By Tim Rohr
The Emperor with No Clothes
In the post GEEZ!, I mentioned that the persistent failure of our church leaders to reference the Catechism when pronouncing, or in the case of a pope, pontificating on matters of faith and morals, is, with me, an "old wound."
As I explained in GEEZ!, while we Catholics have the benefit of grounding ourselves in 2000 years of defined doctrine and dogma, our church leaders almost never, and that includes the popes (at least the last two), reference "chapter and verse," that "defined doctrine and dogma," and instead, pronounce stuff as if it's their personal opinion.
And this leads to untold damage, with everything from people getting mad at this or that priest and leaving the Catholic Church altogether, to the current stupidity between the President and the Pope, which is splitting Catholics and Americans generally.
In this post, I wanted to share why this is an "old wound" for me. Following is a draft of a chapter in my upcoming book, Orchestrated: How a blog and the laity took down an archbishop and exposed the largest clergy sex abuse scandal, per capita, in the whole Catholic world.
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It had been quite obvious to many for a very long while that Apuron was brainless - a mere shell of a man, truly an "emperor with no clothes." In 2009-2011, when I was involved in a project that forced me to get up close and personal with Apuron and the chancery's inner workings, I was horrified by what I saw.
I got to get up close and personal, not because of any favor Apuron and his people were doing for me, but because of what I was doing for them. I was the attack dog they were sending out to do battle in the public square with then-Senator BJ Cruz, first, over his same-sex bill, and then BJ's statute of limitations bills.
In 2011, Senator Cruz introduced two bills related to removing the statute of limitations on sex crimes against minors. Both bills were enacted into law but were time-limited, making it necessary for new legislation in 2016 when Apuron’s accusers came forward.
[REFERENCE] Raymundo, S. (2016, May 23). Law limits sexual abuse charges. Pacific Daily News.
In meetings at the Chancery (the office for the archdiocese), Apuron might as well have had a stick holding him up. He seemed permanently out to lunch - in a Faustian daze as to what was happening and limply waiting for somebody to tell him what to do.
The breaking point for me came when I exploded at a meeting after an absolutely stupid "apuronic" move. It was after a meeting with some members of the legislature at the Guam Hilton. In fact, I had recommended the meeting.
At the time, I had thought that instead of this soundbite war in the press over the same-sex union legislation, it would behoove the clergy to have a sit-down with Senator BJ and the boys and talk like grown-ups.
My concern was not for Apuron but for the Catholic Faith. The press was ripping the Church apart for being anti-gay, and the “response from Apuron” thus far had only exacerbated things. I put "response from Apuron" in quotes because while the "response" was sent out in his name, there was actually no response from Apuron. Apuron was not capable of a response - or even a homily for that matter.
As most know, Apuron's homilies were usually canned. A couple of times, when I could tell he was just reading something, I googled a particular phrase, and the homily would pop up. Most people already knew this. Listening to an Apuron homily was like listening to a machine. Of course, at the time, I did not know why he was so hollow.
All of Apuron's speeches, statements, etc., on same-sex legislation were ghostwritten by Fr. Francis Walsh, a "professor" at the Neocat’s Redemptoris Mater Seminary (“RMS”). And for this event at the Hilton, Walsh had written one that was to become famous.
Apuron probably never read it. But I did. Walsh had let me review it. I had thought he was going to submit it as an opinion piece to the media with his own name. I could see that it was incendiary, but that was his business.
Unfortunately, he (Walsh) made it our business. Walsh had his "paper" printed on Apuron's letterhead, and copies were passed out to the senators at the Hilton meeting, whereupon the meeting immediately imploded, and Apuron was caught on camera running down a Hilton hallway, fleeing reporters.
Until recently, the mere googling of the word "Apuron" would quickly lead you to that infamous letter, but of course, recent events (Apuron’s sex scandals) have obscured it. Wikipedia still references it:
“Apuron drew criticism for a letter distributed by his archdiocese in October 2009 demonizing gay members of the community while simultaneously praising Islamists. It said in part: Islamic fundamentalists clearly understand the damage that homosexual behavior inflicts on a culture. That is why they repress such behavior by death. Their culture is anything but one of self-absorption. It may be brutal at times, but any culture that is able to produce wave after wave of suicide bombers (women as well as men) is a culture that at least knows how to value self-sacrifice.”
Up to this point (about October 2009), for several weeks I had been slogging through the town halls, the press, the radio, TV, speaking in schools, etc., at great cost to myself and my family, not in defense of Apuron, but trying to distinguish between what Apuron was "saying" and what the Church actually taught about same-sex stuff - something Apuron apparently didn't even appear to know.
I was also having to war against the image of the Church presented by a certain Catholic deacon who would stand up at town hall meetings and start screaming and preaching at the presenters, creating more enemies as he did.
In addition, I was incensed by what I perceived to be Senator B.J.'s attempt to pull a fast one by substituting the original bill with another, which would have kept his substitute bill from receiving a public hearing, allowing an important piece of legislation on same-sex unions to sneak through without one.
After several horrible weeks of being maligned in the media as a "homophobe" (which is the label attached to anyone who even demands transparency in the matter of same-sex legislation), I eventually prevailed.
Senator BJ's substitute bill was NOT germane to the original and had to have its own hearing, a hearing which eventually sank the bill, not because of any opposition by the Catholic Church or even me, but because it prompted a letter from the Director of the Government of Guam Retirement Fund to the Legislature, a letter sent six months before it finally became known.
For months, I had been urging the media to ask about the effect of the same-sex legislation on the Government of Guam Retirement Fund. I knew that most people did not really care about the bill's moral dimension, but they would certainly care about its financial impact, especially if it affected their retirement.
I was right.
I still remember the moment when K57 talk show host Ray Gibson got the Fund's executor, Mr. Joe T. San Agustin (“Joe T”), on the radio. Joe T said he had sent a letter to the legislature six months earlier, stating that same-sex union legislation could break the retirement fund. The problem was that, should the bill become law, it would create a whole new class of GovGuam dependents for which the retirement fund had "no actuarial tables."
Sorry, Mr. Joe T, if I'm not paraphrasing this correctly, but that was the upshot. Senator BJ got on the air with Joe T, and an argument ensued. Joe T did not back down, and the next day, Senator BJ withdrew his bill, saying he didn't have enough votes.
Apologies for that long diversion, but it's important for the reader to know how much Apuron's lack of brains cost me and how far I was willing to go to protect him. At the time, only six states had passed similar legislation. Had Guam passed it, given its mostly Catholic population, Apuron would have stood out to Rome like a diseased wart on a sore thumb. Little did I know that I should have just let it happen. But I really wasn't trying to save Apuron.
Apuron was presenting (Neocat) Fr. Walsh's letters as if they were his own, and Walsh's letters were long on his own views and short on actual Catholic teaching, endangering the Church in the public view and pushing people (who might have otherwise not cared about the issue) to support the legislation just to oppose what looked like a very hostile Church - when really it was only a Neocat agenda -NOT to protect of promote Catholic teaching, BUT to protect and promote Apuron - their rubber stamp and sugar daddy.
At those many meetings with the clergy and the archbishop, where there was much hand-wringing over how to engage the same-sex union legislation, I kept saying over and over and over: "JUST PRESENT WHAT THE CHURCH ACTUALLY SAYS!" I couldn't believe I had to tell an archbishop and a room full of priests and theology professors to say this, but I did. And still, time after time after time, they IGNORED Church teaching and presented their own.
