Corpus Christi Pastor Leaving Parish

Fr. Fred K. Bailey, the popular but unconventional priest who has shepherded in Aliso Viejo since its formation 14 years ago, announced he would leave July 1 for a new assignment.

Bailey, whose style has rankled ultraconservative Catholics but endeared him to others and made him , said he didn't know where he's going next or who would replace him in Aliso Viejo.

He revealed the news in a "love story" read at this weekend's Masses, cautioning as he began that not all love tales end happily. At the 8 a.m. service Sunday, he opened the story with trademark flashes of humor, but by the time he finished, some parishioners were in tears and Bailey's own eyes welled up as he asked the choir to sing Van Morrison's "Have I Told You Lately."

The Anaheim-born pastor, who studied advertising and marketing at Cal State Fullerton before joining the priesthood, arrived in Aliso Viejo in 1998, holding weekly services in a rented elementary school auditorium and then packing everything up in his jeep. Officially, the fledgling church was a satellite branch of in Laguna Niguel.

But in June 1999, the umbilical cord was cut as Bishop Tod Brown officially christened the new parish and installed Bailey as pastor. As it grew, Corpus Christi bounced around town, operating from another school and an office park before opening its unusual Craftsman-style campus in 2006.

Bailey's transfer wasn't a complete shock -- local Catholic pastors typically get new assignments every 12 years.

But with Corpus Christi's church building still on the drawing board (the congregation currently meets in the parish hall), members hoped for a longer extension. There is some precedent. In Santa Monica, Msgr. Lloyd Torgerson recently marked his 25th anniversary as pastor of the popular St. Monica parish, which just embarked on a $26-million expansion. But Torgerson's boss is a different bishop.