CALIFORNIA
The Orange County Register
By JIM HINCH / FOR THE REGISTER
Incoming Orange County Catholic Bishop Kevin Vann will do just about anything to pastor his people.
Last August, Vann paid a visit to a burgeoning parish in a suburb of Fort Worth, Texas, where he has been bishop for the past seven years. Vann was there to consecrate a newly built chapel, including a 100-foot bell tower.
Brushing aside the trepidations of parishioners, Vann insisted on riding a hydraulic lift to the top of the tower so he could sprinkle holy water directly on the bells.
“Are you willing to do this?” parish pastor Richard Eldredge recalled asking Vann.
“Yes!” Vann declared. …
During his time in Fort Worth the diocese nearly doubled in size to 710,000 Catholics. Vann presided over $135 million in building projects, including renovation of the diocese’s 120-year-old downtown cathedral and consecration of the nation’s largest Vietnamese parish church in Arlington.
He made public the names of priests credibly accused of sexual abuse and called the diocese’s prior handling of abuse cases “a huge moral failure.”
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