Free Republic

When the Rev. Robert H. Schuller decided in the mid-1970s that his congregation was outgrowing the drive-in, low-slung Garden Grove church that Richard Neutra had designed for him 15 years earlier within earshot of Interstate 5, and that he needed a purpose-built cathedral to accommodate his increasingly popular “Hour of Power” televised sermons, he flew to New York to visit the architecture firm run by Philip Johnson and John Burgee. On the face of it, Schuller and Johnson were a very strange match, the self-made Orange County televangelist and the smoothly moneyed New York architect who was also an atheist...

The language seems sufficiently strong and clear. But not strong enough or clear enough, perhaps, for the diocese of Orange. “This Instruction, prepared by the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments by mandate of the Supreme Pontiff John Paul II ... was approved by the same Pontiff ... and he ordered it to be published and to observed immediately by all concerned” [emphasis added]. The diocese of Orange, it seems, has a unique definition for “immediately” and “by all concerned.” A June 11 memo sent to “Pastors, Priests, and Deacons” by Lesa Truxaw, directress of...

Simple move could save Diocese millions by Gustavo Arellano Brown just doesn’t get it. Plans for the not-yet-built $100 million Christ Our Savior Cathedral—or, as some church critics call it, the "Tod Mahal"—include a rectory to house priests, yet the Catholic Diocese of Orange continues to defend its purchase of a multimillion-dollar home in a gated Santa Ana community near the cathedral that sources say will serve as the bishop’s personal residence (see "Movin’ on Up," Aug. 13). "Its purchase is but one expression of the decision of the bishop to no longer remain ‘frozen in time’ by the threat...

A Tour of the Orange Diocese’s Most Transubstantiastic Homes by Gustavo Arellano Would you like to work for a company that, when facing millions of dollars in lawsuits, buys you a multimillion-dollar house? How about an employer who adds a second story to your already-massive abode even while the government forces it to pay $5.2 million to settle a lawsuit? Think it can only happen at Halliburton? Well, think again: you can enjoy all of this if you’re a priest for the Catholic Diocese of Orange! Yes, when Bishop Tod D. Brown became the spiritual head of Orange County’s 1.2...