Bishop Tod D. Brown, who led the Dioceses of Orange for 14 years before his retirement in 2012, died early Sunday morning, church officials said. He was 86.
Brown came to the diocese in 1998 from the Diocese of Boise, leading Orange County Catholics until his retirement at age 75 – the typical age of retirement for bishops. He saw the diocese through several years of significant growth, including the purchase of the Crystal Cathedral in 2011, as well as its dark years addressing the clergy sex-abuse scandal locally.
During Brown’s tenure, the diocese more than doubled its membership and by 2012, he was shepherd to more than 1.2 million Catholics in Orange County. He recognized the diversity of the county’s Catholics, ordaining the nation’s first Vietnamese Roman Catholic bishop in 2003 and one of the few Hispanic bishops in the United States in 2000. He also development a relationship with the Archdiocese of Hanoi and made multiple trips to Vietnam.
“With his tireless spirit and witness to Christ, Bishop Brown faithfully served the people of the Diocese of Orange since 1998 when Pope St. John Paul II appointed him bishop and ordinary of our diocese. I remember especially his kindness to me when I was a newly ordained priest years ago, and we were together at the Casa Santa Maria in Rome in the Fall of 1981,” Bishop Kevin Vann, who has served the diocese since Brown’s retirement, said in a statement.
“I ask for your prayers for the repose of his soul and for thanksgiving to God for his many years of ministry and evangelization,” Vann said.
Monsignor Tuan Joseph Pham was Brown’s secretary for six years and said Brown had a vision for building a cathedral as the new spiritual home for the diocese.
Property near Segerstrom High was under consideration, when the Crystal Cathedral filed for bankruptcy protection and Brown and church leaders spoke with Rev. Robert Schuller about the 35-acre campus in Garden Grove.
In 2011, a federal judge…
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