Monday, September 19, 2016

DEAR PARENTS. YOUR PRIESTS ARE MOLESTING YOUR CHILDREN. SUE THEM.


Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "LETTER TO THE GUAM LEGISLATURE APOLOGIZING FOR FR....": 

My son is a student at Father Duenas. Today, the boys were informed about the petition that is circulating and that healing for victims is the most important thing. However, according to my son, per his teachers, if we do not sign the petition and we are in favor of this bill, then we are going against the church. The future of upcoming FD students is at risk. Father Duenas will be sold and it will no longer exist.

This is very upsetting. 

51 comments:

  1. Totally irresponsible and reck less by the FD principal and teachers. This is sick.

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  2. This is the kind of immature blackmail Jeff ran FD school. Strongly suspect Jeff is behind this.

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  3. My daughter came home from a XC meet and said to me -- Hey do you know FD may be closing??

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  4. Wow,very bad,bad, not good!

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  5. Sad day in our church on Guam. We FD Alumni will never let our school cease to exist. Scaring students and parents by church leadership. Proof that we need to clean our Catholic Church before we can go forward. Hon has done a great job of turning Catholics against themselves. What a failure from Rome!! Hope he never returns!! Maybe we can give him a Gennarini welcome if he comes back!!

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  6. OMG someone please get all these quotes together and publish them in the newspaper. To show the community what deplorable manipulation is happening within the Catholic Church. This is like the actions of apuron he has trained them well. How totally sickening. TOTALLY!!

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  7. coercion under penalty of disobedience. yet another manifestation of the decades-old problems of the archdiocese.

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  8. Rose de los Reyes (Seattle, WA)September 20, 2016 at 1:46 AM

    The message being circulated is false! And here is another thing: why involve school children in the petition? The reason why the voting age is either 18 or 21 is because persons, until age of adulthood, have not yet developed the capacity to grasp the bases, the issues, the candidates to make informed choices on matters and candidates up for a vote. Granted signing a petition is not voting, the same concept can applied. Here, students of Catholic elementary schools and high schools who are being asked (almost forced or blackmailed) to sign a petition over which they don't have the full concept of the issue as hand. They are being fed the sound bite --- your school will be closed down! That's enough to put fear in some of these students and they don't have the maturity or the sound mind to dig deeper or look above and beyond the sound bite. Second, only the Catholic school students are being subjected to this propaganda and petition exercise because the Archdiocese has power and access to them. Their public school counter-parts, thank God, are free from this exercise. This is another form of child abuse! Catholic School parents, please either (1)explain to children the whole story or, (2) provide them with a line or two under which to respond to those at school who are forcing them to sign (i.e. "I don't understand the whole issue on this petition, so I will not sign. I am raised not to sign anything I don't understand.").

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  9. But aren't they supposed to get their parent's permission before signing?

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  10. Wrong!! Why are these kids even being presented this mess in their classrooms?? It is so inappropriate! The only thing they should be learning in this regard is participation in a class curriculum called, "Safe Environment" which teaches them exactly what to do when anyone touches them or does ANYTHING that makes them feel uncomfortable with regard to their body. Kids don't need to be bringing confusing messages home to their parents. Every adult on island needs to see "Spotlight"... Jungle Leaders, how bout arranging some free showings of the film for public education purposes?

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  11. Rose de los Reyes (Seattle, WA)September 20, 2016 at 4:06 AM

    Even after a couple of hours after first reading this post, I am STILL LIVID !!! This is another example of the Archdiocese of Agana’s leadership making decisions that are idiotic! Again, I re-iterate my original comment above that these elementary and high school students are not yet adults. They have not yet developed the level of maturity nor have enough life experience under their belt, nor do they have the level of adult sophistication to fully grasp the intention of that petition. The don’t yet fully understand “institutional liability” in general and they don’t yet understand “institutional liability” and the many dimensions that must be pulled together to fully understand it as applied in the language of Bill 326-33. The “definition” of institutional liability provided by their teachers and school officials to those students is “your school is going to be sold or shut down.” We all know that is not the definition! The idiots in the Archdiocese of Agana’s leadership are now joined by most of its clergy and school educators and administrators on the train ride to Stupidland. Some children have already been used as sexual “pawns” for decades. Now the children are being used as political pawns. In both instances, the children don’t even realize they are being used and abused.

    To the Church leaders: enough with using the children! You lack the “big picture” of the petition drive you are conducting. The very basic issue that brought Bill 326-33 to the forefront is sexual abuse against children by Church clergy. Under that context, it would behoove those in the Archdiocese of Agana to stay completely away from engaging children on activities that are counter-productive to their safety! Oh, the irony. Whose idea was this anyway to involve the children ??!! The leadership is short-sighted and lack a landscape vision in involving the children.

    The clergy are instructed to sell the Faithful information that is tantamount to baloney as if the Faithful are idiots (like you) and will simply accept that information as gospel truth without their own research and investigation. No, the Faithful will not! The Faithful today are not the same sheep that followed the clergy without question for decades and decades. The Faithful today question their clergy, discuss among themselves, conduct their own research, compare similar situations before they take the Church’s statements to heart. The local Church’s leadership have to really, really comprehend and always keep in mind that they can no longer simply strategize their next move on whatever causes they aspire to effect for the Church without the Faithful turning their collective eagles’ eyes on the Church’s every move. The reason for this is in front of our eyes in the form of a fallen local Church, which continues to crumble with every day of this petition drive. Oh, my beautiful Roman Catholic Church. I feel so sad that its leaders continue to drive it to the ground.

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  12. - Okay - I am definitely not comprehending something here. The parents of the students attending Catholic Schools pay tuitions for the privilege of attending private schools. Public School children do not pay to attend public schools. Where are the tuition monies going to? I used to work at San Vicente School back in the day and the tuition monies collected were used to support the school. The tuitions were used to pay for the teachers, upkeep of the school, certain supplies, electricity, lunches, etc. So if Father Duenas is closing, what happened to all that money? Was apurun dipping into the tuition monies too? I used to come home every year, from 1990 on, and every year SVS was looking worse and worse. Tuitions keep going up and the Catholic Schools keep getting worse! Someone really needs to look into how the tuitions are be used now. I bet we can find monies being taken to support the NCW and NEOs!

    Father Jeff, before you close FD, you need to give a financial accounting of the tuition monies collected. Who got paid what and when. Then you can talk about closing the school! Shameless Chamorro Priest!

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  13. Father Jeff is molesting the children by telling them FD is closing! Ask where the tuition monies paid by the parents are going. Tuitions paid should be used for running the school and I am pretty sure that there are some monies being funneled somewhere else. Hmmmm, I wonder where! We are very proud of our Catholic Schools and this priest is scaring the children. Shame on You Father Jeff!

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  14. Is this called "Pastoral Bullying"? It is morally illegal and is Punishable by God's law and in some cases, civil law.

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    1. This is exactly the opposite of what Jesus teaches.

      This is the Church Shepherd on Guam abandoning the one lost sheep to make sure the 99 are kept comfortable (along with the shepherd) in their cozy stables.

      Totally disgusting. Hon and Jeff, you will have some answering to do. Regardless, the bill will pass because it is @righteous"!

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    2. Jeff is finished after this regardless of the bill. Time to trash him

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  15. My son was told the same thing. And today I'm sending tuition to the school. I'm so outraged that they are using the boys like this.

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  16. 1.father Jeff is no longer a principal at father duenas. He decided to work for the church as the delegate.
    2. father Jeff doesn't do anything at the school other than say mass in the morning at the chapel
    3. WE DIDNT GO OVER SIGNING THE PETITION
    4. We only discussed what is happening with the bill
    5. No one is being forced to sign a petition

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    1. But he was the principal before he "got promoted"! Let him show where the tuition money went while he was principle! And I agree with Tim - "NOT BEING FORCED" but telling children that FD is closing! Where is his MORALITY! DAH!

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    2. My son came home saying the school will be closed. Did you also talk about how kids were being abused by priest? That is what this bill is about.

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    3. Rose de los Reyes (Seattle, WA)September 20, 2016 at 7:05 AM

      This is the narrative from an FD Parent “Anon 9/19/2016 9:03pm” above: “My son is a student at Father Duenas. Today, the boys were informed about the petition that is circulating and that healing for victims is the most important thing. However, according to my son, per his teachers, if we do not sign the petition and we are in favor of this bill, then we are going against the church. The future of upcoming FD students is at risk. Father Duenas will be sold and it will no longer exist.”

      As to #3 - I believe your reference to “WE” doesn’t cover an entire survey of all the students, teachers, administrators, staff and all the events at FD regarding the petition. It is humanly impossible for you. You can’t be in more than one place at the same time to make the absolute determination that at FD, WE DIDN'T GO OVER SIGNING THE PETITION. While your “WE” didn’t go over signing the petition, the “WE” that includes the teachers of that student referenced above, “did go over signing the petition.” Why else would that student tell his parents of his experience? And frankly, with ruined credibility of the Church’s leadership, most of the clergy and, now, the Catholic school teachers and administrators, I am inclined to believe that student more than I believe the adults at FD.

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    4. Rose de los Reyes (Seattle, WA)September 20, 2016 at 7:25 AM

      This is the narrative above from an FD Parent “Anon 9/19/2016 9:03pm”: “My son is a student at Father Duenas. Today, the boys were informed about the petition that is circulating and that healing for victims is the most important thing. However, according to my son, per his teachers, if we do not sign the petition and we are in favor of this bill, then we are going against the church. The future of upcoming FD students is at risk. Father Duenas will be sold and it will no longer exist.”

      As to #3 - I believe your reference to “WE” doesn’t cover an entire survey of all the students, teachers, administrators, staff and all the events at FD regarding the petition. It is humanly impossible for you. You can’t be in more than one place at the same time to make the absolute determination that at FD, WE DIDNT GO OVER SIGNING THE PETITION. While your “WE” didn’t go over signing the petition, the “WE” that includes the teachers of that student referenced above, “did go over signing the petition.” Why else would that student tell his parents of his experience? And frankly, with the ruined credibility of the Church’s leadership, most of the clergy and now, the Catholic school teachers and administrators, I believe that student!

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    5. Actually, the bill's purpose is to remove the statute of limitations on sexual abuse crimes altogether, rather than attacking one group. FD students were never manipulated to saying things that are obscured. A more informed community allows for comprehension not adhesion.

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    6. An audit of FD under Jeff's administration may shock you.

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    7. I was the one that posted the comment about my son being an FD student.

      Last night, he came home and was confused. He asked me about the current law and what the consequences this bill, if passed, will be. He couldn't understand why they would be told these things when the proposed law was created to protect him, his sisters, his friends, and other children.

      Do I believe my son? You can bet your bottom dollar that I believe him.

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    8. And thus the problem of communicating complicated adult things through kids, even mature high school students. There is the combination of respect for authority and fear that creates the confusion and sense of fear. I'm sure he's a fine principal but addressing the students on this issue is a severe misstep. He should have made a public statement that everyone, including the parents, could read.

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  17. Why should FD close? If they are really concerned, why doesn't the Archdioceses give FD to the FD Board just like they gave away RMS. Let it be a separate corporation/NGO. They won't because it is to scare the student.

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  18. Yes, even various Catholic Schools Faculties are being ask to support against this Bill so they continue to keep Catholic Schools open and not close. This is purely false statements and will no longer call him "a Father" but name him Money Jeff. You just lost true respect from your "True Catholic of GUAM". You no longer a San Nicolas but a Scrog.

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  19. A comedy of errors, I get it. I totally understand the outrage brought on by a couple of reports regarding what FDMS addressed at the regular student assembly yesterday. Father Jeff had not addressed the FD student body in any way after his appointment as delegate. Please ask the current principal regarding what he said exactly and what got filtered to the parents. I can assure you that he simply mentioned the state of affairs but did not advocate for petitions or any other foolishness associated with the current stance of the local church. In fact, I respected him for the manner with which he stated the message. Casting aspersions in public is not the mature way of dealing with our current situation. Please check the facts because we all want same end-result. I admire the emotional quotient, but let us not lose our bearings. Our young people read these blogs as well, so a modicum of civil decorum can go a long way to achieve our common goal. After all, they are the ones that will bear the brunt of the ill-effects the mess our Church created.

    For the record, the meeting called last Friday afternoon seemed to me like an ambush. The current Church stance was a shock to many and not everyone was on board, yet urgency for a "Hail Mary" pass was underlined because Archbishop Hon said so. Some of the attendees expressed misgivings. Many people, for good reason, were aghast and dismayed by what some priests mentioned last Sunday which veered from the script. In my view we have been made pawns on a chessboard as well. We never asked for these crazy state of affairs but we as a Church, particularly clergy, have to own up to the mistakes of the past. Allow this law to pass in order to address the grievances of those who have been abused but are only now empowered to speak. Let chips fall where they may, as long as we can have transparency and credibility. Is the Church really being fair in binding up the hands of our senators as well as the Governor at such a late hour. To me it seemed unfair, especially during an election season, to do this. Understandably, fiscal solvency is an issue but by no means the whole picture. People have spoken: better to build the Church from scratch if that is what it takes.

    To move forward as a people proud and happy with their Catholic Church, we need to purge the cobwebs of the past with spring cleaning. I humbly ask for your forgiveness if I have personally failed any of you thru commission or omission. Please be more lenient with your priests if you are so moved, please educate us to what we are oblivious or numb to, and I pray in turn that our priests will be open to admonition, correction and whatever lack of insight we may have had. We simply cannot allow an escalating show of force about who is right and wrong. No doubt, our resolve must remain strong to advocate for the aggrieved and to educate the young and not-so-young alike that any kind of abuse will not be tolerated. Let that be our overarching concern. We need to link our arms and hearts: ordinary lay people, civil and church authorities, friends around the globe, etc. to cleanse our churches and to restore our community to righteousness. Short of that, we may miss an opportunity to model vital lessons for our young generation. We have a simple imperative: not to pass along our baggage when unloading it is within our grasp.

    Caveat: I do not speak in an official capacity for the church, just as an ordinary Catholic who is proud of its Traditions and who wants to remain in the Mother Church.

    Sincerely,
    Father Efren Adversario

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    1. Father, there may be errors, but this is no comedy. Given the heightened and very public tension right now, largely due to a horrible church leadership, principals of schools, when addressing this issue, should make their statements public. Not to do so is simply to promote more scandal.

      As for the new principal at FD. Who is he? she? Did I miss it? I don't recall an Aviso naming the new principal. This is a public - archbishop appointed - position. Maybe it doesn't have to be an official aviso but I don't recall any mention of the new principal's name. And the fact that so many think that Fr. Jeff is still the principal points to the reason why these errors are no comedy.

      A horribly failed, morally bankrupt church leadership.

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    2. Tim, thank you for your reply, it means a lot to me. The "comedy of errors" refers to the missteps that our Church foisted on the "people on the pews." You are right, this is no laughing matter at all but it seems that our Church leadership is not addressing the issues in the best possible light. The new principal is Mr. Tony Thompson, the previous vice-principal. He is a person who has my utmost respect and confidence. His 25+ years of experience at FDMS speaks clearly, and is well-loved by faculty, parents and students alike. We are better off as a financially bankrupt Church (if it comes to that) than a spiritually and morally bankrupt entity. Without the latter we have no business spreading the Word of God.

      Father Efren

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    3. Rose de los Reyes (Seattle, WA)September 20, 2016 at 10:07 AM

      The students at FDMS have told their parents that they were told their school will close down if they don’t sign the petition. Fr. Adversario of FD writes that, “I can assure you that he [the principal] simply mentioned the state of affairs but did not advocate for petitions or any other foolishness associated with the current stance of the local church. In fact, I respected him for the manner with which he stated the message.” I made the point above that elementary and high school students have not yet developed the level of maturity nor have enough life experience under their belt, nor do they have the level of adult sophistication to fully grasp the intention of that petition. The don’t yet fully understand “institutional liability” in general and they don’t yet understand “institutional liability” and the many dimensions that must be pulled together to fully understand it as applied in the language of Bill 326-33. Even with Fr. Adversario’s satisfaction and admiration of how the FD principal laid-out of the state of affairs of the bill and the petition, to the student’s limited life experience, the only context by which they can grasp that message is that their school is going to close down. In this scenario, the principal was not lying, the students were not lying. The students conveyed to their parents the talk given by the principal in the way that the students were able to comprehend that message, in the context of their limited life experience, in the context of their still limited view of the world. The plan to involve the students and altar servers with the petition --- whether as solicitors or signers or both --- was an idiotic move. The children are not being asked to sign a birthday card to the Governor. They are being asked to sign a petition involving a crucial piece of legislation that is beyond their complete comprehension at this point in their lives.

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    4. Ms. Rose of Seattle, I Respect your interpretation but you were not at FD for the assembly. Mr. Thompson said nothing about signing a petition to vetoing the bill. In a broad brushstroke he mentioned what is going on (which is already out there anyway), and my first-hand experience with our students demonstrate an awareness of what is going on around them. I agree that they have yet to experience the "adult sophistication" that you infer but please don't sell them short and don't second-guess what happens here. And, no, I do not wish to argue with you. Students were given facts by competent authority, and encouraged to focus on learning their lessons, which is what they are in school for. If the parents have questions they know they can contact the front office, but please avoid using the students to make your point.
      Sincerely,
      Father Adversario

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    5. Sorry, Father. But you're not getting it. Perception is reality. The facts are that whatever was said at FD has made things even messier. This is a hotly charged very public topic. If the school administration is going to say anything about it, especially to school children who aren't old enough to vote, and ESPECIALLY since we are already VERY AWARE that the archdiocese is publicly demanding a veto of the bill, then it should have foreseen this mess. This is ultra complicated by the fact that a principal was appointed at FD without notice to the public. The fault is the school administration's and once again, the archdiocese, and not people like Rose who only know what they see. It is NOT our job to contact the DAMN front office!

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    6. If that is the case, then I apologize. I do not assign blame on anyone expressing their emotions and solutions on this blog, but I wish for cooler heads to prevail. What is it that we can all do to make things right? We cannot go off on tangents to nitpick and lash out on everyone and anyone who happens to step on our toes. You have clearly outlined a detailed checklist in another post, so let us try to stick to those goals, or are these goals a moving target? The church statement this weekend threw us off-course but our goals remain the same. Let us remain steady and strong in the resolve to tackle the bigger rocks.

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    7. Rose de los Reyes (Seattle, WA)September 20, 2016 at 3:32 PM

      Thank you, Father Adversario, for your comment. You missed my point: children (in the form of altar servers and Catholic school students) should not have been made to be a part of this petition drive. Even without being at FD during the assembly, I trust your assessment that Mr. Thompson did a great job in having laid-out the state of affairs of the bill and the petition. Even with that, the students can distill the facts laid out to them by Mr. Thompson but only within the context of their life experience. There are two accounts by parents whose sons were confused by this assembly. That confusion is not due to Mr. Thompson’s statement, nor is it due to the inability of the students to follow Mr. Thompson’s discussion. I am confident that, for the most part, the students grasped Mr. Thompson’s discussion ---- but only to up to the level that they could grasp the message commensurate to their life experience. The way each grasped Mr. Thompson’s explanation is, to each, his reality. To illustrate, take the biblical story of Noah. To a 4-year-old it’s a story about animals, a big boat, and lots of rain. To an 8-year-old it’s a story that includes a family, all the animals of the earth, a huge boat, a flood and why we have rainbows. To a teen Noah was a person and his story is about civilizations that were destroyed yet the inhabitants who listened to divine guidance were saved. To an adult, the story of Noah is an inspired and powerful message about judgment and grace, God’s hatred of sin and his love for his creation and God’s promise never to destroy the Earth again fully realized in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ where God takes the judgment for sin upon himself rather than humanity. Same story, but for every stage of life, with more life experience, with additional education with expansion of vocabulary, the same story is grasped in a wider and more sophisticated plane. Try to explain the adult version of Noah’s story to a teenager and, while they will grasp the concept of God’s hatred for sin and the promise not to destroy the Earth again, the rest will probably will go over their heads. The minors are not yet equipped to fully grasp issues surrounding Bill 326-33 and the petition drive to veto this bill. They should not have been made to be a part of this political move that you called (and one that made me chuckle) the “Hail Mary pass”.

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    8. Ms. Rose, point taken. I appreciate your view and explanation on developmental nuances. At the meeting Friday, it was stated that only 18-year olds and above (minors, obviously need parent written approval) will participate if asked to sign a petition. The tasking was another case of rushing to meet a deadline, which was for today, in time to collect the signatures prior to the Governor's return on island Wednesday and before his signing on Friday. "Haste Makes Waste" - educating people takes much longer than that, which is why there is such pushback, which became more like "Haste Makes Idiotic." The Church should have made its plea during the three hearings on the bill, and not when the administrator realized that the law has potential to reach into its deep pockets. The term "hail mary pass" used in football was actually used by Father Jeff himself at that Friday meeting so I do not claim that nomenclature as mine. Anyhow, where do we go from here? I hope and pray that we can link our arms and hearts to really move forward and resolve our problems. There are many constructive comments and helpful solutions here on JW. Other dioceses in the US have given us insight as to how they solved similar cases. I wish this blog and the ones who post can be given places at the discussion table by our hierarchy moving forward. Archbishop Hon would have been well-served if only he had done this as soon as his Vatican boots touched ground last June.
      Sincerely,
      Father Adversario

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    9. Fr. Adversario, with great respect, I humbly invite you to "link your arms and hearts" with the rest of us in our Sunday protests. Perhaps, by your example, other members of the clergy (and nuns) will also join us.

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    10. Thanks for the invite. My regular commitment at Andersen AFB during the timeframe proscribes my physical presence at the venue on Sundays. My prayers and my heart are with you at my Masses. Your great sacrifice for the good of the Church is an example to us all. The growing presence of laity power is encouraging. My esteem, and the respect of the community for you have grown as well. Thank you.
      Father Efren

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    11. Rose de los Reyes (Seattle, WA)September 21, 2016 at 12:07 AM

      Thank you, Fr. Adversario. I appreciate your willingness to engage in these very important, sticky, and even explosive discussions about the local Church here in JungleWatch. I understand the predicament of priests and religious of the Archdiocese wherein some may possess their own personal views and opinions not within “the party line.” They choose not to express their sentiments critical to Fr. Hon and the others of the Archdiocesan leadership out of respect for the office those leaders hold. I understand that. This is why I appreciate even more your engagement in our discussion here in JungleWatch, your openness to hear out the laity, your setting out the specifics of the scenario under which the petition drive at FDMS was conducted, and your ability to convey your sentiments embedded with the tone of unity toward the same hopes and goals for our local Church. I am encouraged that the students at FDMS have you as an influence in their growth and development. They are blessed.

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    12. Ms. Rose, explosive and sticky! Tell me about it. The outrage of lay people comes from having been ignored for the longest time, and now our failure to address basic principles to protect the dignity of individuals, resulting in the daily barrage of front page news. To think that we always pray to "respect human life and dignity from the moment of conception to natural death!" Respect runs the whole gamut of the life spectrum. That is the mission entrusted to us by Jesus Christ the Great Commander. I can almost imagine him with a solemn face and pointing a finger, "you had one job...!" When we falter, we own up and take responsibility. The Church must be held accountable especially when its ministers' deviations result in trampling that dignity. Even a scintilla of doubt regarding personal integrity or wrongdoing ought to be scrutinized and acted upon expeditiously. This is not about the "party line" that you correctly alluded to, but about the individual we have pledged to help sanctify from baptism to their passage to eternal life. This is not about the image that the Church usually tries to project but to make sure that each person is treated with respect as Jesus would do. We have failed thru our collective and personal arrogance as ministers, otherwise we would not have dragged the Catholic Church in the front page news for this length of time. Many of us do try but we are also flawed and limited which is why we need to seek advice from all sectors of society and from individuals who are more astute in matters that pertain to the world of legalism and jargon. I am naive, even ignorant, of many nuances not within my lane, and I hope we indeed reach out to the expertise of the laity in delicate issues. Our calling as servants of God and instruments of the Church mandates us not to have our own agenda, except to be of service to others. The trust and the affection of people come from that selfless desire to serve. As the chaplaincy moniker in my previous AF service went, "we are visible reminders of the holy." Unfortunately the majority of those we are called to sanctify see some of us who serve, "anything but..."
      Father Efren
      ps. likewise thank you for being a beacon of light in your part of the Pacific Coast.

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  20. Fortes in Fide, or Strong in the Faith, means just that. Have faith in the laity and not in the clergy who have sexually abused our children and have mismanaged Church funds for so many years. FD Alumni are strongly behind the CCOG, LFM, and Silent No More organizations. We will never allow our alma mater to close, but may push to have the FD Board of Trustees take it out of the Chancery's control. Gerald A. Taitano, Class of 1967.

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  21. This move of the usage of students is ludicrous. People who use children to gain their own agendas are the lowest. Our sons attended private schools and I could remember all those "extras" the schools' leadership would use to get funds from the parents. And now to use these students for their diabolical end. SMFH.

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  22. Father Louis Brouillard was assigned to FD from 1968 to 1976. His higher ups at FD more than likely knew of his sexual escapades with young boys but kept quiet about it. This is why they fear FD will close down should the Governor sign the bill into law.
    Check out Brouillard's assignment record.
    http://www.bishopaccountability.org/Brouillard_Louis.htm

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  23. I don't want it lost on me. "People have spoken: better to build the Church from scratch if that is what it takes......We are better off as a financially bankrupt Church (if it comes to that) than a spiritually and morally bankrupt entity. Without the latter we have no business spreading the Word of God." I salute you for that, Fr. Efren. How many of our priests said that. Not even as many as the fingers we have in one hand.

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    1. Thank you, Ebet, many of our priests and religious do think that way too. Yet it is also coupled with the anxiety of what the future holds. Many of us have become comfortable with routine and settle with that, so we get immobilized by change. I believe there is a profound reason why the Holy Spirit is shaking us to the very spine - and I think it is about entrusting the work of the Church to God again. There is something so numbing about having to do that, ironically, but it has to be done. We have been hit with a tsunami of staggering proportions, although as we have learned through series of storms, we shrug it off, we regroup and we deal with what we have left. Just like building a bare bones kind of environment, we discover our strength and our gifts that we never knew we had, and they become impetus for greater inner growth.

      I plead with you and other people of goodwill, talk to your priests and religious, assure them that no matter what happens, you will be there to grow a firmer, stronger, more durable Church because you and them are willing to learn from this. It is a wake-up call, albeit a rough one that we could have been prevented. We could run through a checklist of "what could have been" and "what should have beens", but the reality is now. Best to rise up and face the day, rain or shine. As that cliche' so often proved right goes, "Lord, there is nothing that will happen today that You and I cannot handle together." The caveat is, we have to take initiative.
      Fr Efren

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  24. Fr. Adversario, thank you for your quick reply AND your public expression of support. Coming from you, that means a lot. If only
    other members of the clergy (and nuns) would do the same.

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  25. Credibility=Junglewatch, CCOG, LFM, Silent No More!
    Lacking credibility=Hon, Archdiocese, NCW. Pls don't take your eye of the ball. Support Bill 326. Don't tolerate school officials using your kids for their own SELFISH ends.

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  26. Thank you Tim for your efforts to clarify comments, Rose de los Reyes for your very analytical eye, and Fr. Efren for the public expression of support.



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  27. Tentatively transcribed as overheard (145 degrees west from you), even as your Father Jeff spoke:

    Neo-hoodwinked high school principal: My neo-hoodwinked lawyer says that school pupils are pre-defined as having consented to everything their superiors areb going to throw at them, whether a car ride to the beach with blankets over the windows, or verbal and emotional bullying. I don't see their parents taking any notice if they go wailing to them.

    Non-neo-hoodwinked High School pupil: Mum, Dad, instead of keeping their lips zipped in front of us our school authorities have been winding us up about the church, the school and institutions in society.

    Neo-hoodwinked parent: That's nice, dear. I think the people that want your past and future fellow pupils, neighbours and pals at the congregation to have redress, are to blame. You wouldn't want them to have redress, now surely?

    (Discussion between Rose and Father Adversario refers. School official DID involve the pupils in the petition simply by not keeping silent about it in front of them. Furthermore as persons in his care and charge he has no right to involve the over 18s EITHER. Those who knowingly let this situation continue over decades are the ones who planned to place the school at threat - if it even is at threat at all)

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