Alternative weekly looks at Bishop Tod Brown

After a brief lead-in showing Brown’s infamous Jan. 18 Martin Luther rip-off (during which he nailed his “Covenant with the Faithful” to the door of Orange’s Holy Family Cathedral), Nightline correspondent Ron Claiborne went to business. He gave an excellent summary of the sex scandal that has plagued Catholic Orange County—named names, interviewed victims, even showed pictures of such notorious child rapists as John Lenihan and Michael Harris. Halfway through the piece, Claiborne bluntly asked Brown the question so many victims have asked for decades: Shouldn’t church leaders have known and done something about pedophilic priests?

Brown was quiet for a moment, furrowed his brow, and then said slowly, deliberately, “I think you’re correct.” Then he fell silent. The silence continued—an uncomfortable, disturbing silence that might’ve lasted maybe seven seconds but felt like 28 years.

Offscreen, Claiborne was incredulous. “You said they should’ve known?” he asked Brown.

Brown seemed to search for words. “It doesn’t make sense,” he acknowledged, that diocesan officials had coddled criminals for so long. “And I think that in the past, [the importance of transparency] wasn’t understood.”