By Tim Rohr
She played, perhaps, the most important role of all in what became a day of reckoning for the hundreds of boys, sexually abused for decades by a long list of Guam clerics, including the most powerful.
It was just another day in May 2016 at her home in Prescott, Arizona for Doris Yamashita Concepcion, a native of Guam and a former resident of Agat, when she - according to Doris' own account - received a call from Guam.
The call was about something in the Guam news: Archbishop Anthony Apuron had been publicly accused by a 51 year old man named Roy Quintanilla, also from Agat, of sexually molesting him when he was an altar boy at the Mt. Carmel parish in Agat and when then-Father Anthony Apuron was the pastor.
Roy and his family had lived just down the street from Doris and her family when both families lived in Agat in the 1970's. And the mention of Roy's name and the accusations against Apuron brought a memory suddenly and painfully to Doris' mind.
Eleven years previously, in 2005, Joseph (Sonny) Quinata, Doris' son, and by then age 38, had told his mother, moments before he died: "Mom, I was molested by Father Apuron...He molested me when I was an altar boy."
Those were Joseph's last words as he was wheeled into a surgery he would not survive. Doris believed that Joseph knew he was going to die and he didn't want to take that soul-destroying secret to his grave.
Copied here is the story, in part, as reported by Haidee Eugenio of the Pacific Daily News on May 31, 2016:
Concepcion, who now lives in Prescott, Arizona, said she saw Quintanilla accuse Apuron on the Pacific Daily News’ website.
“There was Roy, and it’s like, I have to do something. I have to step up and let them know what’s going on here,” Concepcion said.
Her family has been and still is devoutly Catholic, Concepcion said, but her son started to act out, sometimes violently, when he was an altar boy in Agat.
“My son tried to stab (Apuron), attack him, and tried to burn the priest’s house down, and I would punish my son,” Concepcion said. “(My son) would just say,‘Am I the devil’s son, mom? Am I that bad?’ And he kept repeating that to me.”
She said her son, whose nicknames were “Sonny” and “Chico,” often talked about committing suicide and started to tell people he was Jewish. As an adult, he became addicted to drugs and would disappear for long periods of time, she said.
Concepcion said she is very close to Roy Quintanilla’s family, and they used to live down the street from each other in Agat. Her son, who died at the age of 38, was several years younger than Quintanilla, she said.
“I didn’t know (about the molestation) until my son was 38 years old when he passed away, and that’s when I found out,” Concepcion said.
“And he was molested and I was giving the priest, giving him permission to do it to my son. He was so afraid to tell me.”
Concepcion said she trusted Apuron at the time and believed in his every word.
“(Apuron) would ask me if he can have Sonny, because Sonny would do this and that, and he needs help around the rectory,
” Concepcion said. “And then he wants Sonny to spend the night with him so they can go and do something for the church, and he needed help. Sonny would retaliate, and say, ‘No, mama, I don’t wanna go,’and I would punish him. No, you have to go, because Father Apuron needs help.”
Concepcion said her son told her about being molested just as he was being taken into surgery in May 2005. He did not survive the procedure.
“He said, ‘Mom, I know I’m not the devil’s son.’ I said,‘No, you’re not’. And he said, ‘Come closer to me Mama, give me a hug.’ And I did," Concepcion said. And he said, ‘Mom, I was molested by Father Apuron.’ And I said,‘Who?’ He said,'Remember the priest in Agat? He molested me when I was an altar boy.’ And my heart just dropped, because he was dying. I didn’t even know.”
She never spoke to her son again. She said she tried to ask him if he had been raped by Apuron, but her son only gestured as he was being taken into surgery.
“I have no reason to not to believe my son,” she said. “He didn’t want to take it to his grave.”
Concepcion said she kept her son’s words to herself for 11 years, and said, “It was destroying me.”
“I want the people in Guam to know that it is happening in our backyard. Please listen to your children. Don’t sweep it under the carpet, because that’s what’s been going on. We were not allowed back then to say anything derogatory about the priest. We took the priest’s word for everything, and little did I know that they were doing this to our children. That’s the message I want to be heard,” Concepcion said.
Doris' story, her testimony, would be the "nail in the coffin" for Apuron and his neocat-regime, and they knew it. They immediately went ballistic, accusing Doris of making "another malicious and calumnious accusation," and threatened to sue "Tim Rohr and his associates:"
May 31, 2016
ATTACKS AGAINST ARCHBISHOP CONTINUE AS PREDICTED (Full copy)
Another malicious and calumnious accusation against the Archbishop has surfaced; this time from the mother of a man who has been deceased for eleven years. The Archbishop strongly denies this accusation as he had done so before. ...
Tim Rohr and his associates launched a vicious and calumnious attack on the Archbishop and the Church. ...
The perpetrators of these calumnies have resorted to insults and violence revealing their true intention to destroy the Catholic Church and discredit the Archbishop by whatever means. Their method is to confuse and mislead the faithful, even to the point of inducing some to bring false testimony. This was predicted even before the first accusation was revealed.
Those who are orchestrating this campaign are inciting people into hatred of the Archbishop and the Catholic Church. They have produced scandal, confusion and grave errors with the cruel intent to injure the Archbishop, the Catholic Church in Guam and many other people of good will who have been outraged and harassed. Therefore, the Archdiocese of Agana is in the process of taking canonical and legal measures against those perpetrating these malicious lies.
At the time Doris came forward, Walter Denton and Roland Sondia had not yet told their stories, only Roy. Roy's story alone (on May 17, 2016) was enough to make Apuron get on the first flight to Rome. Vatican cameras would catch him there a few days later.
Look at the date on the second picture. The second number. 25052016. May 25, 2016
See all the pictures
here.
Apuron's "rum to papa" was a major error. First, it was an obvious admission of guilt. One guy, from nearly 40 years ago, had shown up in Guam and accused Apuron of molesting him. No one had seen this guy in 40 years. No one in Guam (other than his family and a few friends) knew him. He had no credibility (at the time). Apuron had already
denied the allegations that same day. He could have stuck to his guns. But he didn't. He jumped on the first plane to Rome and "ran to Papa." Apparently, Apuron thought no one would know where he went.
But he was wrong. Instead of requesting a private audience with Pope Francis, something as a bishop he could have easily gotten, Apuron panicked and jumped a "meet and greet" line of bishops during a general papal audience in St. Peter's Square. The Vatican cameras are always rolling wherever the pope is and they take multiple pictures of everyone who personally greets the pope because they can sell them.
The second pic (and others
here) shows Apuron showing Francis his phone. The speculation was that Apuron, because he couldn't speak Spanish or Italian, had a prepared message to the pope on his phone, written in a language the pope could understand. More than likely it was in Spanish and had been prepared by an Arguello-ite (a Spanish Kiko).
Well, that was a little diversion, but if Apuron had any hope of getting the pope's support and returning to Guam, that door slammed shut forever (as time would prove) when Doris came forward with her story.
Doris wasn't some kid back in the 1970's. She was "some kid's" mother. And more than that, she knew Apuron very well. According to Doris, she even used to cook for him. The above account from the PDN demonstrates how close Doris was to the church and how much she respected Apuron - even punishing her own son for resisting Apuron's requests for Joseph to spend the night with him at the rectory.
Doris' tragic account of the last moments of her son's life and Joseph's death-bed "confession," was made even more graphic and real when his brother, "Champ," testified to the truth of that story in front of the Guam Legislature:
"Senators, I know my brother was raped by Archbishop Apuron. He was sodomized. He was only 9 years old. I loved my brother. I miss him badly. In looking back, I know that my brother protected me. He rescued me from suffering the same evil fate. I ask that you do so now."
Read the full testimony here. Watch and listen to the live testimony here.
The testimony was given at a hearing in 2016 for Bill 326-33, the bill that would become Public Law 33-187, which would ultimately permit Apuron's victims, and many others, to sue their perpetrators and the Archdiocese of Agana. And while this bill would ultimately hurt the faithful people of the Archdiocese of Agana more than it hurt any cleric (since none of them were forced to pay a dime - or go to jail), the passage of the bill sent the shockwaves to the Vatican which would ultimately cause Apuron to be found GUILTY OF DELICTS AGAINST THE SIXTH COMMANDMENT WITH MINORS (link).
There wasn't a dry eye in that legislative hearing room during the public hearings over two intense summer days in 2016, and that included senators who were visibly weeping, especially during
the testimony of Doris Yamashita Concepcion.
Every person in that room felt the stab of such horrific words from a suffering child: to learn, as your child lay dying, that your pastor, your priest, had been raping your child and you had ignored that child's pleas for help and even punished him for disobedience because your child's tormentor was a priest and a pastor.
It was a grief beyond comprehension for Doris Yamashita Concepcion, and it was felt to the core by everyone who heard her story. I wonder if any of this is "reflected" upon at these so-called "
days of recollection" by Guam's clergy.
Yesterday, we received news from a family member that Doris Yamashita Concepcion passed from this world to the next.
"May perpetual light shine upon her, and may she rest in peace...and Joseph too."
Thank you Doris. From hundreds (and maybe even thousands) of tormented souls who lived with the horrible secret your son shared on his deathbed, and the many others who never had the chance to tell anyone, and who ultimately took their horror to their graves.
We are already missing you. We will always miss you. Especially me. Sincerely, Tim Rohr
RELATED:
Former Guam altar boy who allegedly accused archbishop laid to rest. Pacific Daily News. Haidee V Eugenio, Pacific Daily News Jun 15, 2016 (LINK)
Arizonans level sex-abuse allegations at Guam's archbishop. The Republic | azcentral.com. Updated June 7, 2016, 6:11 p.m. MT (LINK)
