SO…the media is going gaga over the successor to Archdiocese of Los Angeles Cardinal Roger Mahony: Diocese of San Antonio Archbishop Jose Gomez, who's a pedo-protector himself. The Orange County Register did one of its classic county barometer pieces where it gathers four or five people, asks them about a topic, then writes a story saying a particular “community” feels a certain way about something. In this case, it was about what Latinos thought of Gomez–of course they were proud!
They even placed a call to Jaime Soto, bishop of Sacramento and an OC native who used to be bishop here in la naranja and covered for many a pedophile in his days. But what the reporting by otherwise-fine writers Doug Irving and Theresa Cisneros didn't disclose is how Pope Benedict XVI royally screwed Soto.
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OC Catholics greeted Soto's transfer to the Diocese of Sacramento in 2007 with quizzical happiness–promotions are good, but why would Soto accept a position away from his home county, with widely reviled Bishop Tod D. Brown just a couple of years from retirement? Church insiders at the time insisted the Vatican orchestrated the move so that Soto could gain experience before heading back down to Southern California and taking over for Mahony–and Soto believed it.
Problem is, Soto is a liberal in the theo-political prism of American bishops and cardinals, and Benedict has so far preferred conservatives like Gomez to lead American Catholic dioceses. So, now, Soto is stuck in a theologically unimportant part of American Catholicism, with his only option for glory schlepping back down to Orange County to replace Brownie. Tee hee!
This isn't the first time Benedict has screwed with Orange diocese pedophile apologists. When Cirilo Flores was publicly announced as Orange's newest bishop last year, many onlookers noted the icy comments Monsignor Art Holquin, pastor at Mission San Juan Capistrano, gave. Holquin–notorious among orthodox Catholics for caring more about redecorating his living quarters than caring for parishioners–fully expected to be promoted as bishop, but was left hanging. Such is the vanity that rules the Orange diocese–heckuva job, Brownie!
