Pastor's Corner

Bishop Kevin Vann will be addressing the Christian Community for the first time regarding his vision of Christian unity. This is open to all people. I hope that we will have a good turn out of people from St Cecilia's. It is rare that we are able to host such an important event at our parish. All are welcome!

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This has been quite a year for Catholics and especially Catholics from Orange County.  Not only do we have a new Bishop and a new Cathedral, we have a new Pope! Pope Francis is the first Latin American to be elected pontiff which underscores the universality of the Catholic faith.  The Holy Father spoke these words at his Mass of Inauguration as Vicar of Christ, "Let us not forget that hatred, envy and pride defile our lives!  Being protectors, then, also means keeping watch over our emotions, over our hearts, because they are the seat of good and evil intentions: intentions that build up and tear down!  We must not be afraid of goodness or even tenderness!"  The Pope has already been noted appreciably for his concern for the poor and his life of simplicity which he is encouraging the People of God to imitate.  " I pray for you, so that your faith may become convinced, strong, like a plant that grows and brings forth good fruit. May the Gospel be your rule of life as it was for St. Francis of Assisi. Read the Gospel, meditate on it, follow it: humility, simplicity, fraternity, service; all in trust in God the Father, in the joy of having a Father in heaven who always listens and speaks to your heart. Follow his voice, and you will bear fruit in love!"

Thank you to the parishioners partaking in the CPK Dine-Out fundraiser on April 24th. Through your patronage the Church will receive a donation of $186.

Please mark your calendars for the upcoming Ruby’s Diner Dine-Out fundraiser on May 22nd and 23rd.

Congratulations to our Filipino Ministry which hosted our Saturday night of Line Dancing. For beginners and experts it was great family fun. We hope to have another soon!

Click here to view all of the photos from our line dancing event.

Dear Parishioners,

I am happy to announce that Jeremy Lambert, who was Baptized in 1984 in our church of St Cecilia’s was ordained a Transitional Deacon for the religious order of the Legionariorum Christi. Please keep Deacon Jeremy in your prayers as he prepares now for ordination to the Priesthood. We welcome Deacon to the long line of priest vocations that have come from our parish!

Fr Al

Update! We received word from Rome that Deacon Jeremy was ordained to the Priesthood this last December 15th. Let us remember Father in our prayers. May God grant him a blessed and fruitful ministry

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Bishop Kevin Vann to Succeed Bishop Tod D. Brown;
Bishop Vann Will Serve as the Fourth Bishop of Orange

Orange, CA --- His Holiness, Pope Benedict XVI has announced today that Bishop Kevin Vann (61) will succeed Bishop Tod D. Brown as the Bishop of Orange. Bishop Vann, the current Bishop of Fort Worth, Texas, will be installed as the fourth Bishop of Orange in December. Bishop Brown was advised of the new appointment by the Papal Nuncio, the official representative of the Holy See for the United States, Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano.

Bishop Brown, who was appointed the Bishop of Orange on the 30th of June 1998, reached the mandatory retirement age last year and completes 14 years of service as the leader of the tenth largest Roman Catholic population in the United States. The Diocese is comprised of 62 parishes and diocesan centers and has a population of 1.2 million Catholics.

Bishop Vann has distinguished himself during his seven year tenure as Bishop of Fort Worth and in prior assignments as priest, pastor and member of important Church committees and panels. In Texas he is considered an opinion leader. He is recognized for innovative parish-based and diocesan initiatives. He is an important member of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops' Committee on Migration and is a leader in immigration reform in the State of Texas. Bishop Vann is known for his ongoing outreach to all immigrant communities including the growing Vietnamese and Asian populations now present in Texas.

The native of Springfield, Ill., Vann is an accomplished pianist, an expert in canon law and great business acumen. When Vann was installed as Bishop in 2005, the Ft. Worth diocese served 400,000 area Catholics. Today, its larger and more dynamic Catholic community has grown to more than 600,000 registered congregants. Much of the growth is credited to Vann's expansion of existing parish communities and an estimated $135 Million in capital improvements applied throughout the diocese during his administration. These improvements included the construction of one of the largest Catholic Churches in the United States serving a predominantly Vietnamese congregation - the Arlington (Texas) Vietnamese Martyrs Church. He also restructured the local Catholic School system to a cost-based tuition system to ensure the financial viability of each school, while also creating a million dollar scholarship fund to provide tuition assistance. His leadership further contributed to the expansion of Catholic Charities in the region and the opening of a new facility to accommodate that ministry's growing needs. During his tenure the number of seminarians, ordained priests, women religious and lay Catholics serving the Diocese of Fort Worth has significantly increased.

Bishop Vann was instrumental in the development of the Ordinariate of St. Peter - to accommodate the ordination of former Episcopalian priests into the Catholic Church. Former Episcopalian priest, Fr Andrew Bartus, was recently ordained a Catholic Priest by Bishop Brown to serve in the Diocese of Orange.

BBishop Vann has also been involved in the important healthcare questions of the day and has taken a strong position against the present form of the Human and Health Services mandate of the Government.

Noting Vann's appointment, Bishop Tod D. Brown said:

"The Diocese of Fort Worth has enjoyed a dynamic period of growth and the demands for comprehensive pastoral services there are not unlike those we have experienced, here in the Diocese of Orange. Bishop Vann enjoys an enviable record of success and I am exceedingly pleased by his appointment as my episcopal successor.

"While we have accomplished much in the years since I succeeded Bishop Norman MacFarland, including the recent acquisition of the former Crystal Cathedral and its campus, much work remains to be done. This work will require an administrator with proven skills and a spiritual leader with an abundance of faith. Bishop Kevin Vann has these attributes and much more. We are all blessed by his selection and I assure you - that I will do all I can to help make his transition to this important new responsibility enjoyable and productive.

"I plan to address the Diocese sometime soon and to reflect on the journey we have taken together. For now, the news is not about me - it is about our Diocese of Orange stepping into the future with its dynamic new leader.

"Let us celebrate this news and warmly welcome Bishop Vann into our spiritual lives and our diocesan community."

The Crystal Cathedral sanctuary known around the world for its flying angels and messages of positive thinking on Wednesday became a place of prayer for its new owners: Orange County's Catholics.

More than 1,200 Catholics filled the cathedral for the first Roman Catholic event held in the Protestant megachurch since the campus was bought by the Diocese of Orange in a court-ordered bankruptcy sale.

Read the full article here: http://ocregister.com/news/cathedral-374195-catholic-church.html

An Episcopal priest and Anglican congregations from Orange and San Diego counties join the Catholic Church in San Juan Capistrano on Tuesday.

Father Andrew Bartus, right, is ordained into the Catholic priesthood by Bishop Tod Brown. Credit: Penny Arévalo

Nearly 500 years after the Church of England broke away from Roman Catholicism, a small group of Episcopalians returned to the fold Tuesday during a special Mass at Mission Basilica in San Juan Capistrano.

As part of a reunification program authorized by Pope Benedict, two Episcopal congregations and a married Anglican priest were welcomed into the Catholic faith during the service, which was led by Bishop Tod Brown.

The Anglican churches, Blessed John Henry Newman of Santa Ana and Vista-based Saint Augustine of Canterbury, are now organized in “ordinariates,” geographic regions similar to a Catholic diocese.

In addition, Anglican priest Andrew Bartus was officially ordained as a Catholic priest Tuesday, even though he is married and has a child. Like others joining the Catholic Church across the nation, his congregation will maintain distinctive elements of Anglican practices.

All told, about 70 members of both congregations were confirmed as Catholics at the ceremony.

“What a joy it is for me to be a part of this holy work today," Msgr. Jeffrey N. Steenson told the crowd. Referring to the New Testament's book of Ephesians, he said the newcomers were “no longer sojourners or travelers... you are citizens, like all the saints, members of God’s household.”

In the audience, Fred and Barbara Wood of Oceanside said they couldn’t wait for the times to catch up to them. They recently left the Episcopal Church earlier – where Fred was a deacon – and joined St. Margaret, a Catholic parish in Oceanside. They made the trip to San Juan because they knew many of the newly confirmed and wanted to show their support, they said.

With everyone together again, it felt “absolutely” like home, Fred Wood said.

In 2009, Pope Benedict XVI paved the way for reunification with willing Episcopalians. The U.S. Ordinariates were formed at the beginning of the year, and Tuesday’s Mass was the first of its kind for Orange and San Diego counties.

Although the media have reported conservative Episcopalians are joining Catholics as a response to liberal policies, such as allowing gay bishops and female priests, there was no talk of such issues at Mission Basilica on Tuesday.

“I’m here to support my mother,” said Marie McCarron of Vista, who belongs to St. Patrick Catholic Church in Carlsbad. Her mom, Irene Gilmore, had been Episcopalian. “It makes me glad we’re now the same faith. We’re blessed. I feel blessed.”

The coming together was also poignant for Msgr. Arthur Holquin of Mission Basilica.

“I was ordained in 1974, just 10 years after the [Second Vatican Council],” Holquin said. The great goal of the council was to realize the Lord’s dream in the Last Supper that all might be one.”

(This story taken from the July 4, 2012 edition of the San Juan Capistrano Patch)

Beginning Wednesday, December 14th, we will begin singing Evening Prayer with Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament from 7pm to 8pm in English. This will be accompanied by organ. Adoration will then continue as usual from 8pm to 8:30pm in Vietnamese and 8:30pm to 9pm in Spanish. Please join us for a beautiful experience of traditional chant in front of the Blessed Sacrament!

Dear Presbyterate and Laity of our Diocese of Orange,

Last night Judge Robert Kwan confirmed a bankruptcy plan that awards the Crystal Cathedral and surrounding campus to the Diocese of Orange. I want to thank all of you who were praying for this outcome and for the wise and helpful counsel I received from my many lay advisors and diocesan staff.

Dr. Schuller has been a key figure both in Orange County and around the globe for many years; I wish Crystal Cathedral Ministries success with their reorganized finances. Dr. Doti and Chapman University are also pivotal to the life of our county; we wish them well with their future plans.

This outcome addresses our efforts to have a cathedral large enough to meet our present and anticipated needs. I was surprised and gratified that so many people told me they were hoping we would be successful; it is clear by all the interest focused on our efforts that many of our laity understand the need for and importance of such a cathedral for Catholics in Orange County.

As the days draw close to Thanksgiving, let us attend with gratitude to all of the blessings that we have received as a gift from God, not on what we lack.

In Christ our Savior,
Tod D. Brown
Bishop of Orange

• The Church has upgraded the Church Alcoves (Sacred Heart, Joseph, and Mary) to now provide candles for prayer and remembrance.
• The candles will last 5-6 days and will only be available through the Office.
• The price per candle will be: $4 (includes all applicable taxes)
• Candles are to be placed in an empty globe in the particular Alcove you desire, and then lit.

-------Lighting A Candle-------
Is a SIGN of our prayer and the offering of our lives

Is a REMINDER to us and others of the Saints
Who have shone as lights of the world and
Who pray for us

Is a WITNESS to all who pass by
that this is a place of prayer

On November 21 of this year, Bishop Tod Brown will tender his resignation to the Holy See. Upon reaching their 75th birthdays, all bishops are required by the Canon Law of the Church to send to the Holy Father a letter of resignation. When received it is the decision of the Pope as to when a bishop will be asked to step down from his diocese. As we near the date of Bishop Brown’s resignation we ask the Lord to bless him for his years of service to the people of the Church of Orange and we ask the Lord to bless us with a new shepherd who will guide us deeper into holiness and faith.

“O God eternal shepherd, who govern your flock with unfailing care, grant in your boundless fatherly love a pastor for your Church who will please you by his holiness and to us show watchful care. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, forever and ever. Amen.”

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