Friday, August 9, 2019

AP PHOTO


A photo of former Archbishop Anthony Apuron lays among discarded items on the floor of the former Accion Hotel which was a seminary but is now vacant and for sale by the Catholic Church, in Yona, Guam, Wednesday, May 8, 2019. In April the Vatican revealed that Pope Francis had upheld the findings of a secret church trial that found Apuron guilty of sex crimes against children. Anthony Apuron denies the allegations, which are detailed in lawsuits. (AP Photo/David Goldman)

9 comments:

  1. This is a most excellent piece of writing and photography albeit over a subject matter covering a shameful and hurtful stain in the history of Guam’s Catholic Church (and the Catholic Church as a whole). Thank you to the men who participated, contributed and disclosed their identities to make this piece whole and robust. The truth about the local child sexual abuse by clergy is finally captured in writing. Bits and pieces of events mentioned is this article were discussed, disclosed in real time in JungleWatch’s pages as the events of those disclosures were unfolding in 2015, 2016 and as the victims featured in this article began to come forward. Many JungleWatch commenters urged the victims to “go public” and lauded them for their courage to go against an institution (the local Church) and persons so powerful (Apuron and his supporters) armed only with the most powerful weapons they had --- their courage and the truth. It was not an easy feat, yet look … three year thereafter, though the pain may never fully go away, both the men and the Church are somewhat on the mend. My prayers continue for the continued mending/healing of the victims and the Church.

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    1. At one time, the itinerants over here boasted of their plans to move into Guam, as if that would matter to us. It would be extremely interesting, to review how much detail they knew on the fraud plan.

      The itinerants of our two main archdioceses, where it is a diocesan way of deformation, sometimes demanded our moneys in entirety without prior notice (whether for "entertaining" or for "arranging something"). It is to be hoped their accounting procedures square with the Charities Commission.

      The main intention of the "way" is to embarrass Vincent Nichols who is of a far better calibre than Cormac (of the "French lesson jokes" as he scatters ashes).

      I was present when my fellow member asked plainly that moneys be accounted for, and there was no response.

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    2. Well Austin, as far as our own experience, there was no accounting of money here, except for the moving of large sums from certain accounts to others, without rime or reason. The Archdiocese of Guam under Apuron, became a large scale money laundering machine for the benefits of Genarrini. Fake billing, missions and traveling expenditures all paid for by the Archdiocese, and of course no questioning about anything. Some people lived very high on the hog. This is of course without counting the infamous black garbage bags, and donations of estate to certain catechists. The whole thing was done in a climate of terror and intimidation. Archbishop Byrnes was left with a mountain of debts, and of course the issue of sexual abuse.
      Guam was milked, for all what it's worth. Now we are trying to pay the piper.

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    3. We were told that the MIRACLE of the last minute gift of the luxury hotel in Guam to the Way to become the site of a new RMS was proof that the Holy Spirit was accompanying us at our annual national convivance! I now wonder now what sort of spirit? In order to justify these claims the NCW will be desperate to get the Yona property back presumable using the same spirit. Keep your eye on the big G in New Jersey Tim!

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    4. It would be good to review, how much the English dioceses' operatives knew about the role of the moral state in your diocese, in the matters they were announcing.

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    5. No doubt. The "buyers" from "Georgia" are a front group for the usual bad guys. Just watch.

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  2. Tim, Frenchie, Bob and Others … your work in JungleWatch, particularly in contemporaneously documenting and preserving the events cited in this article, is sooooo appreciated. Thank you very, very much. In a discussion about our Lord’s presence in our lives with my pastor years ago, a thing he said to me has stuck, “Most of the time we see the Lord’s hands, His providence, in our lives usually in hindsight.” My pastor said that to me in the context of trusting the Lord, especially in times of difficulty. It’s later on, once you’re out-of-the-woods that you’ll see how He was present all along. It’s seems liked the spring, summer of 2016 was just yesterday when the events cited in this article were unfolding. It was a difficult summer. And now, three summers later, with child sexual abuse by clergy within the Catholic Church on Guam now out in the open and being dealt with, God’s providence was there all along.

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    1. Rose, so good to hear from you. Thank you for being there all along. Sincerely, Tim

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  3. The NCW like it when the "way" is disapproved in a diocese because they can drop some of the utterly illusory show of "answerability". The snag is, operations have to be carried out in the name of a range of other dioceses, which I call salami-slicing of mischief making under different auspices, and flying under the radar in plain sight. This is a snag for those various other dioceses as well, as they are now just beginning to twig!

    Necrotising Cacoethic Witchery is "at the disposal of bishops" on a Monday, the bishops are at the disposal of it on Tuesday, it is a pretend religious order on Wednesday (oops they forgot to tell you what your oaths were going to be in advance), an invisible personal prelature on Thursday, a Sodality (near anagram of their attitude, Sod It All) on Friday.

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