Archbishop must be transparent

By Gregory D. Perez
Pacific Daily News
April 19, 2015

http://www.guampdn.com/article/20150419/OPINION02/304190007/Archbishop-must-transparent

Archbishop Anthony Apuron

In the latest incident involving a sexual abuse scandal to hit the Catholic Church in Guam, there seems to be a lack of transparency with the leadership of the Church in accepting its responsibility and role in the incident. Once again, our confidence and trust is being shaken and tested.

Archbishop Apuron is the head of the Catholic Church in Guam. It is under his watch that all these problems are cropping up. It is his responsibility to show leadership and "clean up his house" of all these problems -- from the lack of financial transparency to its handling of clergy sex abuse. And in this latter case, a mishandling of it could be financially disastrous to our archdiocese.

In the United States alone, billions of dollars in claims have been paid out over the past 50 years in Boston, Los Angeles, Brooklyn, New Orleans, New York and elsewhere because of their denying, running, hiding, lying, concealing, manipulating, deceiving and pretending that all is well and not to worry. Should we wait until lawsuits are brought against the Archdiocese of Agana before any action is taken to clean house?

In the case of Fr. Luis Camacho, we see absence of proper training by the Redemptoris Mater Seminary, or RMS, of its young men to be ordained as priests and sent out into parishes as pastors. We seriously ask: Are the seminary's "formators" screening these seminarians for the difficult task of being pastors in our parishes -- before they are ordained as priests?

Are they tested psychologically to make sure they can withstand the rigors of celibacy and focus on saving souls and not taking advantage of parishioners entrusted to their religious care? Are they thoroughly vetted to ensure that they are responding to a call from God to serve his people as Catholic parish priests? Do these young priests have all the training, scholastic credentials and quality of character to be parish priests after spending so many years of priestly formation at RMS?

We see at fault here, not just the deviant pastor, but the Archbishop and the Redemptoris Mater Seminary's "formators" as well. Apparently, Fr. Camacho was not ready to be ordained as a priest, notwithstanding he spent 10 years in formation at RMS.

Could there be others like him who are still "wet behind the ears" but get ordained and thrown out as pastors anyway? An audit of the formation program and instructions needs to be done. Did the Vatican delegation which visited here last January do that? If they did, and discovered what we are seeing, it would have made sense that they would have closed down the seminary!

This is too serious a matter to continue to ordain seminarians to the priesthood who lack the skills and spiritual strength to be men of high moral character.

It seems the Neocatechumenal Way, which is the foundation of how these seminarians are formed, is more concerned with the number of priests or presbyters being ordained to work in their "communities" rather than developing priests of strong character and are committed to their calling to serve God and his Church. I implicate the Neocatechumenal Way here because by the very words of its Articles of Incorporation, it is stated that the RMS was created "for the training of priests in the Neocatechumenal Way."

It is so sad that many Catholics of Guam who are supporting the Church through the various donations and collections are not fully aware that they are de facto supporting the formation of priests in the Neocatechumenal Way at RMS.

Until there is transparency as to who these professors and "formators" are who teach at the seminary in Yona -- what are their credentials, and are they following the tenets of St. John Lateran Institute in Rome which determines the curriculum of priestly formation and instruction -- informed Catholics should be reluctant to give any contribution to that seminary, through the annual archdiocesan appeal and any other form of fundraiser for that seminary, its residents and seminarians.

We encourage the archbishop to be upfront, honest and transparent in owning up to his role, his duties and obligations in this matter. Should we wait until lawsuits are brought against the Archdiocese of Agana before transparency and corrective measures are taken? Let's not follow the trend set by archdioceses and dioceses elsewhere, which will surely put our archdiocese on track to bankruptcy.

But every allegation of sexual abuse by the clergy will expose the archdiocese to claims that it may not be able to afford.