Thousand Attend Burial Rites for Bishop Johnson in Orange

Bishop William R. Johnson, eulogized by Cardinal Timothy Manning as “the first apostle of the new Diocese of Orange” and “a man who loved justice,” was buried Friday in the City of Orange.

Johnson, 67, died Monday of complications from a kidney ailment after serving as bishop of the newly established Orange diocese since 1976.

Twenty bishops from the western United States joined more than a thousand priests, nuns and members of various Roman Catholic religious orders at Holy Family Cathedral in Orange for the Mass of Christian Burial.

On Thursday night, an equal number of the laity filled the cathedral for a Mass memorializing Johnson.

Members of Johnson’s family occupied the first six rows of the cathedral Friday, with two relatives participating in the service. Three members of the Board of Supervisors, Thomas Riley, Roger Stanton and Ralph Clark, also attended.

‘Circles of Sadness’

Manning, assisted by Los Angeles Archbishop Roger M. Mahony and Bishop John T. Steinbock, auxiliary bishop of Orange, said in his homily--or sermon--that the bishop’s death created “concentric circles of sadness” rippling outward from Johnson’s family to the religious community and the community at large.

Noting the bishop’s “love for the Hispanic element of his diocese,” Manning said that Johnson was a man “dedicated to the poor,” endowed with “deep generosity,” “a sentimental heart” and “great compassion.” He had, the cardinal said, a “wide expansive mind” that, once made up, was backed by the “unbending steel of his will.”

Johnson’s mission in coming to Orange County, Manning said, was “the one, all-embracing destiny for which he was called . . . that was his destiny--to create a Diocese of Orange.”

In the time allotted him, Manning said, Johnson was able to lay the foundation of the diocese and “to give it a centrality of its own.”

In years to come, Manning added, “there will be a succession of bishops of Orange, but they will only be successors to the first bishop, William R. Johnson.”

As he finished his homily, Manning reached over and touched the casket, covered by a plain white cloth. The cloth, a pall, was a gift from the staff of Marywood, the diocesan headquarters, to the Johnson family.

Steinbock--who is being considered as a successor, according to church observers--read the last paragraph of Johnson’s will, pausing several times to retain his composure:

“I am deeply grateful to Almighty God for the privileges which have been granted to me in life to serve as priest and bishop. I humbly ask His pardon for my failings and weaknesses and beg His divine mercy for my soul. I ask the forgiveness of all whom I have injured or offended as I freely forgive all who who have injured or offended me. I beg the prayers of my brothers in the priesthood and the episcopacy as well as the people of the Diocese of Orange for the happy repose of my soul.”

Robed members of Protestant, Jewish, Greek Orthodox and Buddhist clergy participated in a processional entry into the cathedral, and later formed an escort as the casket was taken--preceded by Johnson’s ceremonial staff--from the sanctuary to a white hearse.

Before it was placed in the hearse and taken for burial at Holy Sepulcher Cemetery in Orange, each of the bishops dipped a small green bough into holy water and sprinkled the casket, a rite dating back to Biblical times.

Around the grounds of the cathedral, poster-size photographs of Johnson’s life, beginning with his childhood, were displayed under the title “Strong, Loving, Wise.”