HIGH DRAMA IN THE ARCHDIOCESE OF AGANA - PART 11: THE ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM & CONCLUSION

By Tim Rohr

CONTINUED FROM PART 10

To review. On May 17, 2016, Roy Quintanilla publicly accused Apuron of sexually molesting him. About ten days later, and before another accuser would come forward, Sen. Frank Blas, Jr. introduced Bill 326-33. The original bill sought to lift the civil statute of limitations on sex abuse of minors but only held persons liable and not institutions. 

There was probably a very good chance that Bill 326 would have passed with only personal liability because it was quite clear that Apuron's accusers, of which there would be four by mid-June 2016, first only wanted to confront Apuron privately, and failing that, sought only a legal path to hold Apuron accountable. 

Legislation cannot be aimed at a person specifically and Blas' bill did not name Apuron, but there was no doubt at the time about the aim of the bill and the intention of Apuron's accusers.

Also, by mid-June 2016, Apuron was threatening to sue his accusers. And if nothing else, they needed legal recourse should Apuron carry through on his threats.

Archdiocese plans to sue for 'malicious lies'

None of the initial accusers were asking for or were interested in money. Initially they just wanted to confront Apuron privately, share the wounds they had carried for decades, and maybe get an apology. And if no apology, at least the opportunity to confront the man who had tormented their memories for so long.

After the first accuser, Roy Quintanilla, came forward, it was immediately clear from the media coming from the chancery that not only would there be no private meeting with Apuron let alone an apology, but that Apuron intended to attack. 

Apuron's video response (and other videos coming from the chancery) the night of Roy's accusation created a public uproar and may well have been the motivation behind Blas' decision to introduce Bill 326-33.

Fast-forward to today when the Archdiocese of Agana is in bankruptcy and is being forced to sell or forfeit over 80 church properties, the real issue is how Blas' bill went from a bill only holding persons liable to a bill also holding institutions liable - which is what opened the door to bankrupting the Archdiocese, and which was never the intent of Apuron's accusers nor the Concerned Catholics of Guam nor any of many lay people who wanted to see justice for Apuron's victims. 

What happened is pretty much summed up in Bob Klitzkie's statement to the Pacific News Center after a public hearing on the amended version of Bill 326 which included institutional liability:

“This is what I thought would’ve been appropriate. Let’s go ahead and sue the abusers with their own personal money or whatever … but not the institution. And this is what I thought we could do,” says Klitzkie.  “The hierarchy and processes of the church would be sufficient to clean up the church so that child sexual abuse would become no more than a bad memory–so I thought. I was wrong.”

In other words, Klitzkie and most everyone else believed all we really needed was a law to hold persons liable for sex abuse of minors, and such a law "would be sufficient to clean up the church." So what went wrong?

It started on June 9, 2016, when newly-appointed Apostolic Administrator, Archbishop Savio Hon Tai-Fai ("Hon") addressed the archdiocese at St. Anthony's Church in Tamuning. 

Hon failed to mention - even once - the crisis that brought him to Guam in the first place: the accusations against Apuron. Instead Hon's only message was that he was here (in Guam) "to restore unity and stability." 

For those of us who had gone before Hon's Inquisition in January 2015 - when he came to Guam as an "Apostolic Visitator" (an investigator), Hon's failure to mention the accusations against Apuron and his "restore unity" rhetoric reinforced what we saw in January 2015: that Hon was here to put down the rebellion. 

Given that Hon was Secretary to Cardinal Filoni and that Filoni was in cahoots with the Kiko's, it was even clearer that Hon was here to protect the Neocatechumenal Way generally and the Redemptoris Mater specifically. 

Note: Cardinal Filoni was then-Prefect for the (Vatican) Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples, but more importantly, had been long since nicknamed "The Red Pope" because of the power he wielded in the Vatican as a Cardinal (thus "Red") which was thought to be equal to or even greater than Pope Francis. Perhaps this is why Francis got rid of him after the Apuron affair blew up and "exiled" Filoni to a position with a nice title but with no power in Rome. (I'll have more to say about this in a future post.)

It was later learned that Hon had gone off script at his June 9 address. Hon was supposed to address the accusations against Apuron but he chose not to. The omission was glaring, a real elephant in the room. 

Within days, "the rebellion," began pressuring the legislature to amend Bill 326 to include institutional liability to send a loud message to Hon, Filoni, and all the way to the Pope, that we meant business. 

As the amended bill was being readied for a public hearing, Hon announced that he had sent all the relevant documents related to the accusations against Apuron to the Vatican. 

Given the timing, just one day before the first of three public hearings on the amended Bill 326, it appeared that Hon was only now sending those documents - almost a month after he had arrived - in response to growing outrage to Hon's refusal to address the real crisis. 

David Sablan, president of Concerned Catholics of Guam, expressed this mounting frustration with Hon in a comment to the Pacific Daily News:

“That doesn’t tell us anything. OK, so he says that documents have been sent to Rome. So what? Walter Denton’s documents have been sent to Rome since August,” said Sablan. “It’s the same thing we’ve heard from Apuron, Father Quitugua and Father Adrian. We want transparency? Who is handling it? What issues can we expect? Where is Archbishop Apuron? The faithful need to have information. We don’t want more of the same things we’ve been getting, ever since we started bringing up these issues.”

Had Hon, on June 9, 2016, simply said that he was aware of the accusations against Apuron and that he intended to assist in a proper investigation, Bill 326 would have probably not only not been amended to include institutional liability but may never have passed even in its original form. 

The Catholic laity of Guam would have believed Hon and would have trusted that the matter was in good hands. At that point, interest, or at least public passion for, a legal remedy might have gone away because as Mr. Klitzkie said:

“The hierarchy and processes of the church would be sufficient to clean up the church so that child sexual abuse would become no more than a bad memory–so I thought."

But Hon was not here to get to the bottom of anything. He was here - on orders from his boss, Filoni, to put down the rebellion, protect Apuron, the Neocatechumenal Way, and the Redemptoris Mater Seminary. 

As already demonstrated in Part 9, Filoni's control of our archdiocese and everything we speculated about relative to Hon was exposed in September 2016 when the then-rector of the seminary, Msgr. David C. Quitugua, wrote to then-vicar general, Fr. Jeff San Nicolas:

This is to inform you that His Eminence, Fernando Cardinal Filoni, Prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples, has been made aware of the pre announced  “visit" of the Laity Forward Movement to the Seminary. Cardinal Filoni’s instruction is that no such “visit” can be made to the Seminary…

Given that so many years have now passed since these events, and given the sad state of affairs the archdiocese now finds itself in, it's easy to forget how all of this came about and just blame the most obvious figures: Apuron's initial accusers, the Concerned Catholics of Guam, the picketers, myself, this blog, etc. 

But given the facts, there is no question who and what brought the Archdiocese of Agana down. And given Kiko's right hand man, Giussepe Gennarini's recent presence in Guam, one has to wonder if the Kiko's aren't circling the remains of the Archdiocese of Agana and organizing to scoop up former church properties. 

HIGH DRAMA IN THE ARCHDIOCESE OF AGANA - PART 10: DIES IRAE DIES ILLA

By Tim Rohr

CONTINUED FROM PART 9

[REMINDER: The objective of this series is to demonstrate who was and still is behind the bankruptcy of the Archdiocese of Agana and all that it is now costing us.]

But now back to Hon and how his orders from Kiko-Filoni led to the bankruptcy of the Archdiocese of Agana.

Publicly, Archbishop Hon was very careful to always make it appear as if he was earnestly working towards "reconciliation and healing." In fact, he was. Hon very much hoped to resolve the conflicts peacefully. And who wouldn't? In fact, this is what Apuron's accusers also wanted to do. 

But Apuron, even after fleeing to Rome, continued to stoke the flames that would lead to the bankruptcy of the Archdiocese of Agana by insisting on his innocence and making it appear that the appointment of Hon was "his idea:"

Meanwhile, there were just too many questions that Hon failed to answer. His smiling demeanor at every public appearance and his calls for "healing and reconciliation," did not sit well with the stirred-up laity of the Archdiocese of Agana, PARTICULARLY because it was quite clear that Hon was Filoni's lieutenant and Filoni answered to Kiko. 

Really complex for those who have not followed the intricacies of this terrible story for all these many years, but in summary: HON'S SMILE WAS NOT TO BE TRUSTED.

It's difficult to crucify Hon on Kiko's ready-made cross. 

Hon was a Vatican bureaucrat just doing his job in a place he'd rather not be. In fact, inside intel at the time reported to us that Hon could be heard screaming (in Italian) into the phone on several occasions. 

It can be easily assumed that Hon was talking - or rather screaming at - Filoni. The fact is that - and Apuron's Vatican trial would bear this out - never, and I mean NEVER, in the history of the modern Roman Catholic Church, had anything like what happened in Guam ever happened before. 

But meanwhile, GUAM'S LAITY - or at least a very adamant few - WOULD NOT GO AWAY.

CONTINUED ON PART 10

HIGH DRAMA IN THE ARCHDIOCESE OF AGANA - PART 9: KIKO CONTROL OF AOA EXPOSED

By Tim Rohr

CONTINUED FROM PART 8

[REMINDER: The objective of this series is to demonstrate who was and still is behind the bankruptcy of the Archdiocese of Agana and all that it is now costing us. It has been recommended that I save all this backstory for a book, however, the Kiko's are already back - and must be stopped.]

Apuron fled Guam on or about May 17, 2016, the day Apuron's first "accuser," Roy Quintanilla, publicly accused Apuron of sexually molesting him in the 1970's.

Six days later, on May 23, 2016, Senator Frank Blas Jr. introduced Bill 326-33 to lift the civil statute of limitation on child sex abuse. 

However, then-Apostolic Administrator to the Archdiocese of Agana, Archbishop Savio Hon Tai-Fai ("Hon"), and his then-boss, Cardinal Fernando Filoni, * had little to worry about since Blas' bill only aimed at the civil liability of persons and not institutions. In other words, should Blas' bill become law, Roy could sue Apuron, but that was it. 

* At the time, Filoni was Prefect for the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples which oversees "missionary" dioceses, and Hon was second in command. Why the Archdiocese of Agana, with an 85% Catholic population and a history of Catholicism for more than 400 years was still, in 2016, considered a "missionary" diocese - causing it to fall under Filoni and Hon's purview - is a matter touching on another scandal which funneled millions of dollars to this archdiocese and which did little more than fund the salaries of pet chancery employees. 

At this point (May 23, 2016), there was only one accuser, and Apuron had all the resources of the archdiocese to legally bury Roy. But then Apuron made a big mistake: Apuron ran to Rome for cover. 

Apuron did not announce his departure and probably thought he could recruit Francis to his side before any of us knew about it. 

Unfortunately for Apuron, Apuron's Kiko operatives apparently failed to inform him that approaching the Pope in a Vatican receiving line in the middle of St. Peter's square was probably not a good idea since - especially if you're a bishop - your picture would be taken by an official Vatican photographer. 

And so it was. In fact, there were several pics.

Meanwhile, back in Guam, on June 6, 2016, Hon arrived and assumed the duties of Apostolic Administrator as Apuron was AWOL.

On the same day, Walter Denton came forward with his devastating story of being raped by Apuron when he was 13 years old. This was a game changer for Hon. One accusation by one guy is not something the Vatican could have or would have acted on. The only reason why the Vatican acted, temporarily removing Apuron and installing Hon, was because Apuron had abandoned his post and fled into hiding. 

But now there were two. And Denton's accusation of rape sent the issue to a new level. Had Hon's job assignment been to get to the bottom of things, things might have worked out very differently for the Archdiocese of Agana. But Hon's job assignment was not to get to the bottom of things. Hon's job assignment was to put down the rebellion against the Neocatechumenal Way.

I know this because of my own inquisition before Hon during his Apostolic Visitation in January 2015 wherein Hon attempted to take me down by characterizing my motives (my posts on JW) as a personal vendetta against Apuron. But I also knew this for the simple reason that Filoni was Hon's boss. And Kiko was Filoni's boss. 

This would be made very clear a few months later when Fr. Jeff San Nicolas, in his then-capacity as "delegate to the administrator," pulled back the curtain on Filoni and his operators in Guam.

At a press conference in September 2016, Fr. Jeff revealed a letter he had received from Msgr. David C. Quitugua, a hard-core Kiko-operative and then-rector of the Neocat seminary, in response to Quitugua's denial of a visit to the seminary by a small group of lay people. Quitugua wrote:

This is to inform you that His Eminence, Fernando Cardinal Filoni, Prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples, has been made aware of the pre announced  “visit" of the Laity Forward Movement to the Seminary. Cardinal Filoni’s instruction is that no such “visit” can be made to the Seminary…

The news story goes on to report:

Father Jeff alleges it's the same Neocatechumenal support Archbishop Anthony Apuron continues to receive amid allegations of disobeying the Holy See relative to the RMS as well as the credible allegations of child sex abuse made against him. Father Jeff pleads to Pope Francis to declare the Archdiocese of Agana sede vacante - without a bishop.

Before going on with even more evidence that Filoni was running this archdiocese through Hon, let's review some facts about the Neocat seminary. 

We were told for years that this was a seminary FOR Guam, not just a seminary IN Guam. And, true to the generous spirit of the church's laity, millions of dollars were raised to support the seminary and its seminarians under the belief that this was "FOR Guam." 

The fact that Guam's laity had given millions of dollars for more than a decade to this "seminary" creates a stark contrast to Quitugua's final statement in his letter to Fr. Jeff:

We kindly ask you to inform the Laity Forward Movement that their “visit” and their demand for documents is not allowed.

Really? Quitugua et. al had no trouble depositing millions of dollars in checks from those same laity. But now they can't even visit. In fact, Quitugua keeps "visit" in quotes in a direct attempt to mock those same laity who just want to know what Quitugua and his brood did with their millions of dollars. 

So how does this seminary FOR Guam and IN Guam suddenly fall under the control of a foreign operator like Filoni? It doesn't. Unless of course Filoni is in the control of the Kiko's who control the seminary. So saying that Kiko was Filoni's boss is not a stretch. The line of command was laid out clearly and plainly in the letter Fr. Jeff exposed in September 2016. 

However, most of us who had been fighting in the belly of this stinking beast since at least 2013 knew that Kiko - via Filoni - did not just control the seminary, he controlled the whole Archdiocese of Agana. Archbishop Byrnes would confirm this when he arrived in November 2016: 

“Byrnes added that Filoni, as the prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples, is something like his superior and that he reports to Filoni.” - Guam Daily Post, Feb. 16, 2017

But now back to Hon and how his orders from Kiko-Filoni led to the bankruptcy of the Archdiocese of Agana.

TO BE CONTINUED - PART 10

HIGH DRAMA IN THE ARCHDIOCESE OF AGANA - PART 8: THE FIST PUMP

By Tim Rohr

CONTINUED FROM PART 7

Even though Archbishop Hon figures largely in this series, the object of this narrative isn't to personally disparage Hon. Hon was a pawn in a much larger Vatican chess game and he really had no idea of who the players were on the other side of the board, i.e. the lay people of the Archdiocese of Agana. How Hon was a pawn, though not quite an innocent one, will be demonstrated as this series unfolds.  

Also, the object of this series is not to retell the history of all that happened in this archdiocese between July of 2013, when Apuron ambushed Fr. Paul Gofigan, * and the coming forth - three years later - of the original Apuron accusers. That's all been told in the previous series ORCHESTRATED.

* "It is to your advantage to resign immediately, rather than experience a more arduous and painful closure to your assignment at Santa Barbara Church." - Apuron letter to Gofigan, July 16, 2013. The full story of Apuron v Gofigan has its own series here.

The object of this series (however long it may be since the matter is still ongoing) is to get to the bottom of who is REALLY responsible for the bankruptcy of the Archdiocese of Agana and the loss of so many properties given to the Church by so many trusting lay Catholics over many decades - who only gave out of love for their Catholic Faith and not to this or that cleric.

Not to get to the bottom of this and to hold it up in plain sight is to put a bandaid on cancer, a cancer which is still very much here...and waiting.

The focus in this series is on Hon because Hon was the Apostolic Administrator at the time the whole clergy sex abuse thing blew up from a single accusation from one guy, Roy Quintanilla, who hadn't lived in Guam in decades, into a a full blown legislative process that lifted the civil statute of limitation on sex crimes against minors and opened the door for what became the bankruptcy of the Archdiocese of Agana.

The amazing parts of this story are at the beginning and the end.

Roy had only wanted to privately speak with Apuron about his alleged abuse, which means this whole tragedy never had to go beyond a 30 minute meeting between Roy and Apuron. And in the end, there were solid legal arguments that could have been made before the federal court, but weren't, that would have protected parish properties. See the post: Note to Parishioners

In other words, none of this needed to happen. But it did. So let's review how it happened in order to keep our finger on the real perps - and I'm not even referring to the guilty clerics.

*****

After John Toves was run off "The Hill" (aka The Chancery) and threatened with police action by the now ex-Fr. Adrian Cristobal in December 2014, it became insufferably clear that Apuron and his people meant to crush anyone and everyone with the same "arduous and painful" experience that Apuron had threatened Gofigan with in 2013 - not to mention the public burning of Msgr. James Benavente on a public media stake the following year.

Still, after Roy Quintanilla, Walter Denton, and Roland Sondia, Apuron's initial accusers - in the wake of The Toves Apocalypse - had confidentially made their stories known to myself and a very few others who these three cautiously came to trust, all three were adamant about not going public and reiterated their desire to simply meet personally with Apuron and share their stories and grief with him in the hopes of getting an apology and an offer to quietly reconcile.

But then The Diana became a factor. The Diana was (and may still be) a Neocat blog run by the pseudonymous "Diana." Since the Gofigan thing, The Diana had been attacking anyone and everyone who brought the smallest question up about the Neocatechumenal Way or Archbishop Apuron, and The Toves Apocalypse had been fresh meat for Diana.

It's not that we cared about The Diana or anything she said, but it became very clear that The Diana was really just the mouth of the same puppet masters who were pulling Apuron's strings, and we knew exactly where those strings led: first to a renegade monk name Pius and then to his bosses in the Neocat hierarchy - whom shall be revealed in due course.

*****

Given the ramped up attacks from The Diana, by May of 2016, it had become clear that the only way for Roy, Walter, and Roland to confront Apuron would have to be publicly. 

There was no law at the time which would permit Apuron's accusers to sue him. So Apuron could have just blown it off as false accusations and there would have been nothing these three men could have done about it. Apuron could have gone on ruling happily ever after, as he had done for three decades. 

A decision was made by those us who were helping Roy, Walter, and Roland to not bring all three men forward at once. The idea was to give Apuron a chance to respond to Roy and for Roy to have a chance to do what he wanted to do from the beginning: just sit down with Apuron. Had Apuron handled the matter this way, it might have all been over before it began.

But he (Apuron) didn't.

 Roy came forward publicly on May 17, 2016. 

Apuron immediately went on the attack. Some of it was downright comical if not sad. Apuron's handlers staged a video report featuring Deacon Frank Tenorio who had been at the Agat parish where Roy alleged he had been abused in the 1970's. 

Tenorio swore on screen to Apuron's innocence but unfortunately the guy who staged the video, a certain Fr. Edivaldo, via his silhouette, was seen pacing behind Tenorio and then fist-pumping on the video Edivaldo sent to the media. Then after fist-pump was featured on this blog, Edivaldo edited out the fist pump and sent it to the media again. 

If there was a chance that Apuron could be believed, it was pretty much destroyed by the Tenorio video and the Edivaldo fist-pump. It was clear that the inmates were running the asylum. 

Meanwhile, it appears that Apuron, after making his own video earlier that evening protesting his innocence, had hopped a plane to Rome, because one, Apuron disappeared from public view in Guam after May 17, and two, Apuron showed up in a series of photos taken by a Vatican photographer during a public meet and greet with the pope on May 26, 2016:

 

Normally, the pope greets visiting bishops during his weekly public audiences and the usual niceties are exchanged. But the pics of Apuron and the pope in this series are very different. Apuron appears very distressed, and so does the pope. 

Apparently Apuron was hoping to rally the pope to his defense before things got out of hand in Guam, but crashing a papal greeting line is a very strange way to do it. It's quite obvious Apuron was in grave distress. 

But the question is "why?" 

There had only been one accusation from one guy who hadn't live in Guam in 40 years. Why would that send Apuron running to Rome to crash a papal greeting line - unless of course Apuron knew what was coming.

TO BE CONTINUED-PART 8

HIGH DRAMA IN THE ARCHDIOCESE OF AGANA - PART 7: THE TOVES APOCALYPSE

By Tim Rohr

CONTINUED FROM PART 6

Note: Apocalypse (from Ancient Greek ἀποκάλυψις (apokálupsis) 'revelation, disclosure'), and has come to be synonymous with "an event involving destruction or damage on an awesome or catastrophic scale."

Before going on with what I'm going to call "The Hon Dynasty," we need to review the backstory of how the issues in the Archdiocese of Agana jumped from Apuron's local squabble with a couple of priests, that probably would have died out in a couple of months, to a clergy sex abuse crisis of catastrophic proportions - a crisis which brought Hon to Guam, and a crisis that, per capita, became 14 times the size of the crisis in the Archdiocese of Boston which led to the Academy Award winning movie "Spotlight."

*****

Even after Apuron attacked Msgr. James Benavente and kicked him out of the Cathedral - where he was both rector and functionally the pastor - the whole fiasco might have remained just a local church squabble. 

The problem was that the squabble had grown louder after Apuron further attacked Benavente publicly and in print. This caused the laity to mobilize both in support of Benavente but also in reaction to Apuron's incomprehensible actions, first against Gofigan and now Benavente.

There was a large public demonstration in support of Benavente on the steps of the Cathedral, a motorcade, and an increased interest by the local media. 

Benavente was well-connected and well-liked, and he had the immediate support of many, but nothing any of Benavente's close associates did or said appeared to give Apuron pause. In fact, Apuron (or really his people) ramped up their attacks in response to the defense of Benavente.

However, these ramped up attacks created the ever increasing din that eventually was heard across the Pacific and began to raise ghosts from both Benavente and Apuron's past, one of whom was John Toves. 

Toves first approached me anonymously through a comment on this blog. In the comment he accused Apuron of sexually molesting his relative. I posted back that if the "commenter" wanted the comment to be public, he (I didn't know yet if the commenter was a he or she yet), would have to put his name to the comment.

John commented back that his name was John Charles Ada Toves and that Apuron had molested his relative. 

There was nothing I could do with the comment other than to leave it on the blog. John had put his name to his accusation and there it was. But I didn't need to do anything as the comments in response to John's accusation began exploding. And then, a few weeks later, in November of 2014, John called into Jesse Lujan's KUAM show and made the same accusation. This was the first time anyone had publicly accused Apuron of sex abuse - though it had been rumored for years.

The next month, John, who lived in California, came to Guam and attempted to confront Apuron on multiple occasions. Toves, in a confrontation with then-Fr. Adrian Cristobal that was memorialized in a KUAM news story, was unceremoniously thrown off "The Hill" and threatened with police action should he try again.

John Toves unable to meet with archbishop - KUAM

And it was here that Apuron made his first of many big mistakes. Certainly how he handled the Gofigan and Benavente matters was already a big mistake, but those matters would not have led to Apuron's ouster nor to the bankruptcy of the archdiocese. However, allegations of sexual abuse were a different matter. 

Toves hadn't lived in Guam since his youth and few people knew him. He had no credibility. All Apuron had to do was meet with him, say that he met with him, and say I'm sorry but Mr. Toves seems to be misinformed. Something like that. Toves then would have nowhere to go and he probably would have been refused any more airtime, especially since Toves' "relative" refused to substantiate Toves' allegation against Apuron. 

Instead, Apuron sent out Cristobal to bar Apuron's door. Sending Cristobal out to meet John was also a big mistake. John and Cristobal had been in the seminary together and each knew each other's dirty laundry. Cristobal knew how dangerous John was, not just to Apuron, but to himself. And it showed.

CONTINUED IN PART 8

HIGH DRAMA IN THE ARCHDIOCESE OF AGANA - PART 6: HON?

By Tim Rohr

CONTINUED FROM PART 5

With another headline article in the news today about the sale of church properties "to help compensate more than 270 survivors of Guam clergy sexual assaults as far back as the 1950s," it's time to get back to the history, the real history, of how we got here because it didn't have to happen this way. And it is important that everyone in this archdiocese know and understand this BECAUSE THE PROBLEM IS STILL HERE.

This is Part 6 of a multi-part story (I don't know how many parts yet), and if you missed the first five, you can go back and start here. Otherwise, let's summarize some key points before we move on:

1. The bankruptcy of the Archdiocese of Agana did not start with allegations of sex abuse. 
2. It started with ex-Archbishop Apuron taking alarming actions, first against Fr. Paul Gofigan, and then Msgr. James Benavente.
3. The attacks on Gofigan and Benavente appeared to be orchestrated and timed (and NOT by Apuron, which is critical to understanding the rest of the story).
4. To those of us who looked closer, it appeared that Apuron, who would reach mandatory episcopal retirement age (75) in a few years, was mobilizing to remove his most likely successors - who happened to not be friendly to the NCW - to ensure that the next Archbishop of Agana was at least supportive of the Neocats, if not a Neocat himself - as was Apuron.
5. In the short term, this led the laity to preemptively demonstrate in support of Fr. Mike Crisostomo, who was Apuron's next likely target. (All of this is thoroughly documented on this blog and at some point I may come back and link this all. But for now, if you want, you can search.)
6. Meanwhile, just about everyone knew that Apuron was not in charge of anything. And the Gofigan and Benavente fiascos laid wide open the Thing that most everyone had suspected for years: 
7. Apuron - and the Archdiocese of Agana - were being run by the Neocat hierarchy, i.e. "the Kiko's", through the person of now ex-Fr. Adrian Cristobal who was then our Chancellor, and the key "priest" who had brought the NCW to Guam in 1995. (How and why Cristobal did this is a matter for another story - though it is already well-documented in JW.)
8. In other words, at this point, Apuron was nothing but a rubber stamp.
9. BUT A RUBBER STAMP FOR WHO?
10. We knew WHO. 
11. But the real question is WHY had Apuron been so easily and quickly subdued, manipulated and reduced to a mere "rubber stamp" by Cristobal and the Neocats. 
12. While this question leads us back to the story as set forth here in Part 6 of this absurd drama, it is important to note going forward that Cristobal had already long since known of the grotesque matters that have now brought the Archdiocese of Agana to its bankruptcy knees - and where the innocent laity are being made to pay and NOT the PERPS!

PART 6

Not everything can be documented as to why Hon went on the attack. Some of it was hearsay. And it went like this: 

Abuse victims (and not just Apuron's) would meet with Hon and Hon would basically blow them off with a patronizing lecture about "forgiveness." Again, this is hearsay, but it's pretty close "hearsay," as people who met personally with Hon would later share their frustration with me (Tim Rohr). 

Which is why, the lay picketers in from of the Cathedral every Sunday began to carry signs picketing Hon as well as Apuron:

TO BE CONTINUED IN PART 7

HIGH DRAMA IN THE ARCHDIOCESE OF AGANA - PART 5: HON'S INQUISITION

By Tim Rohr

Continued from Part 4

Initially Hon (Archbishop Savio Hon Tai-Fai) gave all the right cues. Shortly after arriving in Guam in his appointed capacity as Apostolic Administrator to the Archdiocese of Agana, Hon stated the following on June 26, 2016:

I would like to reassure the faithful and all people of good will that Church has taken into serious consideration the allegations made against Archbishop Anthony Apuron, OFM Cap., in recent months by Mr. Walter Denton, Mrs. Doris Concepcion, Mr. Roy Quintanilla, and Mr. Roland Paul Lizama Sondia, and that all of the relevant documentation received by the Church related to these allegations has been duly sent to the Holy See, which has final authority in cases related to Bishops. I would further like to assure everyone that I have recognized the issues raised by all those concerned and, being deeply moved by the way they expressed themselves, am earnestly praying for them, without prejudice to both the alleged victims and the accused and ask for the prayers and support of the entire Church community.  -  SOURCE

However, Hon's comments during some of his homilies indicated that he thought otherwise, and on Jul. 10, 2016, Hon let slip what he really thought:

Modern societies have sharpened the tools of the law and people may be led to the belief that wrongdoings can be solved simply by lawsuits or the passage of certain Bills.  SOURCE (Note: At this point, Hon was referring to the introduction of legislation that would lift the civil statute of limitations on sexual abuse of minors.)

Within a few weeks, Hon (most likely at the direction of his Kiko-affiliated boss, Cardinal Filoni - aka "The Red Pope") had gone from "praying for them" to vilifying legislation - the sort of legislation that would bring real justice to the aggrieved persons Hon had said he was praying for. 

I wasn't surprised. 

I had appeared before Hon's "inquisition" - otherwise called an apostolic visitation - in January 2015:

(Note: This video is a screenshot recording of the original KUAM video which can be found here. The video shows Hon and his Vatican entourage arriving in Guam and being met by then-Archbishop Apuron and two mayors.)

After the niceties, Hon wasted little time in accusing me of carrying out a vendetta against Apuron for personal reasons. 

I held up my hand to his face and stopped him. I then said - and I remember every word: 

"Look, I'm the father of 11 children and I'm trying to help them go to heaven and I have to fight against priests and bishops like you." 

Needless to say "my" inquisition was over at that point. 

Another bishop escorted me out of the building (the former Carmelite monastery in Tamuning). I'll withhold his name but I will tell you what he said: "That was great. Thank you." 

That bishop knew the real story, but he wasn't allowed to say anything at Hon's inquisition. So he took the opportunity to see me out and encourage me (and others) to keep up the fight - which we did.

(Note: This whole thing, once consolidated into a comprehensive story, would rival "The Name of the Rose" - a novel founded in history, or "The DaVinci Code" - which wasn't.) 

So it was quite clear to me from January 2015 that Hon had not come to Guam to learn the truth and fix the problem. 

Hon had been sent to Guam to get rid of those of us who had exposed the problem. 

And a year and a half later (June 2016) when Hon was assigned to Guam as the Apostolic Administrator after Apuron had fled, I had every reason to believe that he had come back to finish the job: shut down the troublemakers, me, the CCOG, the LFM, etc...and save the NCW and specifically: RMS. *

TO BE CONTINUED

*Redemptoris Mater Seminary

HIGH DRAMA IN THE ARCHDIOCESE OF AGANA - PART 4: THE ROLE OF THE RED POPE

By Tim Rohr

Continued from Part 3

As the Archdiocese of Agana moves forward to a resolution in the matter of its bankruptcy and we watch many church properties, including certain parish churches, placed on the legal chopping block, it is understandable that some, if not many, may resent the most visible players in the outing of decades of clergy sex abuse in this diocese that led to the bankruptcy - including myself and the Concerned Catholics of Guam ("CCOG") as led by David Sablan.

However, it continues to be critical to tell and retell the real story of how this bankruptcy came about since neither I, nor the CCOG, nor any other lay person who came to be involved in this matter began our involvement with the intent to expose clergy sex abuse - since none of us, despite years of rumors, truly had any idea of the depth of the horror that we all later were forced to face. 

No. 

We came to be involved because we saw a gross abuse of power in this archdiocese, which, on the surface, appeared to be the actions of then-Archbishop Apuron, but - as we would quickly discover - were really the actions of foreign agents via the now ex-Fr. Adrian Cristobal.

How Cristobal came to be the actual catalyst in this power drama is a story for another post. For now it is enough to once again demonstrate that it was these same "foreign agents," i.e. "The Kikos," who infiltrated and perverted "the temple" that once was the Archdiocese of Agana. 

For those who need to be reminded, "The Kikos" are the big boys at the top of the Neocatechumenal Way, and so named (by this blog) after their founder, Kiko Arguello. 

On JW, we use the term "The Kikos" to differentiate the "big boys" from the regular folk in the Neocatechumenal Way ("NCW") who simply joined the thing in response to a promise of a deeper faith. (Note: Why that was never possible in the NCW is a topic for another post.)

And so we continue:

The bankruptcy of the Archdiocese of Agana and the loss of many beloved and valued church properties began with the decision by The Red Pope to send his lieutenant to Guam to take over this archdiocese after Apuron ran away in May 2016. 

"The Red Pope" is (or was) Cardinal Fernando Filoni, then-Prefect for the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples:

...currently Cardinal Fernando Filoni – is known as “the red Pope”. SOURCE 

(Note: It is curious that this SOURCE also notes that the same Filoni was opposed to the Vatican financial reforms then-led by the now-dead Cardinal Pell. Soon after Pell initiated his reforms, Pell was falsely accused of sex abuse of minors and was locked up in Australia for a time. Upon those accusations being found false, Pell's release, and Pell's return to Rome to attend the funeral of Pope Benedict XVI...Pell died "after undergoing hip surgery at Rome's Salvator Mundi hospital...")

Really?

(Another Note: The moniker "The Red Pope" doesn't belong to Filoni. It's a quip used to characterize a particular cardinal (cardinals wear red) who has undue influence in the Vatican. In fact, the current "Red Pope" is Cardinal Tagle, Archbishop of Manila.)

But back to 2016 and when all hell was breaking loose in the Archdiocese of Agana, Filoni was the Red Pope and his lieutenant was Archbishop Savio Hon Tai-Fai ("Hon"), who was then Secretary to Filoni. In Vatican lingo, a "Secretary" isn't a typist or a notetaker, he is more like a vice-president. A powerful guy.

There isn't time to link all the previous JW posts wherein Filoni is clearly identified as The Kikos' godfather in Rome. But he was. (And you can search for all that in this blog.) 

And, it didn't take long for us (myself, the CCOG, etc.) to see that Hon was not sent to Guam to be just an "Administrator" in the absence of Apuron. Hon was sent here to put down the "uprising" that threatened the future of the Neocatechumenal power structure in Guam and more specifically - threatened its Redemptoris Mater Seminary.

TO BE CONTINUED - PART 5

HIGH DRAMA IN THE ARCHDIOCESE OF AGANA - PART 3

By Tim Rohr

Continued from Part 2

According to an October 2022 Pacific Daily News story: 

"Attorney Edwin Caldie, representing the Official Committee of Unsecured Creditors, said the Lujan law firm, which led the filing of lawsuits against the archdiocese and priests, played a major role in assisting the first survivors to come forward."

Mr. Caldie can't be faulted for not knowing that this wasn't the case. Caldie only became involved in the matter some years after the "first survivors" came forward, and well after there was a law in place that made it possible for survivors to retain attorneys and sue for damages.

So here's the real story:

When the "first survivors" came forward, namely four - Roy Quintanilla, Walter Denton, Roland Sondia, and Doris Conception in the name of her deceased son, Joseph (Sonny) Quinata - those first four came forward without legal representation. 

In May - June 2016, Roy, Walter, and Roland publicly presented what happened to them, but they had no lawyer at the time. True, all three were accompanied at their public presentations by Atty. David Lujan, but Lujan did not represent them, nor did Lujan organize their presentations. 

Much of what really happened is already set out in the JW series ORCHESTRATED, but it is important to review so that we keep what really happened in full view. 

In May - June of 2016, when Roy, Walter, and Roland came forward and publicly shared what had happened to them as boys, there was no law to protect them and thus nothing a lawyer could do.

Apuron (or more specifically his handlers) knew this, thus the immediate response from Apuron to sue his accusers both civilly and canonically. 

We also knew this, which is why we had to work smart. When I say "we," I refer to myself and a few others, who I will call "The Group," and which had become involved in helping these first four after The Group became aware of who they were and what had happened to them. 

How The Group came to know these first survivors has already been set out in ORCHESTRATED, but in short it was John Toves who put me (Tim) in touch with Walter Denton and then information from Walter led to Roland and Roy, with Doris surfacing on her own after she heard the news from Guam at her home in Arizona.

At the time, there was no thought of suing Apuron personally or the Church, since there was no way to do that anyway. The only thing these four wanted was to meet with Apuron and share how he had hurt them and perhaps procure an apology or some sign of remorse from their tormentor. 

In fact, Roy, Walter, and Roland did not want to go public with their stories at all. They only wanted to meet with Apuron privately. 

I will take the "blame" for convincing them to go public. I was so alarmed by the horrific stories from these three men that I figured there had to be more victims, many more - who were probably suffering for decades in the dark as these three had. I suggested to the three that a public revelation of their stories could help many others like themselves. And so they agreed.

The question was how to do this since The Group knew that Apuron would be sure to sue given that at this point (May 2016), Apuron had ousted Fr. Paul Gofigan (2013) and Msgr. James Benavente (2014) and was pretty much stomping on and destroying anyone who stood up to him and his Kiko-backed machine. 

Again, see ORCHESTRATED for more in depth detail, but once again, in short, a decision was made to arrange for the three men to publicly present their stories on the street across from the DNA building (I forget why we chose that spot), with each man presenting his story at intervals so there would be three separate presentations. I'll explain why we broke it up like this in a minute. 

A decision was also made to "retain" David Lujan to stand next to each of the men and say nothing. And he didn't. Because there was nothing he could say anyway. He was there only for a photo-op. A photo we knew Apuron would see. Note: I put "retain" in quotes because I don't know exactly how Mr. Lujan was recruited.

Again, I must remind the reader that The Group had asked the three men to do something that placed themselves at grave risk of being sued by Apuron. And the only way we could provide some cover for them was to send a message to Apuron that he better think twice. And placing Lujan - one of the best known lawyers in Guam - next to each of these men would "send a message" - we hoped.

In short, it was a bluff, because Lujan had no role but to stand there - as one of The Group liked to put it - like a "cigar store Indian." In fact, even the press fell for the ruse reporting: "Quintanilla was flanked by his attorney David Lujan and others." 

The Group was willing to bet that the bluff would work because we had inside intel that Apuron had known for years - especially given all that had been happening in the states regarding the revelation of clergy sex abuse - that one day his chickens would come home to roost, and in fact, had told his then Vicar General, Msgr. David C. Quitugua, to "get ready."

Now, let me address why we brought each of the three men forward separately and the timing of each.

The Group decided to essentially work backwards from Roland Sondia. Roland would be the last to present. And I will share why in a minute. 

Walter's story was the most damning because not only had he been raped (per his account), but he had run into Apuron many years later in the states as an adult and had confronted Apuron with what he had done to him - which made for an even more damning story. So we didn't want to play our "Ace" first. 

So we went with Roy. Roy had left Guam many years previously and was mostly unknown to anyone in Guam other than his family. But we knew Apuron would know him. And we knew that Apuron, having Roy show up on Guam after 40 years would be the equivalent of Scrooge's "Ghost from Christmas Past." 

In other words, we suspected that the sight of Roy on Guam would unnerve Apuron and he would respond erratically. We were right. Apuron fled Guam the next day after leaving a video message attacking Roy. 

Roy came forward in mid-May 2016. The Group opted not to bring Walter forward until the first week of June and for a practical reason. FestPac was happening right then and we didn't want our spotlight to be compromised by other news. So we waited. 

Walter's story was absolutely damning, as The Group expected it would be, not just because of the horrid details, but because "now there were two." At this point, Apuron surfaced in Rome where he had run to Francis for cover. 

As an aside, it was Apuron's fleeing Guam and running to Rome that essentially incriminated him in the eyes of the public in Guam. Had Apuron simply stayed in Guam and calmly addressed the matter with an "I didn't do it and I'm sorry these men think I did," it probably would have been over as quickly as it started. But Apuron incriminated himself by running away, and especially by running to the pope where a Vatican camera caught him trying to get the pope's attention in St. Peter's Square. 

LINK

Roland's story was the third and final public presentation, and while not as sensational as Walter's, it was the final piece in the credibility question because while Roy and Walter had grown up in Guam (in Agat - thus "The Agat Boys"), both had been absent from Guam for many years and were not familiar names or faces. However, Roland, who had also grown up in Agat, still lived not only in Guam, but still in Agat, and was very well known. 

So there were three stories, all corroborating the one story - that Apuron was an altar boy molester - and it was cemented solid by Roland.

Remember now that this all happened in May - June of 2016. The law lifting the civil statute of limitations that would permit lawyers to get involved would not be enacted until September 2016 - at which point Lujan and others would finally "play a major role."

To be continued - Part 4

HIGH DRAMA IN THE ARCHDIOCESE OF AGANA - PART 2

From a PNC news story: 

Cardinal Paul Cordes and Professor Giuseppe Gennarini are on Guam to teach courses at the Redemptoris Mater Seminary in Yona.

By Tim Rohr

Continued from Part 1

It is quite a public matter that I (Tim Rohr) had much to do with what ended up being the bankruptcy of the Archdiocese of Agana. However, it's time for some history. 

Initially, this blog, JungleWatch, did nothing other than repost stories already in the news. And those stories were not about clergy sex abuse. They were about Archbishop Apuron's actions against Fr. Paul Gofigan and later about Apuron vs Msgr. James Benavente. 

In short, those stories were about Apuron's abuse of episcopal power to crush his own priests. But that is not even the real story. The real story is why Apuron did this. And of course that led JW to begin exposing the actors behind Apuron, the NCW power bosses, the Gennarini's et. al (which heretofore - in this series - shall be labeled "The Kiko's" - so named after NCW founder, Kiko Arguello, and to distinguish the NCW power bosses from sincere NCW members). 

There was no thought of clergy sex abuse in the early going. The only thought was Apuron's abuse of his office, which probably still wouldn't have been an issue but for the fact that it was becoming well-known that Apuron did not have control of his office and that his office - or rather Apuron personally - was in the control of The Kiko's.

All of this was laid out in the JW series ORCHESTRATED, but it is important to bring this back into focus because while the clergy sex abuse matter has almost completely obfuscated the original controversy with the The Kiko's, the matter with The Kiko's has never gone away. They are still here. And waiting. Waiting for another bishop they can control. 

GIUSSEPE GENNARINI: "PERSECUTION (IN GUAM) IS A GRACE

Giuseppe Gennarini: "Persecution" on Guam is a grace. from UndercoverGuam on Vimeo.

To be continued - Part 3

HIGH DRAMA IN THE ARCHDIOCESE OF AGANA - PART 1

By Tim Rohr

Per a message from Fr. Romeo Convocar, Vicar General of the Archdiocese of Agana, it appears that an agreement in its bankruptcy case has been reached and the judge has approved.  

The bankruptcy matter was brought about by the explosion of clergy sex abuse cases, which, per capita, amounted to 14 times the number of cases than what surfaced in the Archdiocese of Boston, a story that led to the movie, "Spotlight," which was nominated for six Academy Awards and won two. 

Given the exponentially larger number of cases in Guam, the high drama of Apuron's public threats to sue those who dared reveal this filthy history, the personal damage to the victims and their supporters wrought by Apuron's "mobsters," and the Pope himself being forced to act directly on removing a bishop - what happened in Guam would make a much better movie. 

The real story in Guam though is not the expose of decades of clerical sex abuse, that's quite a common story these days. No, the real story here is how Guam's faithful lay people, the Catholics in the pews, took it upon themselves to make this happen - even though they knew they would have to pay the bill. 

It wasn't the press, like it was in Boston, and it wasn't lawyers, as it has been in so many places. In fact, in the early going, the press, despite its insatiable appetite for sensationalism, had to be drug, half kicking and screaming, into the ugly matter, and, even then, basically limited its "reporting" to what was already news. In fact, some media people refused to even talk about it. And the lawyers? Well no lawyers came forward until there was big money in it for them. But no surprise there.

No. It was regular people, the Catholics in the pews, who for 54 Sundays in a row, in 2016 to 2017, silently marched in front of the Agana Cathedral during the 9:30 a.m Mass, symbolically "Apuron's Mass" - and labeled "symbolically" because Apuron - who for decades celebrated the 9:30 a.m Mass, had long since fled Guam after his first accuser came forward in May 2016. 

But not only did the common folk march, it was the common folk who pushed through the legislation necessary to pursue justice for the aggrieved - even though not a single perpetrator, including Apuron, would ever have to pay a cent.

So here's a thought, given that the lawyers in the bankruptcy case have already pocketed around Nine Million Dollars off the backs of the common folk who did the heavy lifting in the first place, let's "suggest" that all lawyers involved in this matter give at least 10% of their booty back to the people they took it from - the people who created the opportunity for justice in the first place. 

Their checks can be made payable to Concerned Catholics of Guam, a registered Guam non-profit corporation, which will then, through its board and its members, determine how best to help their Church with those funds - since we can't trust anyone in the chancery to do it. 

And we can even have one of the newspaper photos with a large reproduction of the check being handed to the CCOG officials with large grins all around. 

To be continued - Part 2

Note: The picture is from a PDN news story with the caption: "Leo Tudela, left, whose testimony was instrumental in bringing the scope of Guam’s clergy sex abuse to the public eye, with Edwin Caldie, attorney for the creditors committee, after the Archdiocese of Agana bankruptcy exit plan was approved on Oct. 4, 2022.