Week in Review : MAJOR EVENTS, IMAGES AND PEOPLE IN ORANGE COUNTY NEWS : MISCELLANY / NEWSMAKERS AND MILESTONES

The Most Rev. William R. Johnson, appointed the first bishop of Orange County in 1976 but suffering from kidney and lung ailments for the last 18 months, died Monday at St. Joseph Hospital in Orange at age 67.

Two Eucharistic celebrations were held by the diocese to accommodate the large number of mourners expected.

A board of consultors--six priests from the diocese--named auxiliary bishop John T. Steinbock as interim administrator until Pope John Paul II appoints a successor sometime within the next six months. As auxiliary bishop, Steinbock does not automatically succeed to bishop. He is considered among the church hierarchy to be a candidate for the position, but not necessarily the leading candidate.

Steinbock said during a press conference that he would be bound by the stricture that “when the see (the bishop’s seat) is vacant, nothing is innovated.”

In a statement released by the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, where Johnson had been auxiliary bishop from 1971 to 1976, Archbishop Roger M. Mahoney said Johnson “served the church of Los Angeles and of Orange with vision, fidelity and generosity. As head of Catholic Charities of Los Angeles for many years, he expanded the church’s outreach to the poor and distressed with great compassion and energy.”

He said that Johnson’s memory “will remain at the very heart and center of the church’s fidelity to Christ’s compassion and concern for all peoples, especially the poor and the neglected.”

The Rev. Thomas J. Reese, associate editor of the Jesuit magazine America and an authority on the selection process, said the large percentage of Latinos in the Diocese of Orange--more than 50%, according to diocese estimates--probably will prompt a search for a Latino bishop.

At the same time, the diocese draws much of its financial support from well-to-do, conservative whites, Reese said. “It’s going to be an interesting diocese to fill.”