Friday, March 3, 2023

HIGH DRAMA IN THE ARCHDIOCESE OF AGANA - PART 6: HON?

By Tim Rohr

CONTINUED FROM PART 5

With another headline article in the news today about the sale of church properties "to help compensate more than 270 survivors of Guam clergy sexual assaults as far back as the 1950s," it's time to get back to the history, the real history, of how we got here because it didn't have to happen this way. And it is important that everyone in this archdiocese know and understand this BECAUSE THE PROBLEM IS STILL HERE.

This is Part 6 of a multi-part story (I don't know how many parts yet), and if you missed the first five, you can go back and start here. Otherwise, let's summarize some key points before we move on:

  1. The bankruptcy of the Archdiocese of Agana did not start with allegations of sex abuse. 
  2. It started with ex-Archbishop Apuron taking alarming actions, first against Fr. Paul Gofigan, and then Msgr. James Benavente.
  3. The attacks on Gofigan and Benavente appeared to be orchestrated and timed (and NOT by Apuron, which is critical to understanding the rest of the story).
  4. To those of us who looked closer, it appeared that Apuron, who would reach mandatory episcopal retirement age (75) in a few years, was mobilizing to remove his most likely successors - who happened to not be friendly to the NCW - to ensure that the next Archbishop of Agana was at least supportive of the Neocats, if not a Neocat himself - as was Apuron.
  5. In the short term, this led the laity to preemptively demonstrate in support of Fr. Mike Crisostomo, who was Apuron's next likely target. (All of this is thoroughly documented on this blog and at some point I may come back and link this all. But for now, if you want, you can search.)
  6. Meanwhile, just about everyone knew that Apuron was not in charge of anything. And the Gofigan and Benavente fiascos laid wide open the Thing that most everyone had suspected for years: 
  7. Apuron - and the Archdiocese of Agana - were being run by the Neocat hierarchy, i.e. "the Kiko's", through the person of now ex-Fr. Adrian Cristobal who was then our Chancellor, and the key "priest" who had brought the NCW to Guam in 1995. (How and why Cristobal did this is a matter for another story - though it is already well-documented in JW.)
  8. In other words, at this point, Apuron was nothing but a rubber stamp.
  9. BUT A RUBBER STAMP FOR WHO?
  10. We knew WHO. 
  11. But the real question is WHY had Apuron been so easily and quickly subdued, manipulated and reduced to a mere "rubber stamp" by Cristobal and the Neocats. 
  12. While this question leads us back to the story as set forth here in Part 6 of this absurd drama, it is important to note going forward that Cristobal had already long since known of the grotesque matters that have now brought the Archdiocese of Agana to its bankruptcy knees - and where the innocent laity are being made to pay and NOT the PERPS!

PART 6

Not everything can be documented as to why Hon went on the attack. Some of it was hearsay. And it went like this: 

Abuse victims (and not just Apuron's) would meet with Hon and Hon would basically blow them off with a patronizing lecture about "forgiveness." Again, this is hearsay, but it's pretty close "hearsay," as people who met personally with Hon would later share their frustration with me (Tim Rohr). 

Which is why, the lay picketers in from of the Cathedral every Sunday began to carry signs picketing Hon as well as Apuron:




TO BE CONTINUED IN PART 7


No comments:

Post a Comment