Posted by Bob
Jungle Watchers will remember one of our most frequent, persuasive and accurate commenters named Janet B from Mangilao. Janet B has made contact through the JW hotline and offers several posts dealing with Fr. Adrian "The Fugitive" Cristobal. The first offering from Janet B follows:
Fr Adrian Cristobal: How One Priest Nearly destroyed the Church on Guam, or “Before the Neocatechumenal Way came to Guam vocations were totally dry!”
This is the mantra of any die-hard NCW members to justify their existence. And at the center of this teaching is the now disgraced priest, and former Vocations Director, Adrian "The Fugitive" Cristobal. However, as we will see over a multipart look at the tragedy of leadership for Guam’s Church, many things that come from NCW members' mouths are absolutely false.
And, “Before the Neocatechumenal Way came to Guam vocations were totally dry!” is definitely false.
Surprisingly, since the NCW first came to Guam, contrary to their claims of being a hotbed of vocations, twice as many local men have been ordained priests outside of the NCW than from the RMS “priest mill." Fr Paul Gofigan and Fr Richard Kidd both went to St Patrick’s seminary, and received a traditional formation from an accredited and reputable institution. And both of these priests are still active and vibrant in their ministry and service to the people of Guam.
It should be noted that the path for Fr Richard was filled with challenges from his own Vocations Deflector, Fr Adrian "The Fugitive" Cristobal. Adrian boldly told the young seminarian hopeful that there would be no more vocations, except through the NCW. Adrian had put Mr. Kidd’s vocation on hold for more than two years. Fortunately for us, Richard Kidd persisted and eventually succeeded in getting Apuron to support his desire to attend the Bay area seminary. This upset Adrian to no end, and the Vocation Deflector re-doubled his efforts to insure that the only men ordained on Guam would be through their attendance at the faulty seminary on Guam.
From the NCW records, the first and only Guam man ever ordained through the NCW mill in Yoña is Fr Luis Camacho. The hopes of all future vocations for the NCW rested with this young man. He was the apple of Apuron’s eye. The bishop even agreed to send Luis on the coveted assignment to Rome for his itinerant phase of missionary training. Reflecting the strong affection for the young Camacho, bishop Apuron even gave Fr. Camacho the starring role in the Blessed Diego Luis de San Vitores documentary produced for Guam. This last act furthered the tensions between the ambitious Adrian "The Fugitive" Cristobal, and the bishop he introduced to the NCW, Apuron.
Despite all the high hopes, Fr. Luis Camacho is no longer able to serve the people of Guam because he resigned after being arrested with a child at an isolated beach in Agat.
So, while it is true that the RMS Guam has ordained 17 men “for” Guam, only one of these men has been a local son “from” Guam. The other 16 have been imported, and most of them do not even serve the people of Guam any more. So, the score since the NCW came to Guam is:
Local diocesan vocations = 2
Local NCW vocations = 1
Janet B informs that this is just the beginning. Stay tuned to JungeWatch for more from Janet B.
