Posted by Tim Rohr
As you have seen from my activity in the news, Tim Rohr has not "gone away." And while I have turned over the administration of this blog to others and opened it up to some wonderful authors, I will still use it when necessary. And today it is necessary.
Archbishop Hon is apparently on a media blitz. Unfortunately, it appears we can trust him no more than Apuron and Adrian.
KUAM: "The archdiocese owns that property. No doubt of it. And then there's a certain ambiguity who has the right to use it. And on this matter, I'm going to have a review of it," Archbishop Hon stated.
Archbishop Hon KNOWS this is NOT true. In January of 2015, Richard Untalan and Joseph Rivera, who were both fired by Apuron from his finance council for opposing the transfer of the property, met personally with Hon and explained that the recently discovered
Declaration of Deed Restriction, recorded at Land Management on November 22, 2011, conveyed title to the property to RMS, a corporation wholly separate from the Archdiocese of Agana and controlled ultimately by the Board of Guarantors which itself is 75% controlled by the two Gennarini's and Angelo Poschetti, the Neocatechumenal Responsible Team for the United States.
In May of 2015, a copy of the
Legal Opinion by real estate attorney Jacques Bronze, was forwarded to Hon's office. The Legal Opinion demonstrated in great detail that the document executed by Apuron and recorded at Land Management:
“operates to transfer a present interest and is an absolute conveyance in fee simple, of the subject real property to RMHF, divesting all right, title and interest of the subject property from the Grantor, except for the subject restraint in use.”
Hon is publicly misleading Guam's Catholics and we must believe, given that Hon was advised as just stated, that he is doing this purposely.
Sadly, all of this would have been legally cleared in court had the Attorney General NOT intervened in the legal process required by law by "working something out" with "the trained lawyer."
After Msgr. David C. Quitugua, on November 29, 2015,
published in the
Umatuna a false copy of the certificate of title to the property previously
obtained from Land Management by Attorney Jacqueline T. Terlaje (aka "the trained lawyer"), Attorney Robert Klitzkie directly engaged the Director of Land Management, Michael Borja about the false certificate.
Borja agreed that the certificate published by Msgr. David C. Quitugua in the Umatuna was in error and initially set out to take corrective action
prescribed by law which would have required the issue to be brought before the Superior Court. However, Borja soon aborted that prescription and defaulted to something being "worked out" between Deputy Attorney General, Kristin Finney and Attorney Jacqueline T. Terlaje.
This route not only kept the matter from going before the court where the truth would have been revealed about the title, but it was a shameful abuse of the law by those elected and appointed to uphold it. The whole ugly story can be found in this
series of posts.
Let's look at some of Hon's other "misleading" statements in this interview:
KUAM: Hon tells KUAM News he continues to reach out to the alleged victims.
Hon has NOT called a single one of them. And if he really was sincere about this, he would have at least invited Roland Sondia to his July 27 press conference. Roland lives on Guam and works right across the street at the PDN. But Hon did not invite Roland nor did he "reach out" to any of them by phone, letter, email, whatever. Perhaps he thinks that because he appointed Fr. Pat Castro to be a liaison to the victims, whatever that means, that he has "reached out." If so, then that is very telling of what kind of "priest" Hon really is.
KUAM: He also clarifies he wasn't aware he was in the presence of one of the alleged victims who was picketing outside the Hagatna Cathedral moments before Sunday morning mass. "Unfortunately at that time I did not notice the presence of Mr. Walter Denton, so I did not ignore him.
What is sad is that Denton had been all over the news media for several days before this happened. Walter should not have had to try to approach Hon on the steps of the Cathedral. He should have immediately received a call from Hon when he came forward about his being raped by Apuron several days earlier, in fact the day after Hon arrived on Guam. There was no such call, no attempt to "reach out" to Walter, leaving Walter no alternative but to try to "reach out" to Hon on the street.
KUAM: According to the $2 million dollar libel and slander suit against the archdiocese and Apuron, plaintiffs allege such statements were prepared and released by Father Edvilado Olivieras. According to Hon, there's no proof Father Edivaldo was ever appointed the church's official spokesperson.
And how would we know there is "no proof"? Are we supposed to believe the man who just told us that the Yona property belongs to the archdiocese and that he has "reached out" to the victims? The statement, though, really shows Hon's incompetence. "Proof" that Edivaldo was appointed spokesman is NOT needed. The fact that Edivaldo declared that he WAS the spokesman, and the fact that Edivaldo ACTED in that capacity, doing so on the Archbishop's letterhead, is all the "proof" Attorney David Lujan needed to include Edivaldo in the amended complaint. And if Hon is not careful, he will soon find himself a defendant.
Now here is the real "whopper!"
KUAM: Hon confirms he's met with representatives of the Concerned Catholics of Guam.
Hon did in fact "meet" with two representatives of the CCOG: Greg Perez and Robert Klitzkie. After keeping them waiting for twenty minutes past their appointment time, according to Klitzkie, Hon opened the meeting with "is there something you want to tell me?" Klitzkie read a list of concerns and per Klitzkie's report, Hon had nothing to say other than to quibble with Klitzkie's referring to Apuron's "victims" as "victims" (Hon doesn't like that word), and then to say good-bye.
Perez and Klitzkie did not ask for the appointment. Hon did. And Perez and Klitzkie agreed to meet with Hon in good faith, believing he was interested in having a discussion. Instead, Hon was only interested in checking the CCOG off his list so he could later say - as he does in this interview - that he had "met with representatives of the Concerned Catholics of Guam."
And here is another FALSE story:
Father Paul Gofigan and Monsignor James Benavente both restored
To be clear: NEITHER PRIEST WAS RESTORED, because, as you will see, neither priest will be "restored" to the positions from which they were removed. In the case of Msgr. James, it is clear what is happening:
KUAM: Monsignor Benavente said, "What Archbishop Hon did was he retracted the statements that was made about me, the malicious statements maligning my name, and he's basically retracted that. And more importantly is that he's according me the opportunity to have due process, which was never given to me.
In short, Msgr. James was NOT cleared of Apuron's charges against him which led to his being removed as rector of the Cathedral, Director of Catholic Cemeteries, and Director of the Archdiocesan Development Group. All Hon did was retract the statements Apuron later released about him to the press. In fact, Hon apparently thinks Msgr. James is still guilty because by according him "due process," he essentially is saying "Okay, I'll give you an opportunity to stand trial." Msgr. James must now defend himself to Hon, but given Hon's already demonstrated penchant for ignoring facts...well, good luck to Msgr. James.
As for Fr. Paul, unfortunately he slapped the faces of those who have stood up for him these past three years by changing the meaning of the word "restore." For those who have been standing in the streets with signs reading RESTORE, "restore" meant to restore both priests to the positions from which they were wrongly removed.
This is especially true with Fr. Paul, whose canonical rights were clearly violated by Apuron's
appointment of Fr. Dan Bien as Parochial Administrator to Santa Barbara parish in July of 2013, automatically eliminating Fr. Paul from his position as pastor. Apuron's actions clearly violated canon law, as both Fr. Paul's
canon lawyer later clearly outlined, and as Apuron himself
de facto admitted by commencing the correct canonical process which led to the official
Decree of Removal issued several months later, a decree, Hon says does not exist.
At the press conference on July 27, Fr. Paul
tells us that his version of "
restore" only means to "
restore" his name, which Fr. Paul believes Hon did by saying that Fr. Paul engaged in no "
formal" act of disobedience." Fr. Paul is welcome to accept what ever olive branch (or fig leaf) Hon wants to give him, but this remains a slap in the face to those who have labored so long in his behalf. By not restoring Fr. Paul to his position as pastor of Santa Barbara, Hon leaves in place Apuron's Decree of Removal, which while canonically confected, remains based on the act of "formal disobedience" that Hon says Fr. Paul did not commit.
Additionally, Hon's words are deceptive. His use of of the adjective "formal" is not by chance. In Catholic moral teaching there is both "formal" and "material" participation in an act. An example: The direct procurement or performance of an abortion is "formal participation in evil." Driving someone to the clinic to get an abortion is "material participation." Hon, while saying Gofigan is not guilty of "formal disobedience" is leaving in place the fact that he believes Gofigan is guilty of "material disobedience," which is why Gofigan will NOT be restored to his position as pastor of Santa Barbara. The material disobedience is Hon's view that Gofigan acted badly in publicly opposing Apuron over his mistreatment. So Hon has to punish Gofigan.
This has nothing to do now with what Fr. Paul and Msgr. James themselves are satisfied with. This has to do with the truth. For us who have labored so long in their behalf, RESTORE meant more than just the restoration to their positions, it meant the complete rejection of all that Apuron both said and did by canceling not only Apuron's words, but also his acts. Hon has retracted Apuron's words, but has left his acts in place, which is why neither priest will be "restored."
Once again, this is not about what either priest will settle for or make them happy. This is about TRUTH. And once again, as with Apuron, Quitugua, Adrian, Pius, Edivaldo and the whole smelly lot, Hon is doing as they did...albeit, with a smile.
