Lifestyles of the Rich and Pious A Tour of the Orange Diocese’s Most Transubstantiastic Homes http://www.ocweekly.com/ink/05/02/cover-arellano.php
by Gustavo Arellano
Would you like to work for a company that, when facing millions of dollars in lawsuits, buys you a multimillion-dollar house? How about an employer who adds a second story to your already-massive abode even while the government forces it to pay $5.2 million to settle a lawsuit?
Think it can only happen at Halliburton? Well, think again: you can enjoy all of this if you’re a priest for the Catholic Diocese of Orange!
Yes, when Bishop Tod D. Brown became the spiritual head of Orange County’s 1.2 million Catholics in 1998, he abandoned the Church’s millennia-old practice of housing priests in humble rectories on parish grounds and began shacking up clergy in fancy digs few of the faithful could afford: quaint Balboa Island bungalows, beachside manses and other high-class abodes featuring three-car garages, walk-in closets and in-ground spas. In a confidential Sept. 3 memo written by Father Michael Heher to diocesan priests, Heher defended this practice by citing Brown’s policy of allowing priests "to live off-site, affording them more privacy and a place away from their work environment." And just last month, Brown admitted to purchasing a gated-community lot on which he plans to have built a multimillion-dollar mansion for himself near the proposed site of the $100 million Christ Our Savior Cathedral in Santa Ana (see accompanying story "Rooms at the Inn").
This is the same diocese currently pleading poverty in explaining why it can’t reach a settlement with sex-abuse victims and why it laid off 11 diocesan workers in the spring. Brown has repeatedly said he will not sell church property—parishes, convents, church halls, etc.—to free up more money for his operation. But what about the $2 million house whose sole tenant is retired Monsignor Lawrence Baird? Or the San Clemente complex mere minutes from the ocean? Considering there appears to be more than enough room at the inn for priests in the diocese’s 56 parish rectories, why doesn’t Brown consider a fire sale of its secular properties? In fact, if Brown begins with the following 10*, then the diocese could reap something like $8,837,323—very conservatively estimated—and get back to its main focus: paying out big-money settlements to victims of priestly rape.
Photos by Gustavo Arellano and Tenaya Hills
FONTASTIC
$1,101,041
406 Ave. Granada, San Clemente
Multi-unit, 2-story, 6 BR, 7BA, 3-car garage, upstairs patio. 3,964 sq. ft. home on a 4,320 sq. ft. lot. Up the street from the biggest baptismal basin in the world—the Pacific Ocean! Purchased in 2000.
MY ROCK AND MY SHELL
$680,900
39 Brigmore Aisle, Irvine
In Turtle Rock, next to park and hills! Private community. 2-story, 1,730 sq. ft. condo. 3 BR, 2.75 BA. Laundry room. His/her closet—but since women aren’t allowed into the priesthood, consider it His! Purchased in 2002.
WHOLLY WATER!
$2,065,812
304 Onyx Ave., Newport Beach
Historic 1926 bungalow on beautiful Balboa Island! 2-story, 2 BR, 1 BA, fireplace, den, range oven. 918 sq. ft. home on a 2,550 sq. ft. lot. Within walking distance of Balboa Pier and Balboa Bay Club. Cute weathervane in shape of a whale . . . or is that a Great Fish?! Job only knows. Purchased in 2000.
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