WHY WE NEED TO THANK BOB - NOT THE CHURCH - FOR THE "SAFE SPACE"

By Tim Rohr

Photo from Guam Daily Post. Public hearing on June 26, 2016 on Bill 326-33.

"This is the church's commitment to keep our children safe and to be connected, especially to the victims, but also to the many people out there who are still hurting. It's a chance for us to gather them in a safe space," said vicar-general Fr. Paul Gofigan. - Guam Daily Post, April 12, 2025

The words "safe space" came to mind yesterday at the state funeral for the now late-Senator Robert "Bob" Klitzkie. They came to mind because it was Bob who created that "safe space."

The local Catholic Church did not create that safe space. Its leaders may be enforcing it now (under court order), but they did not create it. Bob did. And here's how.

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On May 17, 2016, Roy Quintanilla, the first of then-Archbishop Apuron's accusers, came forward at a press conference held on the street between the Cathedral and the DNA Building. Roy detailed how, as an altar boy, 40 years ago, Apuron had sexually molested him.

Apuron denied the allegations and blamed an ad placed by the Concerned Catholics of Guam in local papers for the "false" allegation:

"To be absolutely clear and to avoid any misinterpretations of my statement, I deny all allegations of sexual abuse by Roy Quintanilla."

Archbishop Apuron says newspaper advertisements placed by the Concerned Catholics of Guam, calling for sexual abuse victims to come forward, have now resulted in a false allegation.

However, Apuron functionally admitted he was lying when he immediately disappeared that very evening and showed up in Rome the next day, caught on camera by the Vatican's cameras as he tried to get help from Pope Francis during a public event.

In the meanwhile, Apuron's storm troopers (Edivaldo et. al) made things exponentially worse by staging (poorly) a defense of Apuron starring an elderly deacon. 

As the circus escalated, I wrote on May 21, 2016, in a JW post titled "DO THIS IF YOU WANT TO SEE TONY RUN":

It is very possible that Apuron has already been asked to resign by one of the Vatican Congregations, but has refused - or should we say, Pius has refused to let him resign. They need to keep him going to do this upcoming ordination. 

Public protests, letters to the editor, radio show call-ins, signs, comments submitted with real names on this blog, etc. The din must become deafening. And stop asking him to "step down." That sounds too dignified for this pathetic monster. It's time to start saying "get the hell out. " 

However, there is one thing that can be done to legally remove him. Pass a bill lifting the statute of limitations on past sex crimes against minors. Then watch Tony run. But it will be too late. 

Two days later, Senator Frank Blas, Jr. introduced Bill 326-33 which proposed lifting the civil statute of limitations on the sex abuse of minors. (PDF of the bill)

However, the bill only allowed victims to sue their perpetrators and not the institutions which shielded and/or enabled them. Given that the victims had been minors and that the perpetrators were either dead or had few assets (given that the aim was at offending clergy at the time), it was unlikely that any lawyer would be willing to represent the victims.

At the time, the bill served its real purpose which was to put Apuron and his defenders on notice, given how Apuron, at the time, was threatening to sue. However, soon thereafter, the then-Apostolic Administrator, Archbishop Savio Hon, most likely acting on orders from his Neo-compromised boss, Cardinal Fernando Filoni, decided to belittle the victims (by then there were four) and their stories. 

Enter Bob Klitzkie. 

Bob, a recent Catholic convert, upon seeing Hon's flippant response to the victim's accounts, immediately set to work with then-Senator Frank Aguon, Jr., whose committee the bill was in, to amend the bill to include institutional liability. 

Bob and Frank rewrote the bill to include this all important provision:

The amended bill was introduced as Substitute Bill 326-33 and had a public hearing on June 27, 2016.  The legislation was passed unanimously by the legislature and was signed into law as Public Law 33-187 by Governor Eddie Calvo on September 23, 2016, despite "the Church's" (Hon's) last desperate attempts to oppose it. 

In his testimony submitted in support of the bill he had helped write, Bob set out a thorough history of how this legislation came to be, and I recommend that today, April 15, 2025, on the day of his funeral, the day we commit the body of Robert W. Klitzkie to the earth and his soul to heaven, that you read it...and thank Bob for the "safe space."

“Please give us Agat boys a chance to achieve some measure of justice and closure in our lives.” 

-  Walter Denton, June 28, 2016.