By Tim Rohr
Following is a comment from an astute observer of the Apuron affair:
Apuron will resort to any means to get his case stayed and perhaps dismissed. Piggy backing on another child sex case before the superior court that seeks to dismiss the case as inorganic and unconstitutional, Apuron is hoping that a favorable ruling will also benefit him. This other case involved former police officer, AJ Balajadia, who is challenging the 2016 law that removed the statute of limitations for child sex abuse allegations thus allowing for about 300 civil cases to be filed. If Mr. Balajadia should prevail which is highly unlikely, then the 9 or 10 cases against Apuron could be dismissed.
Balajadia, however, rather than stand firm and pursue his case in court. he chose to flee the island and probably not agree to voluntarily return to island.
Apuron, on the other hand, has always maintained his innocence saying “As God is my witnesses, I am innocent.” If he is so innocent you think that he would happily want to prove it. I’m sure allowances can probably be made for him to return to Guam to appear in court. However, as long as he is banned by the Vatican, he will use this as the reason for not being able to defend himself.
Meanwhile, another commenter in another forum suggested that while Apuron may have made a mistake (i.e. what he is accused of), he should be forgiven, and further implied that the local culture is very forgiving.
I replied that, indeed, Apuron would have not only been forgiven, but may even still be forgiven and welcomed back with open arms as Archbishop of Agana. I further noted though that Apuron has never asked to be forgiven.
If Apuron did not do what he was accused of then all he had to do was say "I'm sorry, I did not do what you are accusing me of, but please come in and let's talk about it." Or, if Apuron did do what he was accused of, all Apuron had to do was say "I'm sorry, please forgive me."
I say this because after meeting and speaking with the Apuron's initial accusers (Roy, Walter, & Roland), I can testify to the fact that none of them wanted to sue Apuron or go public with their stories. They only wanted to meet with Apuron and confront him about what they believed were egregious acts against their persons when they were in their teens.
Instead, Apuron threatened to both civilly and canonically sue his accusers, slammed the door in their faces, threatened to call the police if any one of his accusers set foot on chancery grounds, and then ran off to Rome and has remained in hiding every since.
Meanwhile, we need to remember that Apuron was already physically "out of here" by the time the threats to sue and call the police came out. That stuff was orchestrated by then-Fr. Adrian Cristobal and Fr. Edivaldo - who took over the chancery upon Apuron's flight.
Cristobal has since been "defrocked" and who knows what happened to Edivaldo. But bottom line was that Apuron ran. Innocent people don't do that.
