Today, officials at Mater Dei High School sent out a two-page memo to alumni regarding the recent settlement involving the Catholic Diocese of Orange and four young women who claim they were abused by diocesan lay employees during the 1990s. Two of the perpetrators-- Jeff Andrade and Larry Stukenholtz--worked as assistant boys' basketball coach and choir director at the school, respectively. Both of them admitted to their guilt--Andrade in a sworn deposition, Stukenholtz as part of Mater Dei's i
We rarely read past Page Four of the Orange County Register's front page, since anything beyond that is usually Macy's ads and rehashed Associated Press or Reuters blurbs. Indeed, we didn't read past page four this morning until an eagle-eyed reader (gracias, amigo) alerted us to a full-page ad taken out by a group calling themselves "Friends of Msgr. John." The ad in question was an "Open Letter in Support of Msgr. John Urell," the priest who for years handled sex-abuse complaints in the Cathol
Barely 24 hours have passed since the Orange diocese's press conference, and already Bishop Tod D. Brown's spinmasters are trying to make His Excellency better than he is. On the diocesan website is a story titled "BISHOP OF ORANGE APOLOGIZES TO YOUNG WOMEN," in which the following is revealed:
Most Rev. Tod D. Brown, the Roman Catholic Bishop of Orange apologized personally to two of the four young women whose lawsuits naming the Diocese had been formally settled in Superior Court just moment
On Oct. 9, Diocese of Orange Bishop Tod D. Brown issued a letter to the county's Catholics explaining his recent $6.685 million settlement with four sex-abuse victims of diocesan lay employees. He talked about apologizing to two of the victims (read a different account here), about how sex abuse is wrong, and all that jazz. Then His Excellency said the strangest thing about Mater Dei High School, where two of the settled cases occurred:
On the eve of a December 3 contempt-of-court hearing against Catholic Diocese of Orange Bishop Tod D. Brown, longtime diocesan lawyer (and Orange County's 14th Scariest Person for 2007) Peter Callahan remains brazenly arrogant in discussing his client's terrible role in protecting pedophiles and statutory rapists. This time around, Callahan granted an "interview" to the Orange diocese's website (if by "interview," you can accept it as "shameless attempt at spin paid for by the faithful's donatio
Hey, kids! Your favorite pedophile-tolerating, victim-ignoring, down-breaking Monsignor is back! Well, he may not be YOUR favorite. He's certainly Matt Cunningham's favorite.
The Diocese of Orange announced this week that Msgr. John Urell is expected to return as pastor of St. Norbert Church in Orange sometime after Easter. Urell was discharged from a Canadian psychiatric facility earlier this week, after suffering a so-called anxiety attack on the witness stand back in October. From the Reg:
...For denying you the pedophile-apologist stylings of Father Christopher Heath, priest at St. Edward the Confessor in Dana Point. A faithful reader turned us on to Heath's blog today, where he reveals that Monsignor John Urell is back after skipping out to Canada for half-a-year to deal with the anxiety brought on by his pedo-protecting ways. Rather, that's the truth: Heath's spin is Urell is "healing from the horrible stress of accusations and media attention."
"Accusations and media attentio
