Mass to Be Celebrated Thursday for Bishop

As funeral arrangements were announced Tuesday for the Most Rev. William R. Johnson and the machinery of succession began, tributes to the spiritual leader of Orange County’s 500,000 Catholics sounded common themes of outreach and compassion.

Johnson, 67, died Monday evening at St. Joseph Hospital in the City of Orange of complications of kidney and lung ailments. He had been in ill health for 1 1/2 years.

At a press conference in the City of Orange at Marywood, the headquarters of the Diocese of Orange, church officials detailed funeral plans for Johnson, who was appointed the county’s first bishop in 1976.

“We are having two Eucharistic celebrations for Bishop Johnson, in order to accommodate as many people as possible,” said the Most Rev. John T. Steinbock, auxiliary bishop of the diocese.

Mass Scheduled

A Mass for the lay community is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. Thursday at Holy Family Cathedral in Orange, with a viewing before and after the service until 10:30 p.m., when a Vigil service and a Rosary will be held.

At 10 a.m. Friday a Mass for Christian Burial will be held, for clergy and members of religious orders, also at Holy Family. There will no viewing Friday, and the Mass will be followed by interment at Holy Sepulchre Cemetery in Orange.

Flanked by a color portrait of Johnson, Steinbock announced that a “board of consultors,” composed of six priests from the diocese, had met and named Steinbock interim administrator of the diocese. As auxiliary bishop, Steinbock explained, he does not hold the right to automatic succession, which he would have as bishop co-adjutor.

As administrator, Steinbock said, he was bound by the stricture, which he quoted in Latin and then translated, that “when the see (the bishop’s seat) is vacant, nothing is innovated.”

Within the next two to 10 months, Pope John Paul II will appoint a successor to Bishop Johnson, based on the recommendation of the papal pronuncio, Archbishop Pio Laghi, who is based in Washington, D.C. Steinbock is considered by church sources as a candidate, but by no means a certain choice.

‘Great Sadness’

Speaking “with great sadness on the death of a loved one,” Steinbock praised Johnson as a leader who, in the last 18 months, “despite the pain and suffering he had experienced through this time . . . continued to give himself totally to the pastoral and administrative role as bishop.”

Johnson, Steinbock said, “was responsible for empowering the laity in fulfilling roles of leadership and in shared decision-making on the diocesan level, as well as encouraging this strongly on the parish level. . . . Under his direction, the Diocese of Orange and the Catholic population of Orange have been greatly involved in reaching out to the poor, the aged, the handicapped. We could go on and on concerning his leadership through these 10 years. We simply wish to say that he was a compassionate, loving person and will truly be missed and greatly remembered.”

In a statement released by the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, where Johnson served as auxiliary bishop from 1971 to 1976, Archbishop Roger M. Mahony 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.”

Johnson’s memory, Mahony said, “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.”

Leadership Praised

Mahony said Johnson’s “pastoral leadership in establishing a new Diocese of Orange 10 years ago and his subsequent development of that new local church will long remain as the most vivid witness of his priestliness and of his dedication as a shepherd. The Diocese of Orange flourishes with a great sense of renewal and vitality in Christ Jesus and its future is sealed for greatness because of Bishop Johnson’s vision and commitment.”

Henri E. Front, rabbi of Temple Beth David in Westminster and chairman of the Orange County Human Relations Commission, said that “the Roman Catholic community has lost a spiritual leader of deep sensitivity and great social consciousness,” and that Johnson’s death created “a profound sense of loss to that community and to all of us in Orange County.”

Members of the Jewish community, he said, “share this grief because he was somebody who shared our concern for people.” A recently instituted Holocaust memorial observation co-sponsored by the diocese, Front said, “was just typical of his awareness of our community.”

The Rev. John A. Huffman Jr., pastor of St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church in Newport Beach, called Johnson “a real Christian gentleman, a statesman of the highest order.” His death, Huffman said, “was a great loss to our community. I had the highest respect for Bishop Johnson as a colleague in ministry.”