Diocese Of Orange

At a small Catholic church in Huntington Beach, the pressing moral question comes to this: Does kneeling at the wrong time during worship make you a sinner? Kneeling "is clearly rebellion, grave disobedience and mortal sin," Father Martin Tran, pastor at St. Mary's by the Sea, told his flock in a recent church bulletin. The Diocese of Orange backs Tran's anti-kneeling edict.

The Diocese of Orange and Santa Ana Mater Dei High have reached agreement in principle to settle a 2-year-old lawsuit against the CIF Southern Section that alleged unfair treatment and discrimination against Mater Dei athletes, attorney Jerome Jackson said Thursday. A notice of settlement is expected to be filed Friday. Jackson said his clients are satisfied that a change in attitude has occurred at the Southern Section office, citing the retirement of former commissioner Jim Staunton and the hiring of new Commissioner Rob Wigod.

The Diocese of Orange on Wednesday angrily denied allegations by a group of Catholic school parents that a parish priest had allowed unsafe conditions to persist at St. Joseph School here. "It is simply incorrect to say that we failed to take further action," said Msgr. Lawrence J. Baird, a spokesman for the diocese. "We took action as is documented by two different environmental reports."

A Texas bishop was appointed Friday to lead the fastest-growing Catholic parish in the nation, Pope Benedict XVI announced. Kevin W. Vann, 61, will succeed Tod Brown as the bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Orange at a formal ceremony in December. Brown, who has been leader of the Orange County diocese since 1998, reached the Vatican's mandatory retirement age of 75 last November. "Bishop Vann enjoys an enviable record of success and I am exceedingly pleased by his appointment," Brown said at a news conference in Orange.

Desperately alone in his dark world, 20-year-old Jesus Orbina began to shake and cry uncontrollably when a message delivered to prisoners throughout the world Sunday came to him inside the Los Angeles County Men's Central Jail. You have not been forgotten, the suicidal Orbina was told. People out there love you.

The Catholic Diocese of Orange is now accepting applications for grants to fund self-help projects for poor and low-income groups. Forms for 1993 grants are now available, and the deadline for applications is Nov. 1. For further information, contact Msgr. John Urell, Campaign for Human Development, 2811 Villareal Drive, Orange 92667. The grants for programs aimed at social change are sponsored by the U.S. Catholic Bishops and are funded by an annual collection at churches throughout the

J. Carlos Martinez, the Catholic Diocese of Orange's first priest to be born and raised in Mexico, will be ordained along with four others by Bishop Norman F. McFarland at 10 a.m. Saturday at Holy Family Cathedral, 566 S. Glassell St., Orange. Martinez, 28, entered the seminary in Saltillo, Mexico, and completed his studies at St. John's Seminary in Camarillo. He will be assigned as an associate pastor to Immaculate Heart of Mary parish in Santa Ana. The other new priests are: Alfred S. Baca, 28, a graduate of Garden Grove High School, Cal State Fullerton and St. John's Seminary.

Bishop Norman F. McFarland of the Diocese of Orange announced Tuesday that tuition grants totaling $500,000 have been awarded to 410 students attending the county's Catholic schools. Letters have been sent to the recipients' parents and guardians explaining that the money, from the Bishop's Scholarship Fund, will be applied to their accounts for the 1989-90 school year. Checks for half the amount have been sent to the schools.

Thunderous applause filled Holy Family Cathedral in Orange Tuesday as the Most Rev. Michael P. Driscoll was ordained auxiliary bishop for the Roman Catholic Diocese of Orange, California's second largest. Two dozen bishops from a number of Western states, more than 250 priests and an apostolic delegate helped fill the cathedral to witness the ceremony. As auxiliary bishop, Driscoll will assist the Most Rev. Norman F.

The sale of the bankrupt Crystal Cathedral to the Roman Catholic Diocese of Orange has been delayed, in part because of a purported 99-year lease brought to the court's attention days before the sale was to be finalized. On Jan. 25, lawyers in the case received a letter detailing an agreement that entitles the Crystal Cathedral congregation to the long-term lease for $1 per year. The diocese, which said it "has serious doubts regarding the alleged lease's existence," demanded signed copies of the lease by Jan. 27. The Crystal Cathedral was unable to produce any documentation.

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Orange has increased its bid to $55.4 million for the bankrupt Crystal Cathedral, pitting it against Chapman University in the quest to buy the iconic Garden Grove campus. A bankruptcy judge now will decide who will take over the Orange County landmark, founded by the Rev. Robert H. Schuller. Last week, Chapman University upped its bid to $51.5 million and was named the preferred buyer; the offer includes an option that would allow the Crystal Cathedral to lease and buy back core buildings.

The judge in the Crystal Cathedral bankruptcy case agreed Wednesday to move forward with an exit plan that calls for the sale of the church's Garden Grove property. In the next month, about 400 creditors will vote on an exit strategy; the Roman Catholic Diocese of Orange and Chapman University, both of which increased their initial bids, remain the leading candidates to buy the property. The creditors committee, composed of various vendors, is open to considering other offers, attorney Nanette Sanders told the court.

Chapman University and the Roman Catholic Diocese of Orange appear to be the front-runners to buy the bankrupt Crystal Cathedral, but if church insiders vote to block the sale of the property, creditors vow to sue, according to court documents filed Tuesday. In that event, the creditors committee would attempt to recover what it sees as "preferential" payments to church insiders in the two years leading up to the church's Chapter 11 filing, the documents say. A spokesman for the Crystal Cathedral did not respond to a request for comment.

John Steinbock, the Roman Catholic bishop of Fresno who presided over a period of tremendous growth in his Central Valley diocese and was known as a strong administrator, a down-to-earth cleric and a hole-in-one golfer, died Sunday of lung cancer. He was 73. A former parish priest in Los Angeles, Steinbock had led the Diocese of Fresno since 1991 and was credited with turning around its finances and welcoming the immigrants who accounted for an increasingly large proportion of its flock.

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Orange, acting on behalf of Santa Ana Mater Dei High, has filed a civil suit in Santa Ana Superior Court alleging that the CIF Southern Section has "applied rules relating to the eligibility of student-athletes at Mater Dei unfairly and inconsistently," according to diocese spokesman Ryan Lilyengren. The suit, filed Sept. 29, states that the Southern Section "has consistently, intentionally and systematically engaged in arbitrary and discriminatory actions against Mater Dei by issuing and enforcing unsupported and erroneous findings and rulings relating to eligibility of student athletes at Mater Dei. " This school year, the Southern Section declared ineligible a top water polo player who transferred to Mater Dei from Newport Harbor, and also a linebacker who transferred from a school in Connecticut.

Two lawsuits filed against the Roman Catholic Diocese of Orange on Wednesday claim that the former principal of Mater Dei High School repeatedly molested two boys around 1980, at times in his office. The accusers are the latest to lodge sexual abuse allegations against Michael Harris, once a popular priest known as "Father Hollywood" to students.

A ministry that wants to build a 175-acre retreat in south Orange County is backing out of a deal to sell a piece of the property to a private Christian high school because all religious instruction would be taught by Catholics. "The only reason the ministries had any interest in this at all was because this was to be a Christian school that would teach religion," said Tom Pistone, a spokesman for Rancho Capistrano Ministries.

Transparency and openness are virtues that parents and students expect from their high school sports programs, but Santa Margarita and the Roman Catholic Diocese of Orange apparently haven't gotten the message. They are seeking to block the CIF Southern Section from releasing information regarding the punishment imposed on football Coach Harry Welch for a recruiting violation. The violation stemmed from an open house Santa Margarita held at its new athletic facility on March 31. The section ruled that Welch and Santa Margarita were in violation of Blue Book rule 510 — undue influence — because Welch used the occasion to meet with a group of parents from a local youth football program.