For Orange, A Moving Vann – B16 Taps Fort Worth for Crystal Chair

For Orange, A Moving Vann – B16 Taps Fort Worth for Crystal Chair

Rocco Palmo
9/21/12
Whispers in the Loggia

Over recent years, it’s hard to think of a national project on which Bishop Kevin Vann hasn’t been intimately involved.

From serving on the three-member USCCB team that oversaw the Stateside implementation of Anglicanorum coetibus and mediating the bench’s oft-delicate relations with the nation’s Catholic hospitals, to filing suit against the Federal government over the contraceptive mandate of the Obama administration’s sweeping health-care reform, the 61 year-old prelate has cris-crossed considerably more ecclesial turf than the sprawling 28 counties of Northwest Texas he’s overseen since 2005.

Now, however, the latest task comes via Rome… and given its centerpiece, well, it’s worth its weight in Crystal.

This morning, the Pope named the energetic head of the booming Fort Worth church to lead the diocese of Orange, succeeding Bishop Tod Brown at the helm of the 1.3 million-member fold in Los Angeles’ southern suburbs.

Barring an expedited succession in Chicago – the nation’s third-largest diocese, where Cardinal Francis George, 75, is undergoing a fresh round of treatment for a recurrence of cancer – the move will be 2012′s most significant handover of an American see in terms of size.

On a lighter note, much as the nod’s coming alongside the release of this year’s edition of the iPhone is purely coincidental, with Vann’s affinity for technology – the iconic Apple device and his longtime blog inclusive – it’s nonetheless very fitting …

[A]ccording to early reports, Vann’s installation in Orange will take place in early December. Notably, while the main Mass itself is to be held in one of the diocese’s larger parish churches, the customary possession-eve Vespers are expected to take place in the local church’s soon-to-be seat: the Protestant landmark heretofore known as Crystal Cathedral, bought by the diocese for $57.5 million late last year and designated by Brown last June as Christ Cathedral on its dedication for Catholic worship, a moment tipped to occur by 2015.

The nominee having arrived in the OC last night, the usual Appointment Day presser is slated for 11am local time at the current pastoral center at Marywood, which is slated to be sold once the diocese takes full possession of the Crystal campus and can move its offices there.