After the Lunch recess, judge Tydingco-Gatewood restarted the hearing for the bankruptcy of the Archdiocese of Agana.
Mr Cruz from San Bernadita parish in Yigo took back where he had left prior to the recess, in what had been a tense redirect regarding Mr Cruz not agreeing with Mr Caldie's assertion.
Indeed Mr Caldie in his brand new Torri Richards Hawaiian shirt, (these shirts sell for around $100.00 a piece) kept on harping on what looks like his main argument: the archdiocese is whole and one, as the Archbishop declared, while talking in a methaphore about the survivors, on several occasion.
This is obviously a dishonest use of the declaration, but Mr Caldie is dead set on using this statement as a hammer to drive his point forward.
Fr Paul on Saturday and General Santos both brushed this assertion off during their respective testimony, pointing that we are one with the whole Catholic church worldwide, not just on Guam. I personally do not believe will stop this perverted version of the Archbishop statement, because it is one of his most powerful weapon in arguing that parishes are not independent entities, despite their canon law status and their separate bank accounts and separate financial council.The fact that we are one with our whole Church world wide does not mean Pope Francis is in Charge of the Agana Archdiocese, just as it does not mean the Archdiocese is controlling the parishes...
But we are not dealing with an honest individual, or team of individuals. They are here to make sure the pie is as large as possible, in order to get a bigger piece. Not particularly trying to bring justice to the survivors. This is why the committee for the Creditors which include the Bank of Guam, brought in the Big Guns from Minnesota.
We should remind everybody that the Archdiocese has so far sold several properties, and that so far the survivors have not seen a single penny from it. Instead the Lawyers have done quite well, despite some minor adjustments by the Judge to some of their fees.
The next witness was Mr Richard Untalan who is the head of the Episcopal Finance committee
Again same tactic and technic. Mr Caldie who looked very confident and rested tried to establish the process for the identification of essential properties, (something Mr Felix had already alluded to) . By now the game is to continue to establish a corrolation between the properties and the Archdiocese.
Don't forget the exercise is to attempt to fatten the piece of the pie. The other goal here is to see if any of the witness would contradict the statement of other witnesses. Mr Untalan remained cool as a cucumber despite the repeated attempt to confuse and/or trip him. He underlined the process they had to take to identify which property belonged to the Archdiocese, the parishes and other entities. Particularly he noted some properties which were thought to belong the Chancery, but in fact belonged to the Catholic Social Services or the Sisters of Mercy, as well as the Capuchin and the Dominicans.
Basically Mr Untalan confirmed the statements of Mr Felix on Saturday.
The Attorney for the plaintiffs introduced more documents as exhibits. During the process, question were asked about line of commands , again trying to establish the Archbishop as the ultimate Hierarchy. Mr Untalan continued unpertubed to describe their vetting process to establish the difference between essential and non essential properties. He explained quite well that pastors would defend their respective parishes teeth and nails, and the fact that Bishops in general have to follow rules of law that were over 2000years old.
Again the lawyer for the plaintiffs declared he should not bring up Canon law, because the judge had already ruled on the issue. Yet he was the one who had initiated the conversation. Mr Untalan remained relaxed, but concise and direct in his answers. He insisted that the Bishop relies on the college of consultors and the Presbyteral council for decisions.
Under cross examination by Geri Diaz attorney for the Archdiocese Mr Untalan insisted that while we are one Church on the island, we also were one Church around the world. What was true here, was true in France, here, in Korea or anywhere else in the globe.
Later on cross examination, Mr Caldie was more aggressive and less pleasant, telling Mr Untalan not to use the word pastoral for instance. Before asking if he knew any of the survivors, and how many? Mr Untalan recalled that he personally knew a dozen of them, and that he was aware of several others. Mr Caldie then pushed his line of questioning by asking if Mr Untalan thought that the victims were part of the Church to which he answered that we are all members of the Church of God.
Mr Untalan witnessing ended up on that note. It would then be up to Archbishop Byrnes to testify.
We shall do a whole analysis of Archbishop Byrnes testimony later, because it was not ended today, but shall continue tomorrow.
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