By Tim Rohr
Over the years, I have been asked to speak publicly about what became the largest clergy sex abuse scandal per capita in the entire Catholic world.
The scandal in Guam, at least by 2019, was, per capita, 14 times the size of the Boston scandal that provided the story for the Academy Award-winning movie, "Spotlight." 14 TIMES!
The question I posed to my audiences was always "how could this happen in an island community that was so Catholic and boasted of its tightly knit family culture?"
I don't recall anyone in any audience ever venturing to answer, so I always answered for them. And my answer was always the same: "because this island community is so Catholic and boasts of its tightly knit family culture."
I've laid this out in other posts, so I'll keep the explanation brief to get to my main story. In short, the Catholic culture in Guam traditionally holds an inordinate "respect" for the clerical offices. I've often heard that you must not say anything bad about the priest, even if it's true, or something bad will happen to you or your family.
This unhealthy, even superstitious "respect" for the bishop and the priest was an open door for clerics to use and abuse hundreds of children, and, as the record now shows, so they did - not all, but many, and for decades.
Many times, as I increasingly became the local face of the opposition to Guam's clerical abuse scandal, many would quietly tell me of their abuse at the hands of a cleric. And just as quietly, they would tell me how their parent or grandparent would slap their face for speaking of it.
Recently, my friend, Lester Gonzales, who grew up in Guam, wrote about the abuse that he suffered both at the hands of his pastor and his parents:
After being serially sexually molested as a teen by his pastor, Lester went to his parents for help:
I didn’t tell anyone at first. I didn’t have the words. I didn’t know if anyone would believe me. Eventually I found the courage to tell my parents. My father told me not to tell anyone, for fear of his embarrassment and that people would talk. My mother quietly suggested I leave. Just quit and walk away. So I did.
And then one day my father said it. “You should forgive and forget.” I stormed out of the house and drove away. That was the moment I understood something clearly, I was completely alone in this. My father allowed it to happen.
Lester's story is the constant story I've been hearing for years from so many, and it has caused me to be even angrier at these victims' parents than at the pastors who molested, raped, and otherwise mutilated the minds, bodies, and souls of so many innocent young people.
As horrible as clerical sex abuse of our young is, it was not only allowed to happen but even encouraged by parents who would rather curry the favor of the powerful than protect their own children.
Today's Pacific Daily News tells an all-too-familiar story about another family who preferred their minor daughter remain a sex slave than lose the favor of a police officer. The story is copied here in part (emphases added):
A Guam Police Department sergeant was taken into federal custody Monday and faces charges of sex trafficking a minor, following an FBI investigation that alleges he knowingly recruited, harbored, transported and solicited a girl under the age of 18 for commercial sex acts from Jan. 1, 2024, through July 31, 2025.
According to a federal affidavit filed Monday, the girl reported to GPD officers on July 26, 2025, that she was sexually assaulted by Santos.
Police and FBI documents state the girl told authorities the abuse began around February 2017, when she was about 7 or 8.
The girl told police on July 29, 2025, that she wanted to withdraw her complaint and said she fabricated the allegation out of anger and for attention. A similar complaint and recantation occurred in January 2025.
The girl told a relative that another family member instructed her to recant, warning that Santos would stop helping the family financially if prosecuted. The girl maintained that the assault occurred, but changed her story under pressure.
Pressure from whom? Her family, just like so many victims who told me their stories of clergy sex abuse. This is the so-called "tight-knit family" at work: apparently, it is better to let your child be raped, abused, and molested than to bring shame or disfavor from the powerful upon your family.
The police officer, the abuser in this case, should be prosecuted and punished accordingly, but so should the girl's family members who enabled the abuse and even told the girl to lie (recant) to protect whatever favors they were receiving from the police officer.
Maybe...maybe, someday, Guam's parents will stop sucking up to the powerful at the expense of their own children.
Tim, your posting isis right on. In my experience with my work with victims of abuse, more than half of them did tell their parents of the abuse from a priest. And sadly, in each incident, the parents/family reaction was the same. They were told to never speak about it again. Some of the children were actually slapped or berated by the family and threatened to be cast out.
ReplyDeleteWhile the silence may have been perceived as a safety net, what it really did was to prolong the emotional and mental
Anguish these children carried with them through their life.
To Be sure, these victims suffered greatly from what happened to them as children. Although the lawsuits did not prove to be the financial windfall many outsiders think it was, at least it finally gave them the opportunity to speak the dark truth they were instructed to hide many years ago.
These victims deserve to be in our daily prayers.
Deacon Steve Martinez
I did not have a good mother but she believed me when I told her she must not let my younger sister stay overnight alone with our father because I didn't want done to her what was done to me. My mother prevented the requested overnight visit and prevented lifelong trauma. He weakly denied my accusation but said he didn't know what he did when he consumed a 6-pack of beer. I feel for Lester. Having parents look the other way is worse than than the assault he suffered. Tim is right.Punish the parents.
ReplyDelete