It's now been over a month since the Weekly revealed that Diocese of Orange Bishop Tod D. Brown had a molestation allegation lodged against him in the past. We knew Brown wouldn't comment on the matter (we thought about confronting him yesterday, when he presided over the Confirmation of my brother and others at St. Boniface in Anaheim, but thought better of it), but what has shocked us is that neither the bleeding Los Angeles Times or Orange County Register ever hopped on the story. We understand why the Times wouldn't follow up, but OC's paper of record unfortunately relies on press releases nowadays for religion coverage. In light of that, we can surely expect a news story about sex abuse in the Orange diocese soon, since famed Newport Beach attorney John Manly put out a press release yesterday announcing a new allegation. The text is below:
DIOCESE OF ORANGE ACCUSED OF SHIELDING SEXUAL PREDATOR
The Diocese of Orange today is being accused of shielding a sexual predator who was allowed to have unsupervised access to minors at various South County parish churches after being suspended for sexual misconduct with a minor female in 1995.
According to John C. Manly, attorney for the alleged victim, the perpetrator, a lay employee, was temporarily suspended from his job by officers of the diocese, but was allowed to return to work soon after. He then went on to allegedly continue to abuse the victim after that time.
Manly believes that the Diocese is now aware of an additional victim/s and still but refuses to publicly disclose the abuse or the names of perpetrator.
“In 2001 and again in 2002, Bishop Tod D. Brown and other Diocesan leaders committed themselves to the full disclosure of those credibly accused of sexual abuse,” Manly said. “But this alleged perpetrator was not on the list and his name still has not been disclosed. In addition, the Diocese continues to refuse to disclose the names of known perpetrators who operated at Mater Dei.”
Manly is calling on Bishop Brown to immediately disclose the name of the perpetrator in South County who was recently suspended, along with the names of any other accused abusers.
In addition to providing these names to the public and law enforcement, Manly says that the Bishop should immediately report all personnel who were aware of the alleged abuse and failed to report as required by California law.
“Obviously, the Bishop and the other members of the hierarchy still don't care about the safety of children,” Manly said. “Until law enforcement begins prosecuting those who fail to report and sending alleged perpetrators to prison, the abuse will continue. The fact that the diocese and the Bishop would leave someone in ministry for more than 12 years after they learned that the man was an alleged abuser shows a callousness towards children that is based in arrogance and disregard for the rule of law.”
