Pastor at St. Joachim to be reassigned

Marisa O’Neil and Deirdre Newman

The Rev. Joseph Robillard, who came under fire from some parishioners

at St. Joachim Catholic Church, will be reassigned to another parish

after a six-month sabbatical.

Robillard, pastor at St. Joachim for six years, first announced

the change to parishioners during Mass and in the church bulletin

earlier this month, saying he will leave Dec. 31. The reassignment

was a “mutual decision” by Robillard and Bishop Tod Brown and will

come when he returns from his sabbatical in Rome, Robillard told the

Daily Pilot this week.

“It’s kind of like a divorce you don’t want, separating from a lot

of people you care about,” Robillard said of the decision. “I laughed

with them, cried with them, baptized their babies, buried their loved

ones. I asked for time off to go to on sabbatical before, then the

bishop said he would move me.”

In Rome, Robillard said, he will study liturgy and Scripture. He

said he will remain in Orange County, but does not know in what

parish.

“I have every expectation that the sabbatical will be a very

fruitful and beneficial time for Father Joe, and we look forward to

having him back in the Diocese of Orange after he finishes his

sabbatical,” said Jaime Soto, Auxiliary Bishop for the Roman Catholic

Diocese of Orange.

About 80 Latino parishioners staged a protest against Robillard in

September, claiming that he was discriminating against them and that

he was not available to discuss their concerns. Robillard called

their accusations “a bunch of lies.”

“We never asked to move him,” said Lucidia Rosales, who helped

organize the protest. “The only thing we were trying to do was have

communication.”

St. Joachim, one of two Catholic churches in Costa Mesa, serves a

large number of Latinos in the community.

Soto attended a meeting St. Joachim last month to hear concerns

from the disgruntled parishioners and try to resolve the conflict at

the church.

Other members of the church held a prayer vigil the next week to

show their support for Robillard. Parishioner Regina Consoli said

that only a small number of the church’s many members had issues with

Robillard.

“To the city and to everyone on the outside, it looked like a big

controversy within the parish, but it wasn’t,” Consoli said.

No announcement has been made about who will take over as pastor

at St. Joachim when Robillard leaves. Consoli and Rosales each said

that they were told the Rev. Jerome Karcher from St. Vincent De Paul

Church in Huntington Beach will support St. Joachim temporarily, but

no new pastor will be appointed until Robillard returns in June.

“I’m very sad,” Consoli said. “It’s definitely a loss to the

church. He’s been there for a long time and brought some positive

change. I’m very sad to see him go.”

* MARISA O’NEIL covers education and may be reached at (949)

574-4268 or by e-mail at [email protected]. DEIRDRE NEWMAN

covers Costa Mesa and may be reached at (949) 574-4221 or by e-mail

at [email protected].