Thanks Chuck for the link.
BITTER PILL, by Timothy Reichert, May 2010
"...the contraceptive revolution has resulted in a massive redistribution of wealth and power from women and children to men."
Thanks Chuck for the link.
BITTER PILL, by Timothy Reichert, May 2010
"...the contraceptive revolution has resulted in a massive redistribution of wealth and power from women and children to men."
That abortion (and contraception) has liberated men and not women, should be a no-brainer for anyone with brains (and normal hormone levels).
However, pursuant to the contemporary persistent penchant for the narrative over the truth - or as Tall Tales host, Bob Klitzkie, terms it, "systemic rice-ism' (aka "the rice is red") * - this ugly fact gets little play outside moral arguments.
Note: Bob explains this at the beginning of nearly every show.
So it is instructive, helpful, edifying...whatever, to see this glaring fact - that abortion (and contraception) has liberated men and not women - laid out in mathematical models in an economics paper titled:
The paper was authored in 1996 and published in The Quarterly Journal of Economics and can be read in full here.
Copied here is the Abstract:
This paper relates the erosion of the custom of shotgun marriage to the legalization of abortion and the increased availability of contraception to unmarried women in the United States. The decline in shotgun marriage accounts for a significant fraction of the increase in out-of-wedlock first births. Several models illustrate the analogy between women who do not adopt either birth control or abortion and the hand-loom weavers, both victims of changing technology. Mechanisms causing female immiseration are modeled and historically described. This technology-shock hypothesis is an alternative to welfare and job-shortage theories of the feminization of poverty. - SOURCE
My own Abstract would be this:
Prior to the "constitutional right" to both contraception and abortion - contraception in Griswold (1968) and abortion in Roe (1973), there was social pressure on men to assume responsibility for the children they fathered.
However, post Griswold and Roe, men were liberated to say:
"Hey, not my problem. She had The Pill. And if she doesn't want the kid, she can abort it. Screw you. Leave me alone."
And the father would be right.
The U.S. Supreme Court in Casey specifically denied a father's rights relative the mother's decision to abort. In fact, Casey held that the husband (father) did not even have a right to be told:
“Section 3209's husband notification provision constitutes an undue burden, and is therefore invalid” Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Pa. v. Casey, 505 U.S. 833, 837 (1992)
In short, Casey said "screw you" to the father. So, in effect, Casey functionally permitted the father to say "screw you" to the mother.
In the last legislature, Senator Tina Barnes introduced the “Pregnancy Support Act of 2022.”
It appears that the bill didn't go anywhere - and just as well - since it was nothing more than "virtue signaling" anyway. But had it found its way into Guam law, then - because Barnes' bill was pre-Dobbs - it could have set the stage for a constitutional challenge under Casey.
Once again, Casey held that fathers did not even have the right to know of the mother's decision to abort "their" unborn child. However, Barnes' bill required the father to financially support the same unborn child - regardless of the mother's intent to keep or kill the child.
It logically follows that if a father can be legally required to financially support his unborn child then the same father could certainly require that the mother bring the child to term, birth the baby, and not kill it - thus creating an "undue burden" pursuant to Casey.
At the time Barnes introduced her bill (pre Dobbs) the bill could have been found unconstitutional pursuant to the "undue burden" standard.
It all becomes very interesting when we review the governor's second question to the Supreme Court of Guam:
Whether the Organic Act of Guam, as it existed in 1990, authorized the Guam Legislature to pass an unconstitutional law.
Did Barnes violate the Organic Act when she introduced legislation that created an unconstitutional undue burden on a pregnant mother?
The bottom line in this whole fiasco - and why the governor's question is stupid - is:
It is NOT for the legislature to determine constitutionality of anything. Its job is to enact legislation - come what may.
It's the job of the courts to determine such stuff as lawfulness and constitutionality, and that's if, and ONLY if, the matter is properly brought before the courts via adversarial parties through the court's front door - and NOT through the backdoor via Guam's absurd 7 GCA § 4104.
*****
Copying below some excerpts from the aforesaid 1996 report in the Quarterly Journal of Economics. (Emphases added)
Letter to the editor (Guam Daily Post)
By David J. Sablan
In reviewing the three questions the governor wants answered by the Supreme Court of Guam to counter the attorney general’s motion in the U.S. District Court of Guam to vacate the injunction on P.L. 20-134 – the Belle Arriola law that prohibits abortion on Guam from inception, i.e., fertilization of the mother’s ovum in her womb forming a zygote, the start of a human being – God willing, I believe the answers to be quite simple.
At about 1:42:54 on this past Monday's Tall Tales, Bob begins talking about how the end "product" of do-it-yourself medical abortions is a tiny human child who is flushed down a toilet with the rest of the mother's waste.
Co-host, Jose, then commented about how there are now all sorts of restrictions and warnings against depositing grease and oils and other materials harmful to our sewers, but apparently not dead unborn infants.
Jose's comment brought to mind an incident when a GWA employee happened to identify a human fetus floating amongst the other sewage at a Dededo water plant:
Autopsy set for fetus found at water plant -KUAM, May 12, 2010
I further addressed the morbid matter in a couple of blog posts which were published in the Umatuna, the newspaper for the Archdiocese of Agana:
SEWER BABY OFFERS PRO-LIFE OPPORTUNITIES
WHAT TO DO WITH THE SEWER BABY
Beginning at about 1:27:58 into this past Monday's Tall Tales, the show's host, Bob Klitzkie, takes a call from Senator Chris Duenas relative to what Bob characterizes as a "judicial free-for-all:"
BOB: "...the Supreme Court is saying for this so-called Declaratory Judgment anybody who wants to can file an amicus brief without going through the process of asking for leave. So they’re turning a horrible judicial procedure - you wouldn’t think they could make it any worse - but they’re turning it into a judicial free-for-all because anyone of your constituents who can put together something that says Amicus Brief on the top and pony up the filing fee can probably go over and file it at the Supreme Court."
"...if you look at the April 14th date it’s like general public - so how does general public even know how to prepare a matter to bring before the court in terms of praying on the court for the purpose and especially since really the question is not necessarily about pro or con on the issue it’s about a matter of law. "
"Now Chris. Stop and step back for a minute and consider - as you say - that anybody can file on the 14th of April. Which side of the game do you think this favors?"
"I mean absolutely. You could see the pile on already."
Note: The Esperansa Project purposely divorced itself from church-based groups and religious and emotional arguments, which is why it was successful in reining in what was, in 2008, the most un-regulated abortion industry in the nation: Guam's. Beginning in 2008, Esperansa saw to the introduction of several pro-life bills, eight of which became law, and three of which the governor is aiming at in her action before the Supreme Court of Guam.
"Interested parties can file a so-called “amicus brief” as an adviser to the case. For more information on how to submit a brief, contact the Clerk of the Supreme Court at justice@guamsupremecourt.com."
“In 2016, Guam became the world’s leader on SOL reform when it simply erased child sex abuse SOLs backwards and forwards. The result is that nearly 50 Guam survivors have come forward so far and the dangers to children hidden from plain sight are coming into focus. Bishop Apuron and Fr. Brouillard have been sued by many. Even a woman has come forward, defying the false assumption that the abuse by priests is limited to boys.”
My Note: When then-Governor Eddie Calvo signed Bill 326-33 into law, his accompanying comments clearly indicate that he expected the law to be constitutionally challenged.
"I recognize Bill 326 has several legal and technical concerns. A major concern is over the bill's retroactive application of the civil statute of limitations for child sexual abuse cases. Whether such retrospect will pass constitutional muster is unclear...Despite these questions, today I will err on the side of the aggrieved. If am wrong, then the courts will tell me so. Or perhaps the Legislature will craft new legislation in order to clarify these issues."
The challenge never came.
Prior to Calvo's signing, there was a concerted effort by the archdiocese to convince Calvo to veto the bill. The effort came at the instigation of certain very competent lawyers. After Calvo signed the bill, I found it curious that the same "competent lawyers" did not mount a constitutional challenge to the bill in behalf of the Archdiocese.
Later, as the Archdiocese was preparing to succumb to bankruptcy, I (and others) again wondered why there was no challenge to the retroactive component to the legislation given the "several legal and technical concerns" the governor had already expressed upon signing. There seemed to be an open door.
But the people "on the Hill" remained silent.
My guess is that the Archdiocese was in such turmoil at the time - Apuron going AWOL, Hon's fumbling, the insertion of a completely unprepared Byrnes into the hottest spot on the Catholic globe, and the almost daily drumbeat of new clergy sex abuse allegations - that Archbishop Byrnes simply folded.
But did Byrnes fold on his own or was he told to? Recall that Byrnes himself told us that he answered to Cardinal Filoni:
“Byrnes added that Filoni, as the prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples, is something like his superior and that he reports to Filoni.”- Guam Daily Post, Feb. 16, 2017
And while Filoni has since been removed as prefect, he wasn't removed until December 2019. The Archdiocese filed for bankruptcy in January 2019.
Filoni was replaced as prefect by Cardinal Tagle, Archbishop of Manila, a prelate known to be friendly to Guam. Does Byrnes - or whoever is running this place - now answer to Cardinal Tagle?
I don't think so. And the reason is this. There is no "chain of command" above a bishop. He doesn't work for a Vatican bureaucrat, not even the pope, and is only answerable - and only to the pope - in very narrow ways, usually in matters that only concern church teaching relative to faith and morals.
This is what sounded "so wrong" when Byrnes told us he "reports to Filoni." We knew that the Kiko's were running Filoni - at least in Guam. Filoni is gone. Byrnes is pretty much gone. But Kiko isn't. And Gennarini - surprise - is suddenly here.
By Tim Rohr
[REMINDER: The objective of this series is to demonstrate who was and still is behind the bankruptcy of the Archdiocese of Agana and all that it is now costing us.]
But now back to Hon and how his orders from Kiko-Filoni led to the bankruptcy of the Archdiocese of Agana.
Publicly, Archbishop Hon was very careful to always make it appear as if he was earnestly working towards "reconciliation and healing." In fact, he was. Hon very much hoped to resolve the conflicts peacefully. And who wouldn't? In fact, this is what Apuron's accusers also wanted to do.
But Apuron, even after fleeing to Rome, continued to stoke the flames that would lead to the bankruptcy of the Archdiocese of Agana by insisting on his innocence and making it appear that the appointment of Hon was "his idea:"
Meanwhile, there were just too many questions that Hon failed to answer. His smiling demeanor at every public appearance and his calls for "healing and reconciliation," did not sit well with the stirred-up laity of the Archdiocese of Agana, PARTICULARLY because it was quite clear that Hon was Filoni's lieutenant and Filoni answered to Kiko.
Really complex for those who have not followed the intricacies of this terrible story for all these many years, but in summary: HON'S SMILE WAS NOT TO BE TRUSTED.
It's difficult to crucify Hon on Kiko's ready-made cross.
Hon was a Vatican bureaucrat just doing his job in a place he'd rather not be. In fact, inside intel at the time reported to us that Hon could be heard screaming (in Italian) into the phone on several occasions.
It can be easily assumed that Hon was talking - or rather screaming at - Filoni. The fact is that - and Apuron's Vatican trial would bear this out - never, and I mean NEVER, in the history of the modern Roman Catholic Church, had anything like what happened in Guam ever happened before.
But meanwhile, GUAM'S LAITY - or at least a very adamant few - WOULD NOT GO AWAY.
...then this whole Neocatechumenal Way (issue) might not be as important to you as it ought to be." - Bob Klitzkie, Tall Tales, Friday, March 10, 2023.
Hear Bob's entire expose, titled "Frenchie vs the Neocats" starting here. And read the whole CERTIFICATE OF TITLE FIASCO here on JW.
Meanwhile, the real import of Bob's message is that the Neocat thing is not just an internal Catholic Church squabble.
If the Neocats can reach into the Department of Land Management - and even all the way up into the office of the AG via at least one very powerful Guam-Barred attorney (as demonstrated in FIASCO) - and manipulate Certificate of Titles to properties valued at mega-millions of dollars, then what else can they do, or even, what else have they already done - especially given the Neocats intimate connection with the Bank of Guam?
The Neocat matter is NOT just an internal Church squabble. It's a mafioso-like takeover of the internal workings of everything in both our church and government that Kiko-Guerillas intend to control - a realtime assault by realtime Neo-Colonists.
Where's Bevacqua when we need him?
Oh yah. Never mind.
BTW, just to keep things clear, the Director of DLM whom Bob sued (and won) was Michael Borja, not "Juan Borja" as Bob stated on his show.
Again, read about the whole mess on JW in CERTIFICATE OF TITLE FIASCO....and be afraid for what the Neocats can do to your own title.
Meanwhile, it looks like they are ready to scoop up several properties that they caused to be forfeited via their forced bankruptcy of the Archdiocese of Agana - which is detailed in the ongoing series: HIGH DRAMA IN THE AOA
Bob's commentary was interrupted by the "half-time show." His commentary after the half-time show continues here.
Six days later, on May 23, 2016, Senator Frank Blas Jr. introduced Bill 326-33 to lift the civil statute of limitation on child sex abuse.
However, then-Apostolic Administrator to the Archdiocese of Agana, Archbishop Savio Hon Tai-Fai ("Hon"), and his then-boss, Cardinal Fernando Filoni, * had little to worry about since Blas' bill only aimed at the civil liability of persons and not institutions. In other words, should Blas' bill become law, Roy could sue Apuron, but that was it.
* At the time, Filoni was Prefect for the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples which oversees "missionary" dioceses, and Hon was second in command. Why the Archdiocese of Agana, with an 85% Catholic population and a history of Catholicism for more than 400 years was still, in 2016, considered a "missionary" diocese - causing it to fall under Filoni and Hon's purview - is a matter touching on another scandal which funneled millions of dollars to this archdiocese and which did little more than fund the salaries of pet chancery employees.
At this point (May 23, 2016), there was only one accuser, and Apuron had all the resources of the archdiocese to legally bury Roy. But then Apuron made a big mistake: Apuron ran to Rome for cover.
Apuron did not announce his departure and probably thought he could recruit Francis to his side before any of us knew about it.
Unfortunately for Apuron, Apuron's Kiko operatives apparently failed to inform him that approaching the Pope in a Vatican receiving line in the middle of St. Peter's square was probably not a good idea since - especially if you're a bishop - your picture would be taken by an official Vatican photographer.
And so it was. In fact, there were several pics.
Meanwhile, back in Guam, on June 6, 2016, Hon arrived and assumed the duties of Apostolic Administrator as Apuron was AWOL.
On the same day, Walter Denton came forward with his devastating story of being raped by Apuron when he was 13 years old. This was a game changer for Hon. One accusation by one guy is not something the Vatican could have or would have acted on. The only reason why the Vatican acted, temporarily removing Apuron and installing Hon, was because Apuron had abandoned his post and fled into hiding.
But now there were two. And Denton's accusation of rape sent the issue to a new level. Had Hon's job assignment been to get to the bottom of things, things might have worked out very differently for the Archdiocese of Agana. But Hon's job assignment was not to get to the bottom of things. Hon's job assignment was to put down the rebellion against the Neocatechumenal Way.
I know this because of my own inquisition before Hon during his Apostolic Visitation in January 2015 wherein Hon attempted to take me down by characterizing my motives (my posts on JW) as a personal vendetta against Apuron. But I also knew this for the simple reason that Filoni was Hon's boss. And Kiko was Filoni's boss.
This would be made very clear a few months later when Fr. Jeff San Nicolas, in his then-capacity as "delegate to the administrator," pulled back the curtain on Filoni and his operators in Guam.
At a press conference in September 2016, Fr. Jeff revealed a letter he had received from Msgr. David C. Quitugua, a hard-core Kiko-operative and then-rector of the Neocat seminary, in response to Quitugua's denial of a visit to the seminary by a small group of lay people. Quitugua wrote:
This is to inform you that His Eminence, Fernando Cardinal Filoni, Prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples, has been made aware of the pre announced “visit" of the Laity Forward Movement to the Seminary. Cardinal Filoni’s instruction is that no such “visit” can be made to the Seminary…
The news story goes on to report:
Father Jeff alleges it's the same Neocatechumenal support Archbishop Anthony Apuron continues to receive amid allegations of disobeying the Holy See relative to the RMS as well as the credible allegations of child sex abuse made against him. Father Jeff pleads to Pope Francis to declare the Archdiocese of Agana sede vacante - without a bishop.
Before going on with even more evidence that Filoni was running this archdiocese through Hon, let's review some facts about the Neocat seminary.
We were told for years that this was a seminary FOR Guam, not just a seminary IN Guam. And, true to the generous spirit of the church's laity, millions of dollars were raised to support the seminary and its seminarians under the belief that this was "FOR Guam."
The fact that Guam's laity had given millions of dollars for more than a decade to this "seminary" creates a stark contrast to Quitugua's final statement in his letter to Fr. Jeff:
We kindly ask you to inform the Laity Forward Movement that their “visit” and their demand for documents is not allowed.
Really? Quitugua et. al had no trouble depositing millions of dollars in checks from those same laity. But now they can't even visit. In fact, Quitugua keeps "visit" in quotes in a direct attempt to mock those same laity who just want to know what Quitugua and his brood did with their millions of dollars.
So how does this seminary FOR Guam and IN Guam suddenly fall under the control of a foreign operator like Filoni? It doesn't. Unless of course Filoni is in the control of the Kiko's who control the seminary. So saying that Kiko was Filoni's boss is not a stretch. The line of command was laid out clearly and plainly in the letter Fr. Jeff exposed in September 2016.
However, most of us who had been fighting in the belly of this stinking beast since at least 2013 knew that Kiko - via Filoni - did not just control the seminary, he controlled the whole Archdiocese of Agana. Archbishop Byrnes would confirm this when he arrived in November 2016:
“Byrnes added that Filoni, as the prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples, is something like his superior and that he reports to Filoni.” - Guam Daily Post, Feb. 16, 2017
But now back to Hon and how his orders from Kiko-Filoni led to the bankruptcy of the Archdiocese of Agana.
Bishop Athanasius Schneider is no longer the only bishop to publicly label the teachings of Kiko Arguello a "heresy," he is now joined by Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano, who in the course of this extensive three part article has much to say about Kiko Arguello and the heretical waywardness of the Neocatechumenal Way including this:
This then is the situation of the Nuns, who arrive in Italy with the mark of infamy of having escaped the manipulations and heretical indoctrination of the powerful Spanish guru.
The series by Vigano is about the sufferings of a group of nuns, originally brought together by Kiko, but who eventually fled the "heretical indoctrination of the powerful Spanish guru."
After fleeing the heretical clutches of Kiko and his Neocat generals (see the article), the nuns attempted to embrace a life of Traditional Catholicism. However, upon doing so they have been made to suffer the most grotesque indignities.
This is what happens to people who dare oppose the Kiko's.
The untrained eye (and maybe even Vigano's) may see the persecution of these nuns as just another attack by the current pope on anything that even smells of actual Catholicism.
However, for those of us who have fought our way out of the Belly of the Kiko Beast (here in Guam), it is quite clear that due to the Kiko's undue influence in a corrupt Vatican, those who will not submit to the Kiko's - just like these nuns, will pay a catastrophic price.
*****
- This monastery in the Italian region of Marche experienced a moment of rebirth when it began to welcome female vocations from the so-called “Neocatechumenal Way” [the Cammino] of Kiko Argüello. As has already happened in Santa Maria delle Rose and in practically all the communities under Kiko’s control, so too in Holland the autonomy of government of the Monastery was put to the test by the serious and undue interference of the leaders of the Cammino. This parallel Neocatechumenal hierarchy established by Argüello and his “catechists” led the Sisters to the decision – taken collegially in Chapter – to distance themselves from the Cammino.
- Because of the problems caused in the Dioceses and parishes by the Cammino, the Neocatechumenals no longer enjoy the enthusiastic welcome they received in the past, and this mistrust also affects the Nuns, who are rejected precisely because of their origin.
- Bishop Manetti applied the Motu Proprio Summorum Pontificum in their favor, believing that the occasional celebration of the Mass in the ancient rite could help the Community to definitively free itself from its Neocatechumenal formation.
- The victims are the thirteen Nuns. Victims because of their troubled past, in which they were able to grow spiritually and escape the pressures and obsessive interference of the establishment of the Neocatechumenal Way...
The Return of The Gennarini occasioned the memory of a post on The Thoughtful Catholic with some real gems by Gennarini's "Lord," Kiko Arguello, and wherein Kiko demonstrates that Kiko's "Lord," is...well, Kiko.
Read the post here.
In response to the previous post by Frenchie, Anonymous comments:
These parasites cannot make any more damages. If Guam expelled them once they can do it twice...
I replied:
That's the trouble. They were never expelled. Byrnes refused to do it.
An as a reminder, here's why:
“Byrnes added that Filoni, as the prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples, is something like his superior and that he reports to Filoni.” - Guam Daily Post, Feb. 16, 2017
But to address "damages" specifically, and relatively speaking, the Neocats have done no damage at all compared to the damage we permitted to go on under our noses for decades while we busily planned fiestas.
The Neocats, and more specifically The Gennarini's (aka The Kikos) have simply re-landed in Guam to lap up the carrion.
The Church in Guam is still salvageable.
But given who the majority of Guam Catholics elected governor - twice - it appears that God has abandoned us to the Babylonians.
Posted by Frenchie
Recently former 2 terms Governor Carl Guiterrez, president and CEO of GVB, permit czar and chairman of the Governor's Economic Strategy Council, penned a very interesting "Forum" in the pages of the Guam Daily Post.
In his column, "the Carl" posit that Guam has a unique position to take advantage in becoming a hub, in order to access the rest of the Marianas, the different Micronesian Islands and the Marshalls. He advocates that the current expansion of the DoD projects in the region, is a great opportunity. The former Governor goes on to argue in details his proposal.
This was a well written and argumented piece, but one might ask: what does that have anything to do with the Catholic Church??
Let us see.
The Archdiocese of Agatna is the official Metropolitan See (consist of several dioceses) namely
Chalan Kanoa (Saipan), The Caroline Islands, the Apostolic Prefecture of the Marshall Islands, and Guam.
Before Bishop Amando Samo of the Diocese of the Caroline Islands passed away in 2021, a Coadjutor was named due the ill health of Bishop Samo (a native of Chuuk), Bishop Julio Angkel in 2020.
It is to be noted that the Society of Jesus, played a key role in the Evangelization of the Caroline Islands. Two priests now "retired' (but still active) on Guam, spent a large part of their sacerdoce in the Federated States of Micronesia: Namely Fr. Hazel and Fr Mc Grath.
Our own Archbishop: Michael Jude Byrnes, despite his relatively young age is out on an extended medical leave. At a time when the Diocese of Chalan Kanoa's Bishop is seen as very receptive to the muses of the NCW, we are in a situation of precarious balance, due to the uncertain situation related to the unfinished business of the bankruptcy and the unfinished settlement with the victims of Apuron and his mignons.
Nature does not like a vacuum.
Yesterday, we shared with you the fact that Giussepe Gennarini, the deliberate, nefarious and devious leader of the NCW sect in the USA, took advantage of this vacuum of power to land unopposed on Guam, in what appears in clear contradiction of Archbishop Byrnes restrictions.
We might not have all the information, since several very active NCW members were spotted laying siege to the office of the Vicar General fairly recently.
Could Fr Concovar have caved in to undue pressures?
How was the Delegate to the NCW not made aware of this large event?
Hopefully these questions can be answered quickly.
Meanwhile we now know that this event, was not just a joyous reunion of like minded people, after a long crossing of the desert. In fact it is only a first step in a process of reconquest, after their major setbacks following the unseating of Apuron, the defrocking of Cristobal, the untimely death of Fr Pius, and the self-imposed exile of a large part of the NCW cadre in the Western Pacific which included Msg Quitagua who continually and steadfastly refused to acknowledge the authority of Arch. Byrnes, and by doing so directly challenged the Vatican to do something about it....We are still waiting, but don't hold your breath.
As always the Diana does'nt disappoint.
We learned on her blog that this visit to Guam by the former militant of the Italian Red Brigades (and infamous Host to Apuron) is only the first step of a plan to "evangelize" the surrounding islands, which in Neo parlance means an offensive to take over the Churches already in place ( the infamous neo policy of the locusts) Gennarini in one swoop takes advantage of the empty space left in our region. His analysis of the opportunities of using Guam as a beachhead is shockingly similar to that of Carl Guitterez on a different subject.
You have to render unto Cesar what is due to Cesar......Gennarini is disciplined, deliberate and dedicated. He definitely understand the meaning of Carpe Diem.
Well played Giussepe
Posted by Frenchie
As it is often pointed out, humans have the inherent bad habit of not learning from their own mistake.
Both Tim Rohr and myself have warned our readers for the past several years, of the dangers there are, in underestimating the Neocatechumenal Way.
After a wait of several years, the Neos came back with a bang last night, with their biggest chingding, since they were slapped down by Archbishop Hon, and limited (in theory) by Archbishop Byrnes.
The nefarious and dangerous signore Gennarini, accompanied by the ever sickly Monsignor David Quitagua, Preston Perez, Jason, and Father Arriola all gathered at the Barrigada Church, the long time hideaway of the defrocked Fr Cristobal, and met with their adoring fans, as if this was the second coming of Christ himself.
The crowd was very large.
Deacon Martinez who is officially the Vicar for the Neos, had not been warned, and learned about it through other parishioners, displeased by the event. If Deacon Martinez was not aware, chances are that the Chancery was left in the dark as well.
What is the Vicar General going to do? He is now faced with an open coup in his own courtyard, while our Archbishop is off island on medical leave.
Leave it to crooked Gennarini to recognize a great opportunity to land back on Guam with absolutely no opposition, and demonstrating that the emperor has no clothes.
By trying to be inclusive with the Neos, and being a "good sport" Archbishop Byrnes gave an impression of weakness. Fr Concovar might be a nice priest, but in this case he is way out of his depth.
You better pray for Guam, the great deceiver is back.
Also, the object of this series is not to retell the history of all that happened in this archdiocese between July of 2013, when Apuron ambushed Fr. Paul Gofigan, * and the coming forth - three years later - of the original Apuron accusers. That's all been told in the previous series ORCHESTRATED.
* "It is to your advantage to resign immediately, rather than experience a more arduous and painful closure to your assignment at Santa Barbara Church." - Apuron letter to Gofigan, July 16, 2013. The full story of Apuron v Gofigan has its own series here.
Not to get to the bottom of this and to hold it up in plain sight is to put a bandaid on cancer, a cancer which is still very much here...and waiting.
It's not that we cared about The Diana or anything she said, but it became very clear that The Diana was really just the mouth of the same puppet masters who were pulling Apuron's strings, and we knew exactly where those strings led: first to a renegade monk name Pius and then to his bosses in the Neocat hierarchy - whom shall be revealed in due course.
*****
Given the ramped up attacks from The Diana, by May of 2016, it had become clear that the only way for Roy, Walter, and Roland to confront Apuron would have to be publicly.
There was no law at the time which would permit Apuron's accusers to sue him. So Apuron could have just blown it off as false accusations and there would have been nothing these three men could have done about it. Apuron could have gone on ruling happily ever after, as he had done for three decades.
A decision was made by those us who were helping Roy, Walter, and Roland to not bring all three men forward at once. The idea was to give Apuron a chance to respond to Roy and for Roy to have a chance to do what he wanted to do from the beginning: just sit down with Apuron. Had Apuron handled the matter this way, it might have all been over before it began.
But he (Apuron) didn't.
Roy came forward publicly on May 17, 2016.
Apuron immediately went on the attack. Some of it was downright comical if not sad. Apuron's handlers staged a video report featuring Deacon Frank Tenorio who had been at the Agat parish where Roy alleged he had been abused in the 1970's.
Tenorio swore on screen to Apuron's innocence but unfortunately the guy who staged the video, a certain Fr. Edivaldo, via his silhouette, was seen pacing behind Tenorio and then fist-pumping on the video Edivaldo sent to the media. Then after fist-pump was featured on this blog, Edivaldo edited out the fist pump and sent it to the media again.
If there was a chance that Apuron could be believed, it was pretty much destroyed by the Tenorio video and the Edivaldo fist-pump. It was clear that the inmates were running the asylum.
Meanwhile, it appears that Apuron, after making his own video earlier that evening protesting his innocence, had hopped a plane to Rome, because one, Apuron disappeared from public view in Guam after May 17, and two, Apuron showed up in a series of photos taken by a Vatican photographer during a public meet and greet with the pope on May 26, 2016:
Normally, the pope greets visiting bishops during his weekly public audiences and the usual niceties are exchanged. But the pics of Apuron and the pope in this series are very different. Apuron appears very distressed, and so does the pope.
Apparently Apuron was hoping to rally the pope to his defense before things got out of hand in Guam, but crashing a papal greeting line is a very strange way to do it. It's quite obvious Apuron was in grave distress.
But the question is "why?"
There had only been one accusation from one guy who hadn't live in Guam in 40 years. Why would that send Apuron running to Rome to crash a papal greeting line - unless of course Apuron knew what was coming.
"Why the majority of the people voted for her is still an open question."
- Bob Klitzkie on Tall Tales this past Friday.
Bob had just finished his regular Friday segment wherein he replays the video-recording of the now-governor's testimony at a legislative public hearing in 2013 relative to a bill in which she argues against providing normal medical care to children who survive failed abortions.
Functionally the governor's testimony was: LET THOSE BABIES DIE.
The larger question behind Bob's question is why would the "majority of the people" vote for a governor (twice now) who has been radically and publicly supportive - for a very long time - of what amounts to a vicious and concerted genocide of her own people, and wherein her own people support (i.e. their votes in the last two elections) said GENOCIDE.
To complicate the question, (or rather Question No. 2) the governor is an aggressive advocate of all things CHamoru even while she viciously pursues an agenda that has already monstrously devastated the same CHamoru (population) - which brings to mind the immortalized lament of the late Senator Elizabeth Arriola when she attempted to stop the murder of the "CHamoru" in 1990:
"Let me tell you, at the rate Guam Memorial Hospital is aborting children, between 400-600 a year, and most of them are not even reported. Where are the lives that we are going to protect and preserve? Here we go talking about indigenous rights and self-determination. What good is all that if we don't have our followers to follow and enjoy the fruits of our labor, of this generation's labor, of your labor and my labor to fix this island and have autonomous rights to govern our people?"
- quoted in: Asian/Pacific Islander American Women: A Historical Anthology, pg. 372, edited by Shirley Hume, Gail M. Nomura
Complication No. 3 would be the fact that the population of Guam is reportedly 85% Catholic.
To be clear, the following is copied directly from the Catechism of the Catholic Church which is functionally the compendium of unchanging Catholic teaching, i.e. one is not Catholic if one does not wholly subscribe to the following:
2271 Since the first century the Church has affirmed the moral evil of every procured abortion. This teaching has not changed and remains unchangeable. Direct abortion, that is to say, abortion willed either as an end or a means, is gravely contrary to the moral law:
You shall not kill the embryo by abortion and shall not cause the newborn to perish.75
God, the Lord of life, has entrusted to men the noble mission of safeguarding life, and men must carry it out in a manner worthy of themselves. Life must be protected with the utmost care from the moment of conception: abortion and infanticide are abominable crimes.762272 Formal cooperation in an abortion constitutes a grave offense. The Church attaches the canonical penalty of excommunication to this crime against human life. "A person who procures a completed abortion incurs excommunication latae sententiae,"77 "by the very commission of the offense,"78
75 Didache 2,2:SCh 248,148; cf. Ep. Barnabae 19,5:PG 2 777; Ad Diognetum 5,6:PG 2,1173; Tertullian, Apol. 9:PL 1,319-320.76 GS 51 § 3.77 CIC, can. 1398.78 CIC, can. 1314.
The Catechism of the Catholic Church (1992 Edition) footnotes the issue of abortion to the "Didache" since the Didache is considered to be one of the most ancient and original sources of Catholic teaching - even before the name "Catholic" came to be attached to Christianity.
So let's repeat the Didache:
You shall not kill the embryo by abortion and shall not cause the newborn to perish.
Given Guam's fawning over the "Kamalen's" hair every Dec. 8 and all the other ritual paraphernalia relative to Guam's purported ritual, cultural, and historical attachment to Catholicism, we have to ask the following WHY's?
Kamareras protect Santa Marian Kamalen as she protects Guam - PDN.
The cynics among us could certainly speculate that it is because the governor owns the bank which functionally owns the archdiocese - but that's another story. Or maybe not. Nevertheless, we will deal with that another time.
So, we go on.
The "short answer" is that the "people of Guam, " and specifically the majority of Guam Catholics, DO NOT CARE.
They DO NOT CARE about abortion as a political, moral, or religious issue. THAT'S THE FACTS. The numbers do not lie.
In the past two gubernatorial elections, the Guam public, 85% of whom are Catholics, had very clear choices between a vicious advocate of death in the womb (the current governor), and a serious pro-life champion, Sen. Frank Aguon, Jr. - the very senator, who in 2013, set forth the bill to provide normal medical care for children who survived failed abortions: living children who lay writhing and crying on the same table upon which they were supposed to have been delivered dead.
But OOPS.
They were not dead.
Yet.
Nevertheless, Guam's mostly Catholic population has now twice elected the most vicious baby killer in Guam's history to be their governor, while said baby-killer governor presents herself proudly, and without compunction or impunity, for reception of Holy Communion at the altar of Guam's own Cathedral church, and, whereupon said governor is happily presented, at Holy Communion, the Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity or our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ - who suffered and died, nailed to a cross, as innocent and as brutally murdered as these voiceless victims of the womb.
Informed Catholics in Guam - of whom there are apparently few... even amongst our Catholic clergy who smilingly present the Body and Blood of Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ to our duly elected "Catholic" governor, can't help but recall the words of St. Paul:
Therefore whosoever shall eat this bread, or drink the chalice of the Lord unworthily, shall be guilty of the body and of the blood of the Lord. But let a man prove himself: and so let him eat of that bread, and drink of the chalice. For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh judgment to himself, not discerning the body of the Lord. Therefore are there many infirm and weak among you, and many sleep. (My note: Sleep = DIE.)
One might wonder what has befallen our Catholic Church in Guam via the horrific consequences of clergy sex abuse and the resultant bankruptcy which shall see the alienation of more than EIGHTY church properties, including several beloved church properties
However, some of us see this sore judgment as God's recompense for electing and re-electing Guam's most brutal anti-life governor by the very people who swear to their Catholicism - but prefer their politics.
God help us.
But he probably won't.
Not now.
THE LONGER ANSWER - TO BE CONTINUED
By Tim Rohr
Before going on with what I'm going to call "The Hon Dynasty," we need to review the backstory of how the issues in the Archdiocese of Agana jumped from Apuron's local squabble with a couple of priests, that probably would have died out in a couple of months, to a clergy sex abuse crisis of catastrophic proportions - a crisis which brought Hon to Guam, and a crisis that, per capita, became 14 times the size of the crisis in the Archdiocese of Boston which led to the Academy Award winning movie "Spotlight."
*****
Even after Apuron attacked Msgr. James Benavente and kicked him out of the Cathedral - where he was both rector and functionally the pastor - the whole fiasco might have remained just a local church squabble.
The problem was that the squabble had grown louder after Apuron further attacked Benavente publicly and in print. This caused the laity to mobilize both in support of Benavente but also in reaction to Apuron's incomprehensible actions, first against Gofigan and now Benavente.
There was a large public demonstration in support of Benavente on the steps of the Cathedral, a motorcade, and an increased interest by the local media.
Benavente was well-connected and well-liked, and he had the immediate support of many, but nothing any of Benavente's close associates did or said appeared to give Apuron pause. In fact, Apuron (or really his people) ramped up their attacks in response to the defense of Benavente.
However, these ramped up attacks created the ever increasing din that eventually was heard across the Pacific and began to raise ghosts from both Benavente and Apuron's past, one of whom was John Toves.
Toves first approached me anonymously through a comment on this blog. In the comment he accused Apuron of sexually molesting his relative. I posted back that if the "commenter" wanted the comment to be public, he (I didn't know yet if the commenter was a he or she yet), would have to put his name to the comment.
John commented back that his name was John Charles Ada Toves and that Apuron had molested his relative.
There was nothing I could do with the comment other than to leave it on the blog. John had put his name to his accusation and there it was. But I didn't need to do anything as the comments in response to John's accusation began exploding. And then, a few weeks later, in November of 2014, John called into Jesse Lujan's KUAM show and made the same accusation. This was the first time anyone had publicly accused Apuron of sex abuse - though it had been rumored for years.
The next month, John, who lived in California, came to Guam and attempted to confront Apuron on multiple occasions. Toves, in a confrontation with then-Fr. Adrian Cristobal that was memorialized in a KUAM news story, was unceremoniously thrown off "The Hill" and threatened with police action should he try again.
And it was here that Apuron made his first of many big mistakes. Certainly how he handled the Gofigan and Benavente matters was already a big mistake, but those matters would not have led to Apuron's ouster nor to the bankruptcy of the archdiocese. However, allegations of sexual abuse were a different matter.
Toves hadn't lived in Guam since his youth and few people knew him. He had no credibility. All Apuron had to do was meet with him, say that he met with him, and say I'm sorry but Mr. Toves seems to be misinformed. Something like that. Toves then would have nowhere to go and he probably would have been refused any more airtime, especially since Toves' "relative" refused to substantiate Toves' allegation against Apuron.
Instead, Apuron sent out Cristobal to bar Apuron's door. Sending Cristobal out to meet John was also a big mistake. John and Cristobal had been in the seminary together and each knew each other's dirty laundry. Cristobal knew how dangerous John was, not just to Apuron, but to himself. And it showed.
By Tim Rohr
With another headline article in the news today about the sale of church properties "to help compensate more than 270 survivors of Guam clergy sexual assaults as far back as the 1950s," it's time to get back to the history, the real history, of how we got here because it didn't have to happen this way. And it is important that everyone in this archdiocese know and understand this BECAUSE THE PROBLEM IS STILL HERE.
This is Part 6 of a multi-part story (I don't know how many parts yet), and if you missed the first five, you can go back and start here. Otherwise, let's summarize some key points before we move on:
Not everything can be documented as to why Hon went on the attack. Some of it was hearsay. And it went like this:
Abuse victims (and not just Apuron's) would meet with Hon and Hon would basically blow them off with a patronizing lecture about "forgiveness." Again, this is hearsay, but it's pretty close "hearsay," as people who met personally with Hon would later share their frustration with me (Tim Rohr).
Which is why, the lay picketers in from of the Cathedral every Sunday began to carry signs picketing Hon as well as Apuron: