APPARENTLY FR. JOEL WASN'T ONE OF THEM

By Tim Rohr

Archbishop of Agana Ryan Jimenez announced on 10/26/26 the incardination of Fr. Joel De Los Reyes, who, as the announcement states, came to Guam 39 years ago.

By coincidence, for the last several days I have been writing - for my book, "Orchestrated," about how Apuron used incardination, especially with Filipino priests, as a way of controlling them.

Incardination, in short, happens when a priest or deacon is ordained, at which point he is attached to a particular diocese and its bishop.

Sometimes, clerics, with the permission of the bishop of the diocese where they are incardinated, can minister in another diocese - with the permission of that diocese's bishop.

This was the case of Fr. Joel, who, with his home bishop's permission, relocated to Guam in 1987 and began ministering here with Apuron's permission. 

It has been my observation - over many years - that many, if not most, of the priests who come from the Philippines to minister in Guam intend to stay in Guam and seek incardination in this diocese. 

Our Church, ever vigilant for the good of its priests, does not want priests living in an "incardination limbo, and thus Canon Law, assuming all the conditions for excardination and incardination have been met, provides for the ipso facto incardination of the cleric "after five years."

Can. 268 §1. A cleric who has legitimately moved from his own particular church to another is incardinated in the latter particular church by the law itself after Five years if he has made such a desire known in writing both to the diocesan bishop of the host church and to his own diocesan bishop and neither of them has expressed opposition in writing to him within four months of receiving the letter.

So, since it took 39 years (instead of 5) for Fr. Joel, we have to assume either that Fr. Joel did not meet the canonical conditions or that Apuron was doing his usual: playing games with the law and with people's lives. 

I think it's the latter. 

Recall Apuron's letters to the "three priests" in 2008. One of those priests was the late Fr. Manny Ombao, who had served in Guam for 30 years at the time and had always hoped to be incardinated. 

Writing to Fr. Ombao on March 28, 2008, Apuron demanded:

“I am now asking you…as Archbishop of Agana to accompany this...Community as their presbyter for their Celebration of the Eucharist every Saturday evening at 7:30pm.  If you decide you will not serve, I will have to let you know now, that your time in this Archdiocese will be for only one year from the above date.” [LINK]

Apuron also targeted two other Filipino priests:

“I would like you…to seriously consider following the next series of catechesis which will take place in (the priest's parish) and committing yourself to the community that will later be formed as its presbyter as well as other communities born from hereon in the parish. Unless I see this desire manifest in you within the coming years, I may ask that you go elsewhere….If you do not agree to the above, then you are free to begin to look around for a benevolent bishop to accept you into his arch/diocese.” 

I don't know why he didn't incardinate Fr. Joel. From what I could see, there was no reason not to. The first part of the 2013 Diocesan Directory shows Fr. Lito as incardinated (black dot), as well as the late Fr. Rudolfo (Rudy) Arejola, who was a fierce Apuron defender. Not incardinated is Fr. Joel, and Romeo Convocar, the now-bishop of Chalan Kanoa. 

Go here to see the full listing from 2013.  

Given that Convocar is now a bishop, it is hard to imagine that he had any deficiency in his record that kept Apuron from incardinating him. But with Apuron, you didn't just have to check all the boxes to earn his favor; you had to "do" something... or "be" something. He had his favorites. Everybody knew that. 

Apparently Fr. Joel wasn't one of them. 

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Note: Regarding the three priests in 2008, I believe Fr. Manny gave in to Apuron and died shortly after - never having been incardinated. One of the three returned to the Philippines on his own - rather than obey a crooked, abusive bishop. One remained in Guam, and I believe is still here. I don't know if he ever consented.

Meanwhile, those letters got out. And Apuron's abuse of these three priests sparked the first every public protest against him. The Pacific Daily News reported:

Armed with signs and placards, a band of Catholics yesterday protested across from the Dulce Nombre de Maria Cathedral Basilica for what they believe is a dividing of Catholicism.

Group members said the protest was not against the Catholic church, but rather the Neocatechumenal Way movement, which they said members of the clergy and Archbishop Anthony Apuron were promoting.

The Neocatechumenal Way "has the ultimate goal of bringing the faithful gradually to the intimacy with Jesus Christ and to make them active members of the Church and credible witnesses of the Good News of the Savior everywhere," according to its Web site.

But Toto resident Lou Bamba said that a person must be invited to attend a Neocatechumenate gathering, whereas the Catholic church freely welcomes anyone.

Bamba said her understanding of the Neocatechumenal convocation is that the group brings non-practicing Catholics back into the church, and converts non-Catholics into believers.

"It's creating a major division in the Catholic church," Bamba said. "The archbishop is personally involved in this Neocatechumenal movement, ... and we feel that it is dividing the three main family institutions that make up the Catholic faith the clergy, parish and biological families."

What the news story doesn’t report is that the protest took place during a major celebration at the Cathedral, at which guest bishops and at least one cardinal were in attendance. The protesters and their signs were clearly visible to Apuron, the visiting dignitaries, and just about everyone, as they, the bishops et al., processed around the front of the Cathedral before entering. 

I remember the moment Apuron saw the protestors. In those days, our family ran a cafe inside the Cathedral gift shop. I had come out to watch the procession just as Apuron walked past me, inches away. I saw the look on his face when he saw the protesters. This was a major embarrassment to him. And he was going to make them - and everyone - pay. That was the look I saw. I was right.