By Tim Rohr
Another curious stat is why so many visits from Singapore? This is an all time list (though we didn't install the Flag Counter until a few years after we started the blog), and Singapore, in place no. 3 is nearly 70,000 views ahead of 4th place Italy. Also, Singapore logged in 24 minutes ago. Who could be in Singapore?
By Tim Rohr
This month JW has had far more traffic than we have been getting for quite awhile. The number of views for the 30 days is nearly 87,000.
Our more recent posts get plenty of views, but nothing that would drive numbers like this, so I suspected that the views were of older posts.
I did a 30 day report to see which posts were getting the most views, and the top 10 are all posts about the Neocatechumenal Way or Apuron stuff. Here's the list with links to the posts.
THE ULTIMATE TREACHERY - THE FINAL INSTALLMENT
MSGR. JAMES BENAVENTE REMOVED AS RECTOR OF CATHEDRAL BASILICA
AND APURON DANCES WHILE HIS DIOCESE BURNS
SPAGHETTI FOR EVERYONE AND GUAM IS THE PROBLEM
TESTIMONY: WHY THE NCW IS A CULT.
ROME FIDDLED WHILE AGANA BURNED. IT'S TOO LATE TO MAKE NICE.
THE ILLEGITIMATE REMOVAL OF FR. PAUL GOFIGAN-PART XIII: TREATED LIKE A DOG
BISHOP ATHANASIUS SCHNEIDER: THE DOCTRINE OF KIKO ARGUELLO IS HERESY...A GRAVE ABUSE
The No. 1 post with the most views "IF THIS IS TRUE" is a post from March 18, 2015, and it is about the misfortunes of a priest caught in a compromising situation with an underaged female at a beach in Agat. News is that he's returned to Guam. Is that why this post is getting so many views?
By Tim Rohr
The last line of the story reads:
Nick was charged with aggravated assault as a third-degree felony and assault of an unborn child as a misdemeanor.
To my knowledge, this is the first time someone has been charged with an "assault of an unborn child." The law is P.L. 33-132 and the relevant part is set out in the Guam Code as follows:
§ 17.08. Assault of an Unborn Child.
(a) A person commits assault of an unborn child if he or she, without legal justification and by any means, commits assault on a pregnant woman as defined in § 19.30 of Chapter 19, Title 9, Guam Code Annotated.
(b) It is not a defense that no injury was caused to the unborn child as a result of the assault.
(c) Assault of an unborn child is punishable to the same extent and manner as the offense of assault defined in Chapter 19 of Title 9, Guam Code Annotated.
The law, the Unborn Victims of Violence Act, began as Bill 231-33 and was introduced by Sen. Frank Blas, Jr. IN 2016 with the support of The Esperansa Project. It was one of eight bills in six years that The Esperansa Project either initiated or supported and which were enacted into law despite a strong pro-abortion element in the Legislature.
It was and is an important law because it enshrines the term "unborn child" into Guam Law and treats the unborn child as a distinct human being with a right to be protected in the womb.
Link to online version (reference links added)
April is a popular month for causes. At the top of the list are Autism Awareness, Sexual Assault Awareness, and Child Abuse Prevention.
While we are all familiar with the sort of child abuse and neglect we all too often see in the news, there is a not so well known type of child abuse which has its own awareness day on April 25: Parental Alienation (“PA”)
A paper published by the American Bar Association offers the following definitions of PA:
(Posted by Frenchie)
Yesterday, Sunday the 21st of April 2024 was the feast of the Good Shepherd. We were reminded according to John 10, 11-12-13 the following " I am the Good Shepherd. The Good Shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. The hired hand is not the Shepherd and does not own the sheep. So when he sees the wolf coming, he abandons the sheep and runs away. Then the wolf attacks the flock and scatters it. The man runs away because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep.
Of course, due to my sarcastic nature I saw the immediate irony, which probably flew well over the heads of the Chancery's current renters. Just two days prior, we were treated to the final decision about the latest re-positioning of our Pastors (Shepherds) across our island parishes. Like in the famous Arthur Conan Doyle's detective books Sherlock Holmes, what was obvious was in fact not what was done, but rather what was not done.
The proverbial nose in the middle of the face is the lack of change at the Cathedral, and in Tamuning's St Anthony/St Victor where nothing is progressing. More of the same. The Devil's advocates are already making the argument that the Cathedral needed continuity. That argument in itself flies in the face of the reasons advanced for the re-assignment at other parishes. As the infamous mayor of Merizo declared: "what is good for the goose is good for the gander"
Another obvious taboo subject is the continuity at the bastions of the NCW of Agat, Barrigada and Santa Bernadita in Yigo, where we are treated to a musical chair charade, with one neo out, one neo in, de facto giving the sect unabridged territorial exclusivity. Here we not only do not have shepherds protecting the flock, we instead have wolves inside the corral itself, all this with the complicity of the Apostolic administrator.
Despite these obvious and glaring shortcomings, there are some interesting moves with potentially good shepherds having the opportunity to show their mettle. For newer potentially promising shepherd, we can note Fr Richard Kidd in Santa Barbara, who has a great opportunity to rectify the disastrous administration of Fr Bien, and bring back God at the center of the parish. At our Lady of Lourdes in Yigo, Fr Val inherit a well oiled parish with good attendance and in fairly good physical shape despite the challenges. The question shall be will Fr Val be a good shepherd, if he can outgrow his sizeable Ego?
Father Junee has a good opportunity to grow as the good shepherd many people believe he can be in Maina.
The south is the glimmer of hope here. Long neglected, or fully forgotten in certain cases. Used as an exile during the Apuron reign of corruption, the south is getting some interesting posting. St Joseph in Inajaran gets a true southerner with Fr Paul Gofigan, who has an opportunity to bring back many lapsed Catholics into the fold. Malojloj's San Ysidro gets the unpredictable dilettante Fr Jucatan, but Merizo and Umatac get Fr Granado (here a great opportunity to have a pastor in each parish was missed). Finally Santa Rita will be reassured with Fr Pangan.
The big challenge remains what many call the "mercenaries"; these priests that hail from outside of Guam, that have little interest in their flock, beside getting a green card or a citizenship, and basically assure the minimum service in their parishes. Definitely the type of priests that falls unfortunately in the description of John's reading this past Sunday as "hired hand that cares nothing for his sheep"
In Closing, what we can learn from this latest priest reorganization can be resumed as follow:
1)The two parishes that cater to the self described local elites, are not required to go through the mandatory re-assignment gymnastics, and continue with their corrupted habits, of special privileges, and backroom deals. This is disheartening for many rank and file Catholics around the island, because it confirms the fact that the old Apuron deep state is still alive and well and living in Agana. The obvious danger is that the people "in charge" have not learned about their past mistakes, as highlighted by the likes of Msg Quitagua and Adrian Cristobal.
2) The Neos are keeping quiet, but they have not slowed down at all. The delegate to the Way, Deacon Martinez has basically done absolutely nothing to keep the Neos to stick to their engagements. They continue their termite work, and the chancery is acting as if nothing is happening. Further we have been notified that sexual predator on the run, Fr Louis is back in Guam, ( most likely, the prosecuting window has expired) and ready to return to the fold. Where will Fr Louis end up? Maybe parents of young females should start demanding for answers. Another elephant in the room is the questionable behavior of Fr Harold Prieto towards some of his male contacts. While he is being deployed to the Neo stronghold of Agat, the opportunity for the Chancery to pose some questions, before putting him so close to a school has been lost. I guess time will tell. Yet again one can wonder if any lesson from the past was learned? Or is the hubris around the NCW so thick that our administrator is afraid of making waves? One can really see the gap between an administrator of the caliber of Archbishop Hon, and the likeable but shy and tentative Fr Concovar.
3) Finally the issue of the mercenaries priests is continuing to be ignored, and in some cases just being painted over, to give an impression of action.
While we have made some progress, on a few topics, many of the issues that took root during the Flores and Apuron tenures are still very much alive, and continue not to be addressed. When can we expect the Chancery to take these life altering problems seriously? Your guess is as good as mine.
St Maria Kamalen pray for us.
By Tim Rohr
Recently the Alabama Supreme Court held that embryos created through in vitro fertilization (IVF) should be considered children.
The ruling is the logical conclusion of the argument that "life begins at conception," and the decision has created a political conundrum. Many "pro-life" politicians have never considered the status or fate of children conceived in a tube and left in a medical deep-freeze, or selectively terminated after being implanted in somebody's womb.
Regardless of the politics, the elephant in the room is the relative silence of the Catholic Church at this point.
The Catholic Church is probably the only "organized religion" which has clear position on reproductive technologies which separate what the Church calls "the unitive and the procreative."
In short, the Church teaches that conception of children is to happen the way God designed it or not at all. IVF, in particular, is gravely immoral because it often involves the destruction of multiple children in embryo.
Begotten Not Made: A Catholic View of Reproductive Technology
And here is an honest article about the non-Catholic Christian view:
"It’s caused me to see my own experience with IVF differently and to wish I had been better informed. While the treatment was successful for me, helping me become pregnant with two healthy babies, the remaining embryos I have stored on ice have caused great heartache."
(Posted by frenchie)
One of the hardest challenge for most citizens today, for most Catholics for sure is to discern right from wrong, lies from truth, propaganda manipulation from reality.
All Time: 10,921,919 (since July 13, 2013)
Yesterday: 4,462
This Month: 47,451
Last Month: 67,831
The following comment was made on the post THE TEMPLE HAS ALREADY BEEN REBUILT.
AnonymousApril 15, 2024 at 5:58 PM
Hi Tim. I was a neo for 26 years & left 10 years ago. It is good to discover that I made the right decision to leave! The Neos are supporting the warmongering Zionists who have infiltrated the true 12 tribes of Israel. Need to pray for those stuck in the neo heretical construct of reality! Thank you Diana for clarifying their errors.
By Tim Rohr
Note: "Belle's Law" is the nickname for the legislation introduced by the late-Senator Elizabeth "Belle" Arriola.
Note: Anita Arriola is the daughter of Belle Arriola
Note: In 2008, The Esperansa Project was formed with the aim of introducing and supporting legislation to regulate Guam's then mostly un-regulated abortion industry. The only laws on the books were one requiring abortions be performed by a qualified physician in an appropriate facility and a reporting law that was never enforced or even checked on.
While the blame for the deaths of an estimated 30,000 children can certainly be spread around, I contend that the person most responsible for this staggering loss of life is former-Archbishop Anthony Apuron.
The figure of Apuron looms large throughout the whole process, from threatening to excommunicate any of the 20 of 21 senators who were Catholic for not voting for the bill that became Belle’s Law, to his presence in the legislative hall during the vote:
“The law was approved March 9 by all 21 members of Guam’s one-house Legislature, 20 of whom are Catholic, while the island’s bishop sat in the chamber’s balcony.” (Orlando Sentinel, May 6, 1990)
"...the formidable presence of Archbishop Apuron…in the legislative hall when the vote was taken." (Asian/Pacific Islander American Women: A Historical Anthology, Pg. 372)
"...Archbishop Anthony Apuron, who had considered excommunicating or censuring any of the 20 Catholic senators voting against the bill." (Orlando Sentinel, May 6, 1990)
Knowing Apuron (and his handlers) as I do after having gone head to head with him over several terrible years as Guam’s 50 year-long clergy sex abuse crisis (here and here) unfolded - with Apuron at the center of it, I can clearly see Apuron, robed and mitred, wielding his self-inflated authority to threaten, crush, and otherwise condemn anyone who dared flaunt his will.
And it’s not hard to imagine the Catholic lawmakers thinking to themselves: “Screw it. It’s going to be found unconstitutional anyway. It’s not worth it. Let’s just vote for this to get Apuron off our backs and let the courts take care of it.” And that’s what happened.
What's amazing is that Apuron did not champion the legislation under the banner of Catholic Church teaching, in the name of God, or even the rights of the unborn. Instead, Apuron followed then-Governor Ada's lead to use the legislation as a vehicle to assert Guam's right to self-determination by openly challenging Roe v Wade, or more specifically, the authority of the U.S. government to impose Roe on Guam. Thus Belle's Law became more about anti-colonialism than about anti-abortion, and Apuron joined right in.
In a speech to a national pro-life conference, Apuron...
"...boldly presented Guam’s pro-life stance not as an outcome of an ecumenical pro-life movement, but as the outcome of a 'Catholic people called Chamorros,' with a distinct , culture, language, and religious beliefs, who for centuries have been 'obscured, ignored, or trampled on.' In the final analysis, he asserted, 'our struggle to protect the sanctity of life is tantamount to the preservation of our cultural heritage.' The very existence of a matrilineal tradition in Guam, the archbishop argued, underscores the particular importance of motherhood as the source of female power. Implicit in this statement is the assumption that it should be the responsibility of all women in Guam, irrespective of identity or allegiance to assure the continuity of the Chamorro people and culture. (Asian/Pacific Islander American Women: A Historical Anthology, Pg. 374)
The same paragraph goes on to say: "This was a burden of representation that neither the U.S. judicial system nor some people in Guam could support." And of course, it (the judicial system) didn't. Belle's Law would have been found unconstitutional anyway, but at least it would have died on the sacrificial pyre of a Catholic bishop's unwavering grip on the fundamental Catholic teaching of every human being's inalienable, God-given, right to life. But no. For Apuron this was about "the preservation of our cultural heritage."
Again, knowing Apuron as I do, he probably didn't even write this speech. Like we were to learn later as the Neocat and clergy sex abuse wars broke out, Apuron was a willing mouthpiece for anyone who made him feel important. But there was a cost to "feeling important."
The fact is that without Apuron's threats to excommunicate the 20 Catholic senators, many, knowing, or at least predicting, that the bill, if enacted into law, would be found unconstitutional and enjoined, may have in fact voted against it, or at least amended it to pass constitutional muster, and we wouldn't be fighting this fight 30 years later.
As I outlined in my oral argument before the Supreme Court of Guam in July 2023, Belle's Law was crafted in the shadow of a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision (Webster) which opened the door for some restrictions on abortion:
"At the same time there was a complex interaction over abortion among activists, interest groups, legislatures, governors, and courts being played out in several states. The was sparked by the July 1989 Supreme Court ruling in Webster v Reproductive Health Services, which opened the door for states to test the limits of how far they could in restricting access to abortion." (Asian/Pacific Islander American Women: A Historical Anthology, Pg. 366)
However, as I have already alluded, under the threat of excommunication and "the formidable presence of Archbishop Apuron…in the legislative hall when the vote was taken," the lawmakers basically punted, and that punt is still flying...and costing.
The reason that punt has led to at least 30,000 deaths is because of the then-million dollar taxpayer funded price tag for the litigation following the passage of Belle's Law, making it so that no lawmaker wanted to get near the abortion issue for the next three decades.
In 2010, when Bill 54-30 (informed consent) was being debated on the Floor of the Legislature, I distinctly remember the late-Senator Ben Pangelinan using the cost of litigating Belle's Law as a battering ram to kill 54-30. And, during the next several years, as The Esperansa Project pushed through more bills, the legal fiasco following Belle's Law was always brought up by the legislative pro-aborts to scare off support.
Meanwhile, most of the rest of the United States had capitalized on the door opened by Webster (1989) and then Casey (1992) to enact commonsense, mother-protecting legislation such as informed consent. However, because of Guam's reluctance to touch the issue, Guam, by 2008, and because it had next to no legislation regulating abortion, had sunk to the easiest place in the nation to procure an abortion, massacring approximately 1000 babies a year, and this, on an island that was 90% Catholic.
Amazingly, as abortion reports later would show, two-thirds of those aborted children had mothers who identified their ethnicity as Chamorro which is ironic given Apuron's "bold" speech in 1990 about the "continuity of the Chamorro people and culture."
Apuron did get one thing right in that speech though: his reference to the "importance of motherhood as the source of female power." Once liberated to do so, many Guam mothers exercised their "female power" by aborting up to 25% of their next generation. (Based on an average of 3000 births per year and the estimated 1000 abortions per year.)
The sad thing, if it can get any sadder, is that Apuron never had the authority or the grounds to excommunicate anybody. Only a politician who openly advocates for abortion (like the current governor) can be excommunicated. Not voting for an anti-abortion bill doesn't qualify. It is not the same as writing a bill to promote abortion. Those senators had nothing to fear except Apuron's shadow.
Of course this whole mess can be instantly resolved, even after thirty years, by a senator or senators who tout their pro-life credentials to introduce a bill removing Belle's Law and replacing it with a more accurate and less troubled one.
Meanwhile, the current apostolic administrator has all the authority and evidence he needs to deny communion to openly pro-abortion politicians like "you-know-who."
LINK to online version (Reference links and notes added)
First things first. In my last column, I referred to the Fisher-Parkinson bill trashing the law requiring informed consent for abortion as Bill 167-37. That is incorrect. The correct number of the bill is 162-37.
In that column, I told the story of the tortuous journey of what eventually became Public Law 31-235, otherwise known as The Women’s Reproductive Health Act of 2012.
I concluded by letting you know that even though the legislation, which had its start in 2008, was finally signed into law four years later, implementation of the new law would be stalled for another year due to eleventh-hour machinations by the bill’s opponents and that I would soon tell the “rest of the story.”
But first, a little more history.
Laws requiring informed consent for abortion had been found to be constitutional since Planned Parenthood v. Casey (1992). Given that abortion is usually seen as a “difficult decision,” as even abortion supporters admit, it was reasonable, at least in the eyes of the Casey court, that a woman seeking an abortion should be provided medically appropriate information to assist her in making that “difficult decision.”
By 2008, when Guam’s first informed consent bill was introduced, many states had enacted laws requiring some form of informed consent for abortion, so why not Guam?
In his transmittal letter to the Legislature after signing the Act into law, then-Gov. Eddie Baza Calvo wrote: “I cannot even begin to imagine how providing women with information to empower them to make a decision that not only impacts their psychological health, but the life within them, could ever be the wrong thing to do.”
However, the five-year battle (2008 to 2013) to “provide women with information to empower them” demonstrated that there was a majority in the Legislature who did believe it was the “wrong thing to do” – and the latest attack by Sens. Tom Fisher and William Parkinson on empowering women with information is more of the same.
Bill 52-31 was the third attempt to legislate informed consent for abortion. The previous two attempts, Bills 405-29 and 54-30, had gone nowhere. The 29th Legislature ended before 405-29 could be acted on, and 54-30, as I detailed in my last column, was so badly mangled that it ended up accomplishing the opposite of the original intent and was mercifully vetoed by then-Gov. Felix Camacho.
It appeared that 52-31 would suffer a fate similar to its predecessors as the 31st Legislature ground down to its final weeks with 52-31 blotted and bled by then-Sen. Rory Respicio’s black lines. (See previous column.)
Then-Gov. Calvo, who had authored all three informed consent bills, apparently had had it with the senatorial shenanigans and called the Legislature into a special session on Oct. 24, 2012, to address the bill.
The general election was only days away, and Calvo was forcing lawmakers to publicly take sides on an issue that could, in a few days, have decisive election consequences. Thus, the stage was set for one of Guam’s most dramatic and emotional legislative sessions.
There was yelling and crying, accusations and cursing, and drama, drama, drama. And the drama was intensified by the presence of about 50 “Christian Mothers” dressed in their signature white dresses, holding candles and glaring at the senators through the glass separating the audience room and the legislative hall. (You can watch it for yourself on YouTube. Search for “31st Guam Legislature Special Session - October 24, 2012.”)
I wasn’t surprised that the bill passed, but when I saw the names of the bill’s opponents – especially Respicio’s – in the “Yeah” column, I became suspicious.
At some point during the debate, the bill had been amended to include a provision requiring the printed materials required by the bill to be subjected to the rule-making process as set forth in the Administrative Adjudication Act.
This was a stroke of genius by the pro-aborts. They were able to appear “pro-life” by voting for the bill just days before the election but keep the legislation from being implemented for months or even years to come.
I’m out of space for this column, so I’ll continue another time. Meanwhile, the thing that struck me in remembering this history is how it has been male lawmakers who have consistently remained at the forefront of every effort to destroy legislation aimed at protecting the unborn and their mothers, including the latest raid by Fisher and Parkinson.
It’s not hard to guess why.
Tim Rohr has resided in Guam since 1987. He has raised a family of 11 children, owned several businesses and most recently been active in local issues via his blog, JungleWatch.info, letters to local publications and occasional public appearances. He can be contacted at timrohr.guam@gmail.com.
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Bill 52-31 Voting Sheet
