Pope Names Nevada Churchman to Head Diocese of Orange

Pope John Paul II on Monday named the Most Rev. Norman F. McFarland, bishop of Reno-Las Vegas, as bishop of Orange County, California’s second-largest diocese, which is formally known as the Diocese of Orange.

McFarland, 64, described as a devoted pastor and an excellent administrator, succeeds 67-year-old Bishop William R. Johnson, who died last July. McFarland will be installed as the second bishop of the diocese in ceremonies at Holy Family Cathedral in Orange on Feb. 24.

Johnson, Orange County’s first bishop, served from March, 1976, when the diocese was created as a separate entity from the Los Angeles Archdiocese, until his death on July 27.

In a telephone interview from his Reno chancery, McFarland said he was surprised to have been appointed and had “no prepared agenda, no blueprints or anything like that” for Orange County.

“I have to come down and take a look and listen and learn,” said McFarland, noting that he has visited Orange County several times but knows little about it.

Still, he acknowledged that he was aware of the great growth in the Diocese of Orange and expects to establish some new parishes. McFarland said he would like the church to help illegal aliens become citizens.

McFarland will be leaving a diocese that covers the state of Nevada and is geographically the largest in the country. But there are only 144,000 Catholics within the 110,829 square miles of Nevada compared to an estimated 600,000 Catholics within the 782 square miles of the Orange County diocese. About 200,000 of these are believed to be Latino immigrants who are not listed on parish rolls.

A towering figure with a shock of silver hair, the 6-foot, 5-inch McFarland was a strong religious and political presence during his 12 years in Nevada, the first two as an apostolic administrator and the last decade as bishop.

Whether he was railing against Nevada’s legalized prostitution or persuading other bishops to save his diocese from bankruptcy, McFarland “wanted his mind to be known. . . . He liked to be as visible as possible,” said Father Gilbert Kanuel, chancellor of the Reno-Las Vegas diocese.

McFarland also was known as an outspoken opponent of the proposed equal rights amendment, to abortion and to “schismatic” groups that insisted on celebrating the old Mass.

Advertised on Radio

In the early 1980s, McFarland promoted his church through radio advertising, explaining at the time, “I’m in sales. We believe in what we’re doing. We have good news to broadcast.”

McFarland, former pastor of San Francisco’s Mission Dolores, was sent to the financially troubled Nevada diocese in 1974 as an apostolic administrator charged with returning it to solvency. The diocese was $5.7 million in debt at the time.

The task took nine years, “but he did it with the whole church, the priests and the people, working together,” Kanuel said.

McFarland also erected many churches and tried to stay in touch with his far-flung parishioners, driving the 400 miles from one end of the state to the other nearly every week to attend confirmations and other religious events.

As part of his effort to understand his people, McFarland in the last 18 months has learned to speak Spanish, Kanuel said, and on Dec. 21 McFarland said the Mass for the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe entirely in Spanish.

“I can’t say that he’s very fluent in it,” Kanuel said. “But he knows the Spanish population is growing and he wants to be part of it.”

Well Regarded

Other Catholic leaders Monday had nothing but praise for McFarland. Cardinal Timothy Manning, former archbishop of Los Angeles, called him “a great churchman, a fine administrator, a very worthy successor to Bishop Johnson.”

Archbishop Pio Laghi, the papal representative in Washington, said in a brief statement that the bishop is “well-regarded, respected and has done a good job in his assignment in Nevada; thus he’s been offered this promotion.”

Archbishop Roger Mahony of Los Angeles noted in a statement that McFarland is skilled in canon law and church administration and “has a great love for his people and spends the majority of the weekends each year in parish visitation.”

McFarland was born in Martinez, Calif., in the Bay Area, and was educated at St. Joseph’s College in Mountain View and St. Patrick’s Seminary in Menlo Park. Before he was ordained as a priest of the Archdiocese of San Francisco in 1946, he did postgraduate studies at the Catholic University of America in Washington, where he earned a doctorate in canon law.