LET YOUR VOICE AND PAIN BE HEARD

By Tim Rohr

This comment from Deacon Steve Martinez warrants its own post. In addition to the sex abuse of minors that our archdiocese is now famous for, there has been another ongoing form of abuse. Coincidentally (?), the other ongoing abuse is sponsored and promulgated by the same group that has harbored and hidden the perpetrators of clerical sex abuse, and which, to this day, harbors and hides the worst of the perpetrators, their hero, Brother Tony Apuron.

Deacon Steve, as both the former sex abuse coordinator and delegate to the NCW, speaks with authority and from experience. Before Deacon Steve's comment is the comment Deacon Steve is responding to. Both comments were originally posted on the post LUCIO FROM ITALY. 

Anonimo TexasMarch 30, 2026 at 11:29 PM

Caro Lucio, Italiano vero o farlocco la situazione non cambia per nulla. Il cammino da sempre disobbedisce alla Santa Chiesa.

Ormai lo sanno tutti, e prima che attacchi personalmente, ho frequentato il cammino in Texas per 13 anni, lo stesso scempio pure qui! E da quando me ne sono uscito Dio non mi ha mai abbandonato anche se i catechisti dicevano che fuori dal cammino c'e' solo stridore di denti..

TRANSLATION: 

Dear Lucio, real Italian or fake, the situation does not change at all. The Way (NCW) has always disobeyed the Holy Church.

By now everyone knows, and before you attack personally, I attended the Way in Texas for 13 years, the same outrage here too! And since I have left it, God has never abandoned me even though the catechists said that outside the path there is only gnashing of teeth...

Deacon Steve Martinez has left a new comment on your post "LUCIO FROM ITALY":

Thank you Anonimo Texas at 11:29. You have confirmed what I have been saying for a long time...the NCW "has always disobeyed the Holy Church." This is having a divisive impact on our local Church here on Guam. And we have seen other accounts throughout the world that the NCW has a fracturing effect on other Churches as well. I don't understand why the bishops, who the NCW says they are obedient to, allows such blatant disobedience to continue.

And you bring up one other VERY important reality, that applied to you in Texas, and also to others here on Guam. You were told by your catechists that "...outside the Way there is only gnashing of teeth". This seems to me as a common method employed to keep NCW members from eventually migrating back to the parish. And from my training as a former sex abuse coordinator, and from the Virtuus program we follow here on Guam, that type of statement looks to be to be a form of abuse.

At a recent Lenten day of recollection for the Cursillo group, one of our Cursillo members stated the same thing you mentioned. She was in the NCW for many years, and when she tried to leave, that's when the catechists threatened her with eternal damnation, trying to "save her soul" through the NCW. And that is a disgusting, manipulative method to keep members from defecting out of the NCW.

It implies that salvation is only through the NCW, and all other Catholics are doomed. And our Archbishop was there at the recollection when she relayed her journey out of the NCW.

I have heard the same issue brought to my attention when I was the delegate for the NCW, from probably 5-6 other former members. They agonized over their decision...should i stay or should I leave. And if 5-6 individuals relayed this abuse to me, then there must be many others who have faced the same methods to keep members from leaving of their own free will.

Yet, so far, the NCW deploys these abusive practices without consequences.

So I ask this of any current or past members of the NCW who have faced the same coercive tactics:

please contact the Office of Safe Environments to report what you have experienced. They will listen to you and hopefully help you to get through your troubles.

You may contact Bas at 671-562-0000. There is help and hope for you, but you must speak out. God loves His all faithful, those in the NCW and those not in the NCW. He will not damn you for leaving the NCW.

Let your voice and pain be heard.

Deacon Steve Martinez