Tod Brown, Bishop of Orange

Vocations director under fire in California

Comments

[Mark]

How can Bishop Todd Brown state that Catholics are free to kneel in conscience, but only if you attended the meeting with him or signed the flyer? This is what Father Tran said that Bishop Todd Brown meant. This is not even common sense! How can the Bishop state a set of different rules for different consciences? Oh what a tangled web we weave, when at first we practice to deceive!

[Michael]

I hate to say it, but these are times when I feel the process for choosing bishops needs to be revised. I am just not confident that an apostolic nuncio from Rome is completely qualified to make recommendations to the Pope. The California Church is a great example. Most of the bishops are from Southern California, which has a history of problems in its diocese and seminary. Yet, Mahoney's cronies keep getting picked to head the dioceses in the North. I have lived in the Diocese of Monterrey and the Diocese of Stockton, both of which are suffering greatly in areas of finance, vocations and church attendance. Who's to blame?

Evangelical Catholicism