(October 9, 2007) - Most Rev. Tod D. Brown, the Roman Catholic Bishop of Orange apologized personally to two of the four young women whose lawsuits naming the Diocese had been formally settled in Superior Court just moments before.

In an impromptu news conference in front of the courthouse, Bishop Brown spoke directly to Christina Ruiz and Sarah Luckey Grey, standing nearby, “ to both of you, I offer my sincere and deepest apologies for what happened to you.”

The Bishop told the assembled media, “This settlement sends a strong message that this kind of behavior on the part of any diocesan employee is reprehensible, criminal, and sinful and in no way can be tolerated.”

The settlement, for a total of $6,685,000 recognized the moral obligation of the Diocese for the pain that the four young women had suffered as a result of sexual misconduct by lay personnel, three of them in Catholic High Schools.

The Bishop assured Catholics of Orange that there would be no impact on the Diocese’s Ministries, schools, parishes or programs as a result of the settlement, as the funds would come from the financial resources of the Diocese, partially from insurance and from ex-employee defendants.

In response to Superior Court Judge Gail Andler’s announcement deferring her decision on the plaintiff lawyer’s petition for a contempt of court citation against the Bishop, Trial Counsel Peter Callahan, reiterated to the media the clear position of the Diocese on the matter from the beginning.

He emphasized that even though the plaintiffs’ counsel had proposed settling this contempt citation as part of the overall settlement, the Diocese refused as a matter of principle in order to present the true facts in Court and not let Mr. Manly get away with his “sad and somewhat sorry legal stunt.”

“This is another in a long series of stunts by him to try to cast doubt on the Bishop, using false allegations,” said Mr. Callahan. “The Judge indicated that she is setting aside time on December 3^rd to hear parties on the matter. We will be there, if he wants to pursue it, in order to state our case and hopefully put an end to this latest ploy.”