Nevada Bishop Named to Take Over Orange Diocese

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

McFarland, 64, described as a devoted pastor and an excellent administrator, succeeds William R. Johnson, the diocese’s first bishop, who served until last July when he died at 67. McFarland will be installed in ceremonies at Holy Family Cathedral in Orange on Feb. 24.

“Naturally, I am greatly honored by this mark of confidence in me,” McFarland said in a statement read by Father Gilbert Kanuel, chancellor of the Reno-Las Vegas Diocese. “The Holy Father has entrusted to me a populous and important see in my native state. However, during the last 12 years I have become a Nevadan by adoption and by affection. I love Nevada, its land and its people, and especially the church in Nevada. It is very, very difficult for me to leave. Nevada and Orange will very much be in my prayers during this time of transition.”

In a statement to be read this weekend in Nevada parishes, McFarland says, “My appointment as bishop of the Diocese of Orange in California came as a total surprise to me. I am deeply moved and challenged.”

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, contrasted with 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 McFarland was a strong religious and political presence during his 12 years in Nevada, the first two as an apostolic administrator.

‘Liked to Be Visible’

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 Kanuel.

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

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 sold off excess church property and contacted bishops around the nation, asking for loans. By the mid-1970s, McFarland had begun to pay some of the loans back, although “sometimes he would send a check for a bishop for just one dollar, just as a token to say we would pay this back,” 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.

Said Mass in Spanish

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.”

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

Archbishop Pio Laghi, the papal ambassador to 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.”

It was Laghi who two weeks ago notified McFarland of his selection as Bishop of Orange.

Archbishop Roger Mahony of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles noted in a statement that McFarland was 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.”

The Most. Rev. John Steinbock, auxiliary bishop of Orange and someone who was considered a possible successor to Bishop Johnson, noted that McFarland had been a good friend of Johnson. He “has a good mixture of administrative and pastoral skills and I know the people, priests and religious will come to know him and love him as a good shepherd,” Steinbock said.

Born in Bay Area

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.

After working as an administrator in the San Francisco Archdiocese, he was ordained auxiliary bishop of San Francisco in 1970 and became pastor of historic Mission Dolores in San Francisco.

Commenting on his appointment, McFarland spoke of his admiration for Orange County’s first bishop. “May the Lord grant me a measure of Bishop Johnson’s holiness and wisdom as I try to build upon the foundation laid in Orange,” McFarland said.

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, 1986.

In his 10-year tenure, Johnson expanded the diocese from 44 to 52 parishes, created a department of Hispanic ministries, built subsidized housing for senior citizens, urged parishioners and priests to help Southeast Asian refugees, and celebrated a Christmas Mass each year at the County Jail.

McFarland is to visit his new diocese next Monday.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

New Orange Diocese bishop interviewed. Part II, Page 1.