By Tim Rohr
Let's take a look at Archbishop Krebs' letter to Apuron of Sep. 30, 2016. There is a lot more to this letter than meets the eye.
First, some background:
Apuron fled Guam sometime between May 17, 2016, when Roy Quintanilla made his accusation, and May 25, 2016, when a Vatican photographer found him at St. Peter's, apparently begging Pope Francis for help.
At the time, Hon served as Secretary to the Vatican's Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples. Hon's boss was Cardinal Fernando Filoni, who served as Prefect of the Congregation.
Hon had previously visited Guam in January 2015 as a "Visitator," the modern equivalent of an Inquisitor. Hon was tasked with looking into what all the ruckus in Agana was about, which at the time included the Fr. Paul thing, the Msgr. James thing, the Fr. John Wadeson thing, the John Toves thing, and the beginning of the RMS thing.
I remember feeling relieved that Rome was finally paying attention. However, it soon became clear to those of us who personally met with Hon in January 2015 (including me) that Hon was not here to fix things but to shut down the lay uprising against Apuron and the Neocats. His boss, Filoni, was already a known Neocat sympathizer, if not a closet Neo himself.
So we didn't trust Hon when he showed up a year and a half later in June 2016 as the Vatican-appointed administrator. And we were right not to trust him.
On June 9, 2016, at St. Anthony's church in Tamuning, Hon, addressing the clergy and laity of the diocese, changed the script. According to our inside intel, Hon was supposed to assure us he would coordinate the investigation into the sex abuse allegations against Apuron - the thing that caused Apuron to flee.
Instead, under a thinly disguised speech about "unity," he functionally chastised us for creating "disunity." Once again, Hon was here to put down the uprising. And given that Filoni was his Neocat boss, this was no surprise.
I was in the audience that day, and I saw the look on Archbishop Krebs' face as Hon went off script. It was pained. Krebs had been working for at least two years to address the exploding issues in Apuron's diocese, a diocese which had just been rocked with the horrific allegations from Roy Quintanilla, and then Walter Denton, who, coincidentally, had come forward with his graphic account of his being raped by Apuron as a twelve-year old altar boy, on the same day (June 6, 2016) that Hon had been appointed to Guam. (Roland Sondia hadn't come forward yet.)
It was immediately clear that Hon was acting on orders from Filoni - the Neocat's buddy in Rome - to put down the lay uprising in Guam. Krebs' face was pained because he knew what Hon was up against, and he knew that Hon didn't.
Hon was up against the most organized and determined group of lay people in the entire Catholic world, and we were about to make his life HELL.
We did.
Here is Kreb's letter to Apuron with my comments in red.
+++++
30th September 2016
The first thing to note is the date, 9/30/16. The date of Apuron's letter to Filoni is 7/23/26. Nearly two months to reply. Yes, things move slowly in Rome. However, when you read Krebs's letter, it's easy to see that the reason for denying Apuron's demand (to discipline Hon) was very simple and did not require deliberation. (I'll get to the reason when we get to it.) The time required to formulate the response suggests there must have been a heated argument between Krebs and the Neocats: Filoni, Hon, and the Neocats Brass.
Your Excellency,
At the request of His Eminence Card. Fernando Filoni, Prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelisation of Peoples, I have the honour to inform you of the following decision.
I can see Archbishop Krebs smiling to himself when he wrote: "I have the honour..." "Honour" (Honor) would have been the word to use in a congratulatory letter. But this was a DENIAL, even a slap down. And Krebs said he had "the honour" of delivering it. Well, given what Krebs had been through the last few years with Apuron and the Neocats and the mess they created, I am quite sure that, for Krebs, it was INDEED an HONOUR.
On 28th July 2016, the Congregation has received a hierarchical recourse "against the actions of the Apostolic Administrator sede plena, Archbishop Savio Hon Tai-Fai, SDB, which have interfered with matters concerning the Bishop, in accord with the norms of CC. 1732 ff". As sender of the recourse was indicated the address of the Archdiocese of Agaña.
Krebs seems to go out of his way here to mention that the "sender" (Apuron) used "the address of the Archdiocese of Agana." There was really no reason for Krebs to say this, other than to further poke Apuron, given that Apuron had abandoned the Archdiocese of Agana the previous May and had taken refuge, probably first in Rome, and then, by then, at the Neocat base in New Jersey. Krebs appeared to want to tell Apuron that he (and everybody else) knew Apuron was no longer residing in the Archdiocese of Agana.
Now Cardinal Filoni communicates that the recourse has been attentively examined but cannot be accepted, because the Apostolic Administrator has been appointed "per mandatum speciale Summi Pontificis", and therefore in the name of the Holy Father, against Whose decision there is no recourse (can. 1404 : "Prima Sedes a nemine iudicatur"). Moreover, the Decree of appointment has attributed to the Apostolic Administrator in the same ecclesiastical circumscription "omnes facultates ad administrationem et gubernionem pastoralem eiusdem Archidiocesis spectantes, sine ulla exceptione". Consequently, the Apostolic Administrator "replaces" the Archbishop "in omnibus", until the Holy See decides otherwise. On 12th August 2016, Cardinal Filoni has personally informed the Holy Father of the hierarchical recourse, and His Holiness has taken note of what is presented above.
Apuron's demand that Filoni discipline Hon is denied because it was the Pope himself who appointed Hon, not Filoni. And, as Krebs lays out, there is no recourse against the Holy Father. Moreover, Krebs points out that Hon's authority is "in omnibus," meaning, "in everything."
With every best wish and kind regards, I am
Yours sincerely in the Lord
+ M. Kum
+Martin Krebs Apostolic Delegate
The letter as a whole functionally memorializes a major turn of events. Two months earlier, Hon was so clearly on the side of the Neocats that we (the lay uprising) had added Hon's name to our pickets against Apuron.
Apuron, as a bishop, should have known that Hon's appointment to Guam was made by the pope. In fact, I am sure that he did. So why did he write such a stupid letter? There's only ever one answer when things don't make any sense: The Neocats.
The Neocats were (and still are) so sure of their power in Rome, especially since they had Filoni in their pocket. Filoni was so powerful at the time that he was known as The Red Pope (a cardinal who was just as powerful as the pope). So, it's easy to see how the Neocats believed they could get Filoni to back Apuron and shut down Hon.
And he probably would have, but for one thing: those troublesome lay people in the streets of Agana.
P.S. Getting tangled up with "those troublesome lay people" in Agana was not good for either of their (Filoni and Hon) careers. Both were removed from Rome after the Apuron thing blew up.
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