New auxiliary bishop has Newport ties

Pope Benedict XVI has appointed the Rev. Cirilo Flores, the pastor of St. Norbert’s Church in Orange, as the Orange County Diocese’s auxiliary bishop, officials announced Monday.

During his 18 years of service to Orange County, Flores served as a parochial vicar at St. Joachim parish in Costa Mesa from 1995 to 1997 and briefly served in 1996 and 1997 as the administrator of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel Parish in Newport Beach. The Corona native was ordained a priest in 1991.

His new duties will include helping Bishop Tod D. Brown with the diocese’s administrative duties. The diocese represents 1.2 million parishioners in Orange County.

“This appointment reflects Bishop-elect Flores’ impressive credentials and his reputation as an inspirational leader,” Brown said at a Monday news conference.

“Just last month I was installed as the new pastor of St. Norbert’s Parish in Orange and was settling down and getting to know the parishioners there,” Flores said. “I certainly wasn’t imagining anything like this. And so I was very surprised — I think you might say shocked — when I received the invitation from the Holy Father to become the auxiliary bishop.”

Flores will be ordained auxiliary bishop at a March 19 ceremony. At some point soon after that he will move on from St. Norbert’s.

Flores was a lawyer who graduated from Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles and the Stanford University School of Law when he decided to enter the priesthood in 1986.

The Rev. Stephen Doktorczyk of St. Joachim Church praised Flores.

“He’s very qualified and very much a gentleman,” Doktorczyk said. “He’s a really hard worker who cares about people and the church.”

— Paul Anderson