This
bill must become law.
This law is required to reclaim and restore our Church. It is a hammer, and this hammer needs to be applied. It is the only tool that we have to clean and restore our Church.
Yes, it will hurt, and
perhaps even badly, but the pain is essential for holiness to be restored and
for justice to be served. It is the only way, because as we have seen time and
time again, the clergy, and especially the leaders, are inherently incapable of
cleaning their own house, our Church. This inherent defect not only applies to
Guam, but we have seen this in every diocese in the States, small and large.
Even after Archbishop Hon
arrived, and from the Holy See at that, he blatantly ignored the most
insidious, malevolent, immoral, deplorable, and scandalous issue that has ever confronted our
Church in Guam: the sex abuse of minors by clergy, going back 40 plus
years.
It is a spiritual crises of monstrous proportions.
What does Archbishop Hon do instead in his first public appearance? He asks for
prayers for the most repugnant of all sex perpetrators: Apuron.
Did he ask for prayers for Walter, Roy, Sonny, Sonny's mother Doris, and others? No.
We take that hammer away and
it will be business as usual.
Our
senators have done their part. Now, the Governor must do his by signing the
bill into law.
I think that Calvo will want to sign this bill regardless of the enormous pressure that will surely be put on him by the Church hierarchy and their lawyers. It really is a simple matter. Either one wants to put an end to this decades long horror or one doesn't. Sure, church assets will be at risk. But it should be obvious by now that the people whose families built these buildings (especially as represented by Greg Perez of Perez Bros.) are the same people who are willing to foot the bill if necessary to cleanse our church of this filth.
ReplyDeleteThe clergy themselves will not be out a dime, unless of course, like Apuron, they are personally found liable for these filthy horrors. In fact, some may be, which is probably the real reason for the push back, NOT the threatened loss of assets.
The fact is that it is WE the laity who will have to foot the bill to clean our church. It is we the laity who pushed forward this bill. It is we the laity who marched Sunday after Sunday. It is we the laity who stood behind Apuron's victims when no member of the clergy (publicly) would.
We even gave Hon a chance to do things right by NOT supporting institutional liability in the original bill. It was only after Hon mocked the victims, mocked our efforts, and mocked our faith, that we realized that we have no recourse but to go after him too. And to do that, we had to include institutional liability.
More on this later. Governor. Have no fear. If there ever was an issue that the laity REALLY support, it is THIS one. Just listen to the testimony of Ramon Da Plata again. That should be enough!
Excellent post, "Webster"; truer words were never spoken. And great reply Tim. History is being made and history will judge all involved. May we leave a legacy of protection for innocence.
ReplyDeleteI'm with Webster on this.
ReplyDeleteScrew the Assets of the church, the souls of many people are more important, Governor sign the bill into law, this will allow victims to seek justice, It will send the perpetrators to prison, and become a deterrent for any pervert who preys on innocent children. Amen...
ReplyDeleteAMEN Webster!
ReplyDeleteWithout this law the Church will do nothing. David the Villain General knew about the crimesWhile the Church built more monuments and accumulated vast wealth, the victims suffered. That is what makes the effort to bring justice so compelling - the gross negligence is sickening.
Yes Gov Calvo. The legislature acted rightly to pass this bill. Allowing the law to lapse into being does not do it justice. Our leader must sign this bill into law, show that he truly is a man of faith, and a man of principal.
While many would like to see serial sexual perverts like Apuron stand criminal trial for what they have done, that is not possible. So a civil trial is the only way to bring the perpetrators to court and testify under penalty of perjury. Then the truth will come out.
There will be no contrived press releases, not fist-pumping monkey priests, no threats. Just the truth.
And Governor, just in case you think this is legislation against a single deviant...it is not. This legislation is to protect all children against every sexual pervert on island, not just in the Church, but everywhere.
One of the biggest benefits of this legislation, is unlike the previous law which severely restricted fair access to the civil process, all victims can feel safe in coming forward to air their injuries.
We will soon see how corrupted our Church has become in the last 40 years. As a Catholic it pains me greatly to think how many victims there actually are, and how they have been forced by this corrupt leadership to suffer in silence. But this law will give them a chance to seek help.
And if Webster is correct, and the amounts are very costly, then so be it. I would rather have a clean and pure Church with financial burdens to pay future settlements, than a Church filled with sex abusers, rapists, and deviants.
Gov. Calvo - if you found widespread corruption in the Government, how would you handle it? Would you go to extreme lengths to cover it up? Or would you look for every corrupt employee and take every action necessary to get them out of the Government? We know you would do the later because you are a man of principal.
Give the Church the same opportunity to do the same to rid our sacred spaces of the corrupt influence we have. Sign the bill into law and send the message that the safety of our children must never be sacrificed for financial comfort.
I just want to point out that this bill if signed into law will NOT protect children or make them any safer from a child sex abuser. It will however, punish the ones who abuse them... IF they are caught, tried, and convicted, and the punishment will not be fitting for such criminals.
DeleteA more fitting punishment in my view is death by dismemberment, limb by limb, and only after a public stoning.
So stop believing that somehow this bill if signed into law will make children safer. Instead, pursue a bill, that when signed into law, will punish child sex offenders by death as I have described.
Financial punishment is not enough and jail time is going cost us money. So death is the best option.
DC
Anonymous September 17, 2016 at 12:19 AM - DC - I totally agree with you but you know that what you suggest cannot be legally done! With Apurun and his supporters, you need to hit them where it is going to really really hurt - In Their Financial Pockets! They Love Money Too Much! I am positive that if you cut a limb off, they can just go and find someone who can replace the limb because they have all that money that they have stolen from the True Catholic Church!
DeleteWell, hitting financially is also hitting ourself because we support the church finacially and I for one do not want my church destroyed. But there is the death penalty which is a punishment for certain crimes such a murder. So it is possible. The problem is that no one has pursued the death penalty as a punishment for child sex abusers. There is no crime more heinous than a rape of a child by an adult, not even murder. Murder can be accidental. Raping or sexual abuse of a child is always intentional.
DeleteDC
Dear DC. Many feel as you do. But I want to correct what you said "this bill if signed into law will NOT protect children".
DeleteNot true. Money can be a very strong motivator. I suspect we will see a desperate church attempt desperate acts in the upcoming week. They will have all sorts of reasons and excuses to oppose what they previously were silent on.
Their greatest opposition will be money. Look what it will cost the Church! They were mute during the public hearings but money has awoken the drunken giant.
When this bill is passed and signed by Gov Calvo, the Church on Guam will finally take seriously the issue of sex abuse. Money does speak loudly.
Instead of pouring millions into a fake seminary, the Church will start spending real money to protect our youth so they don't have to spend bigger money paying victims.
They never had an incentive before, but you can be sure the painful payouts to Roy, Walter, Roland , and sonny will leave a lasting commitment to protecting our youth.
We have seen this happen throughout the US. Churches ignored the victims and protected their priests at all costs...until the lawsuits started rolling in. Now they focus on prevention after have been struck across the face with the fist of justice.
Gov Calvo, you are a man of morals. You believe in the government's obligation to protect children.
Sign this into law and show us how you want to be remembered.
Be the MAN who protected children, not the man who protect financial assets of an institution who feed their lambs to the wolves.
Amen Janet. Well said.
ReplyDeletegovernor calvo: show your commitment to justice and the protection of abuse victims by signing the bill. don't just let it lapse. show your support.
ReplyDeleteyes, the process of purification always has an element of suffering. but the faithful will get through it. ask for the protection of Santa Marian Kamalen. trust in the Lord.
What is taking Calvo so long? If he takes the cowardly way and let's it lapse into law then he can forget about his legacy. At least Senator Frank Blas Jr. had the courage to introduce the bill and in the beginning he stood alone but then his colleagues eventually joined in to support him. SIGN THE BILL CALVO!
ReplyDelete