ORCHESTRATED? - PART 6

Posted by Tim Rohr

“I guess we can expect the protesters in front of the Cathedral to stop protesting for the reinstatement or the restoration of Msgr. James and Fr. Paul Gofigan.” - Krystal Paco. KUAM. July 27. 

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Continued from Part 5

Today (August 3), in his interview on KUAM with Jesse Lujan, Archbishop Hon clarified that he did NOT use the word “restore” in addressing the situations of Fr. Paul Gofigan and Msgr. James Benavente. And as I’ve already clarified in my post AND HON SMILES, neither priest was restored to the positions from which they were forced, nor will they be.

The idea that the two priests would be “restored” can be traced to KUAM reporter Krystal Paco’s July 27 report, “Father Paul Gofigan and Monsignor James Benavente both restored,” which features a picture of Ms. Paco interviewing a smiling Fr. Paul Gofigan:

However, Ms. Paco's report is not a “misunderstanding” but simply a paraphrase of what Fr. Paul Gofigan himself led her (and many of us) to believe during her interview with him after the July 27 press conference (beginning at 37:47):

PACO: A lot of protesters have been wanting you back to your position. What exactly happened today. 

GOFIGAN: Basically he stated what I wanted, what I stated three years ago when I wrote a letter through my canon lawyer to retract the accusations and also to restore me and what that word restore means is really to clear my name and this is basically what he did today. He cleared my name and formally stated that after further review (of the evidence) he found no evidence to say that I was formally disobedient. 

As one of the very small team of people who worked tirelessly to hold Fr. Paul up in those dark days of July 2013, and at great risk and cost to ourselves, and because of our uncompromising commitment to the TRUTH, I want to set the record straight...again. 

While Fr. Paul is certainly welcome to settle for any version of “restore” that makes him happy, he at least needs to acknowledge that the people who went to war for him three years ago and eventually spilled out into the streets, based their actions and their sacrifices in his behalf on what Fr. Paul ACTUALLY said he wanted. 

In his interview with Ms. Paco on July 27, Fr. Paul said that he “wrote a letter through my canon lawyer to retract the accusations and also to restore me and what that word restore means is really to clear my name..”

But that is not what the letter through his canon lawyer said. Here is what it said:

https://www.scribd.com/doc/223638354/Apuron-vs-Gofigan-2013-08-20-Motion-to-revoke-decree-of-removal

It’s not that we specifically wanted Fr. Paul restored as pastor to Santa Barbara parish. Most of us who have worked long and hard for him do not go to Santa Barbara and it would not matter to us who is the pastor. What we worked for is for a wrong to be righted. We worked for this simply because it was the right thing to do. 

And it was more than that. Our public opposition to Apuron’s treatment of Fr. Paul was the first shot fired across Apuron’s previously impenetrable bow. And it is turning out to be the shot that is sinking his NCW-fortified ship as well as his whole rat-infested crew, despite Hon’s desperate attempts to keep it upright. 

I am calling this post ORCHESTRATED - PART 6, because at the root of my campaign to champion Fr. Paul’s rights, was always a larger objective: stopping Anthony S. Apuron, and by extension, exposing the grave abuse perpetrated by men like him on the innocent and trusting souls in their care. 

I had long since known about the “Agat Boys,” but never had an opportunity to move forward. Everything was locked down tight. No one dared speak against Apuron. And when I first did (at the beginning of the Gofigan drama), it threw a shudder through the Chancery, a shudder so strong that Apuron immediately went to Rome to shut me down - which I wrote about in ORCHESTRATED - PART 1. 

Apuron KNEW what would happen once his hull was penetrated. The Gofigan drama was simply the first bullet. 

To be continued