Bishop of Orange to Oversee Troubled Fresno Diocese

Bishop Norman F. McFarland of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Orange was named Tuesday as temporary administrator of the Fresno diocese, six months after leading an investigation into problems and discontent there.

At the same time, Pope John Paul II transferred Bishop Joseph J. Madera from Fresno, effective July 1, to become an auxiliary bishop for Roman Catholics in the military.

McFarland’s three-bishop panel conducted one of the highest-level inquiries within the U. S. Catholic Church in recent years. The inquiry examined an internal financial deficit that in 1989 neared $1 million. Also investigated were staffing and program cutbacks and widespread discontent among pastors and diocese personnel.

McFarland will continue to lead the 520,000-member Diocese of Orange while he temporarily oversees the sprawling Fresno diocese. It includes 350,000 Catholics in eight Central California counties. No time limit has been set for naming a permanent replacement for Madera, McFarland said.

“I can’t comment on the report except to say that there were never any allegations of wrongdoing,” McFarland said Tuesday about the panel’s conclusions. The findings, which were not made public, were sent to the Holy See in December.

McFarland said the evaluation was based on interviews with about 50 priests in the diocese conducted over a three-day period last November. The other panel members were Archbishop Robert Sanchez of Santa Fe, N. M., and Bishop Raymond Pena of El Paso, Tex.

Madera, 63, restricted comment on his reassignment to a press release issued by the chancery office. “I gave myself without reservation to the priests and to all the people of the Diocese of Fresno for 11 years,” he said.

Madera will be one of three auxiliary bishops serving about 2 million Roman Catholics and their families in the U. S. military worldwide. He will report to Archbishop Joseph Dimino of the Archdiocese for the Military Services in Washington.

Earlier, Madera cited computer and accounting problems, changes in financial markets and bad investment advice for the reverses that began to plunge the diocese into the red. The diocese’s 1986 purchase and operating costs for an educational television station, KNXT, have been generally blamed for touching off the sharp downturn.

A veteran Fresno priest, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Tuesday that the TV station was still losing money and that he expected McFarland to “sell it off immediately . . . but we’re not in hock with the bank, or anything.”

“Everyone’s been expecting this,” the priest added. “Even the average person in the pews knows about the administrative problems. . . . There are terribly mixed feelings. He’s a lovely pastoral man, very kind and sweet . . . but it’s painfully obvious he can’t handle the everyday administration we expect of American bishops.”

Msgr. J. Wayne Hayes, a chancery official in Fresno, said the diocese was “recovering financially” but declined to give specific figures.

McFarland, 69, was appointed Bishop of Orange in 1986. “I come with no set agenda,” he said of his added responsibilities.