Church Critics Protest at Itc

By Neil Pang
Guam Daily Post
July 23, 2016

http://www.postguam.com/news/local/church-critics-protest-at-itc/article_6c04460e-4ff9-11e6-aa70-0f489a22b804.html

Members of the Concerned Catholics of Guam (CCOG) and the Laity Forward Movement (LFM) staged a wave protest at the ITC Intersection in Tamuning on Friday, July 22, reiterating their call for a more responsive apostolic administration and the defrocking of Archbishop Anthony Apuron.

The new protest action, according to Lou Klitzkie of LFM, was prompted by a new memo issued by the Archdiocese of Agana, involving the Archdiocese Annual Appeal (AAA).

The memo, signed by the Apostolic Administrator Savio Hon Tai Fai and addressed to "all pastors, rectors and parochial administrators,” indicated that the AAA failed to meet its collection target of $250,000 for 2016.

According to the memo, the AAA collection for this year hit only $85,552.44, falling far below the goal.

Fai asked that the memo be read during Mass to encourage generous tithing.

The AAA provides subsidizing and funds for clerical training and the work of chaplains in hospital and prison ministries, according to the memo.

Klitzkie and others object to the use of those funds for clerical training through the Redemptoris Mater Seminary (RMS) because, under the direction of Archbishop Apuron, it began focusing on the teachings of the Neocatechumenal Way, which many believe diverges too greatly from core Catholic ideology.

Featured prominently at yesterday's protests were signs new to their picketing repertoire. The words "Hon - No More $$ For RMS" were blazoned on signs and shouted at passersby.

Vanjie Lujan, a member of the Concerned Catholics, said she never quite knew what it meant to be the "soldier of faith" that one becomes during the religious rite of passage that is confirmation until she became involved in fighting for a tradition of belief that she felt was being threatened. Lujan was certainly not alone in that feeling as she pointed at similar protestors across the street – one of whom was even wheelchair-bound.

"We're going to keep at it," Lujan said. "We'll be out here as long as it takes."