Now that the body of former Diocese of Orange Bishop Norman McFarland is cold and in dead in the ground, let's piss on his grave–specifically, the lie passed off as fact by the mainstream media that McFarland was a whiz with the Church's finances.
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It's something highlighted in his official hagiography–that McFarland saved the Diocese of Reno from bankruptcy in the 1970s, and that he shored up finances in the Orange diocese when he arrived in 1986. Current Bishop Tod D. Brown gushed to the Orange County Register that even in his final days, McFarland wanted an accounting of all diocesan expenses.
Nice story if it were true. Truth is, McFarland is more culpable than anyone for costing the Orange diocese $100 million in sex-abuse settlements. It was under McFarland's reign that the diocese's practice of hiring high-priced asshole lawyers to badger sex-abuse victims began. It was McFarland who did nothing to prosecute Michael Harris, who alone cost the diocese millions. It was McFarland who allowed other pedophiles to terrorize the pews of county churches, pedophiles who cost Catholics more millions. If McFarland were a politician and a Democrat, the Tea Baggers would categorize him as the epitome of waste.
Instead, he received a nice funeral at Holy Family Cathedral. Heckuva job, Brownie!
