ORANGE (CA)
Patch
Pope Benedict XVI has appointed Bishop Kevin W. Vann of Fort Worth, Texas, to take over the much more populous Roman Catholic Diocese of Orange from Tod D. Brown, who is retiring after 14 years because he has reached the age of 75.
Brown planned to hold a news conference in Orange at 11:30 a.m. Friday to publicly announce his retirement and introduce the 61-year-old Vann, a native of Springfield, Ill., who became bishop in Fort Worth in July 2005 and soon will be Orange’s fourth bishop.
Before attending seminary in 1976, Vann worked as a medical technologist, according to a biography on the Fort Worth diocese’s website.
After taking over the Fort Worth diocese, Vann issued a stinging rebuke of his predecessor, saying Bishop Joseph Delaney’s handling of sex-abuse allegations against priests was a “huge moral failure.”
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