Pope Benedict Appoints Fort Worth Bishop Kevin Vann To Diocese of Orange California ( Various Links)

Update - Whispers has the Bishop's statement at his press conference in California plus some other observations.

Update 2-
Bishop's Statement to The Faithful and Friends of the Diocese of Fort Worth

Statement from the Diocese of Fort Worth on Vann Appointment to Diocese of Orange.


Huge loss for Texas ( which  by this movement has 3 Sees vacant - Tyler, El Paso , and now Fort Worth) Bishop Kevin Vann of Fort Worth has been named Bishop of Orange County out in California. You know the place with that Crystal Cathedral we just bought. . BY THE WAY Bishop Vann took a great interest in that Cathedral just a few weeks ago hmmmm. )

Rocco Palmo has a good initial  post up just after this was announced in Rome at  For Orange, A Moving Vann – B16 Taps Fort Worth for Crystal Chair . As Rocco notes this  is  2012's most significant handover of an American see in terms of size. In other words pretty huge and important.


Sad news for Catholics in the Diocese of Fort Worth and the entire Dallas Fort Worth Metroplex as they wake up this morning. However great news for Catholics out in Orange County out on the West Coast.

Bishop Vann and his growing Diocese of Fort Worth has been a subject of great interest to me on this blog.

First for those concerned about Catholic patrimony in our architecture see my recent post Restoration and Expansion of Sacred Stained Glass In Catholic Diocese of Fort Worth ( Poor Man's Scripture )

To say the least Bishop Vann has been a huge friends to the  new Anglo Catholic Ordinariate and for Anglo Catholics coming to home to Rome for some time. One of the oldest Anglican Use Parishes in the United States is in his Diocese.

On the Vocation Front he has held his on with a current vocation class of  31 seminarians.

His affirmative Orthodoxy is on display for all to see. For instance please notice that he just brought in the growing FOCUS campus college ministry movement to his Diocese via the University of North Texas.


These are just a few thoughts I have had at first. However the Roman Noon appointment meant 5 a.m my time. Since I kept spelling FORT Worth as FORTH  Worth 4 times in this one post for some odd reason  I am going back to bed.

Look for updates on this post later in the day. We got some time since it appears the news conference releases shall be joint and done at same time in both Dioceses. ( 1 p.m. Central Time )