By David Sablan President, Concerned Catholics of Guam, Inc.
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| Founder of the NCW |
Why is leadership of the Archdiocese of Agana placing a lot of emphasis and prominence in reporting that two men, originally from Guam, were ordained to the priesthood in New Jersey after completing their studies at a Neocatechumenal Way Redemptoris Mater Seminary? Could it be that there are still NCW sympathizers in the Chancery and in the clergy?
These two men started their “Way” to ordination by attending the fake seminary at Yona. One even stated in the Pacific Daily News (03 July 2020 issue, page 5) that he received a bachelor’s degree in sacred theology at the Blessed Diego Luis de San Vitores Catholic Theological Institute for Oceania on Guam. Really? Who was or were the professors who taught sacred theology at that fake seminary? There was never a bonafide faculty at that fake seminary.
I was shocked at what this same man said was the reason for his becoming a priest! With the help of a priest, probably an NCW-oriented one, he found that the Lord was offering him a “once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to enter into an ADVENTURE” (my emphasis) that would take him to places that he never thought he would see or visit. Wow! Later in the interview, he did state that his mission as a priest “is to bring others closer to God.” The latter should be the only reason to be a priest. And by bringing people closer to God through the administering of the holy sacraments, a priest is saving souls for God. That is his duty.
Typical of the NCW to make things sound big and intimidating to the common Catholic, the "Blessed Diego Luis de San Vitores Catholic Theological Institute for Oceania in Guam" sounds quite impressive till you see that the “Institute” is an unfinished hotel building project whose owners defaulted when they went bankrupt.
Oceania is a huge region in the Pacific that includes, Australia, New Zealand, the islands of Melanesia, Polynesia, and Micronesia. So that fake seminary in Yona was training seminarians from “Oceania” which in total has a population of about 41 million people. Really?
The fact is, there were only 10 seminarians from Samoa and American Samoa who came to attend that fake seminary, and then later were withdrawn by their respective bishops. There were several from Guam and Saipan. That was the entire enrollment from “Oceania”. Clearly, the bishops of Samoa and American Samoa did not believe their seminarians were getting the education and formation necessary to be good and qualified priests.
In 2017, Archbishop Byrnes closed that fake “seminary” in Yona because it was not sustainable. I also believe it was not up to training and education standards necessary to prepare men for the priesthood. Archbishop Byrnes knows what curriculum is needed to form men for the priesthood and the seminary in Yona was a scam. Archbishop Byrnes should know because he was Vice Rector of Sacred Heart Major Seminary in Detroit, Michigan.
This closure made those two men from Guam enroll at a Redemptoris Mater Seminary in New Jersey. Maybe it has more credentials than the one Archbishop Byrnes closed in Yona. But I would question, why go there; why not go to a proper seminary to train for the priesthood and then return to Guam to serve the faithful here?
Back to the Communications Office of the Archdiocese giving prominence to the two men who were originally from Guam and who were ordained recently to be priests in a New Jersey Archdiocese for the Neocatechumenal Way. Bear with me as I go through some historical events and facts leading up to my point about the Communications Office of the Archdiocese of Agana emphasizing the ordination of two men originally from Guam (though one was born in California and raised in Guam), now serving in the Archdiocese of Newark, New Jersey as NCW priests.
Concerned Catholics of Guam, Inc. (CCOG) with the “Laity Forward Movement” have been watching and studying the activities of the Neocatechumenal Way in Guam for many years now to determine if their hierarchy is truly capable and worthy to teach Adult Catholic Catechesis and the Magisterium of the Church as interpreted by the Pope and the bishops through Scripture and Tradition.
Archbishop Byrnes had requested to see the NCW’s Catechetical Directory (their Catechesis teaching manual basically) since early 2018. He has not received it as of this date to the best of my knowledge. WHY? Because their teachings are contradictory to the Magisterium of the Church, that’s why.
Excerpts from their directory have been gathered and studied by others who shared the information with CCOG. Archbishop Byrnes is responsible for what goes on in the Archdiocese of Agana, but these NCW leaders defy his authority.
Archbishop Byrnes should EXPEL them from Guam.
There is enough documented evidence and first-hand accounts of the NCW’s activities that CCOG has gathered to prove this organization—as Bishop Athanasius Schneider of Kazakhstan has said, “is a Trojan Horse within the Church.” He should know. He worked with the NCW in Karaganda, Kazakhstan for several years by order of his Archbishop.
Here is an excerpt from an interview with Bishop Schneider back in March 2016 which highlights the deceit of the NCW operating within the Catholic Church, thus, the analogy to the “Trojan Horse.”
“I know them very well because I was an episcopal delegate for them for several years in Kazakhstan in Karaganda. And I assisted their Masses and meetings and I read the writings of Kiko, their founder, so I know them well.
“When I speak openly without diplomacy, I have to state: The Neocatechumenate is a Protestant-Jewish community inside the Church with a Catholic decoration only (my emphasis).
“The most dangerous aspect is regarding the Eucharist, because the Eucharist is the heart of the Church. When the heart is in a bad way, the whole body is in a bad way. For the Neocatechumenate, the Eucharist is primarily a fraternal banquet. This is a Protestant, a typically Lutheran attitude. They reject the idea and the teaching of the Eucharist as a true sacrifice. They even hold that the traditional teaching of, and belief in, the Eucharist as a sacrifice is not Christian but pagan. This is completely absurd, this is typically Lutheran, Protestant.
“During their liturgies of the Eucharist they treat the Most Holy Sacrament in such a banal manner, that it sometimes becomes horrible. They sit while receiving Holy Communion, and then they lose the fragments because they do not take care of them, and after Communion they dance instead of praying and adoring Jesus in silence. This is really worldly and pagan, naturalistic.”
– Bishop Athanasius Schneider, March 2016 Interview at the John Henry Newman Center of Higher Education, Hungary.
The NCW has been here in Guam since mid 1990’s at the invitation of Fr. Adrian Cristobal, now a fugitive from the Archdiocese of Agana, who has broken his vow of obedience to Archbishop Byrnes who ordered him to return to Guam on at least two occasions. No one knows where Cristobal is now; as is Bishop Anthony Apuron, disgraced former Archbishop of Agana, who deceived us to support the fake seminary in Yona financially to the tune of about $1 million annually among other things he did in abusing the trust we placed in him. He told us the seminary was to train, educate and ordain priests for Guam.
As many news reports stated several years ago, the property the seminary sat on in Yona was secretly deeded to the NCW for free and was controlled by the NCW hierarchy. Their articles of incorporation clearly stated they were training men in the Neocatechumenal Way. They were not for Guam.
They were bringing in men from South America, Central America, and the US. And the people of Guam were subsidizing their stay at that fake seminary! There are still some NCW-ordained priests on Guam, who celebrate their own mass with their NCW followers only.
They do not follow the Rubrics as found in the General Instruction of the Roman Missal, the law governing the sacramental rite of the Roman Catholic mass. As Bishop Schneider stated, they dance at their mass; they sit for communion; and forget about the crumbs of the Eucharist that falls to the floor. They have testimonials from their followers when the sermon or homily should be presented to the congregation at mass by the celebrant.
So, now to my point. Why, with all the sweat, tears, protests, and prayers in public that the faithful on Guam have gone through to remove Apuron from his seat as the Archbishop of Agana because of all that he did to deceive the people of Guam in addition to the boys he sexually abused and their families whom he has traumatized; for the efforts the faithful of Guam has done to bring attention to the abuse of the assets of our Archdiocese by Apuron and all his cohorts, some who have left the island, would the Communications Office and the Chancery give public media prominence to two individuals from Guam who deserted Guam to serve as priests elsewhere?
They had a choice to go to a seminary in California and thereafter return to Guam to serve our people. Instead they chose to go to an NCW seminary and serve somewhere else.
This is an insult to all the people who worked to clean up our Church these past several years and who continue to do so, because the people behind these two priests are the NCW organization, which, along with Apuron and his cohorts, have severely harmed our Church in Guam!
And the Chancery and the Archdiocese of Agana’s Communications Office is effectively sticking it in our face!
I would not put it past the NCW leadership to be behind this effort to “stick it to us” for taking two of Guam’s sons to serve their organization instead of serving the people of Guam.
I learned also there are a few other men from Guam who are studying for the priesthood at an NCW seminary in the US. They are free to choose where they want to be formed for the priesthood, of course, as long as we do not pay for their training and education.
The four seminarians we have now studying at St. Patrick’s seminary are to be commended and supported by us and promoted with prominence by us and our Archdiocese at every opportunity during the course of their formation.
They need to know we are praying for them to be good priests to serve our people on Guam, to conquer this evil and remove the stench of evil that Apuron and his ilk have left on Guam.
To the Communications Office director, Tony Diaz, stick to stories of the sons of Guam who are studying for the priesthood to serve the Catholics of Guam, not some neocat deserters.
I urge you to remove the stories of these two NCW priests from the Archdiocese of Agana’s Facebook page and wherever else you have the story presented. We do not condone anything related to the NCW on Guam because of what they have done to our Church. And our Chancery and Archdiocese should not promote anything they do. We should be working together to expel this heresy from Guam, officially and “by the book.”
And please don’t say that we do not have a voice in this matter because we are not an official or an organization of the Archdiocese. We do! Because this is our Church too! And we are doing what is right to protect our Church from charlatans infiltrating it at high places and throughout to take it over for their own purposes.
Concerned Catholics of Guam, Inc. is not an organization of the Archdiocese by design. So we can be critical of your directives and actions if we see it going down the wrong path. Keep your guard up; scrutinize anything coming from the NCW. In fact, throw it in the trash can.
We do not need to promote them or what they are doing to divide our Church, even if you think we should be trying to “get along.”
Sorry, the NCW leadership is deceitful, and we should be strong enough in our faith to see the Truth.
Please get this through your noggins up there at the Chancery
