Archbishop Hon to hold first press conference

By Haidee V Eugenio
Pacific Daily News
July 26, 2016

http://www.guampdn.com/story/news/2016/07/26/archbishop-hon-hold-first-press-conference/87558588/

In this file photo, Archbishop Savio Hon Tai Fai presides over Mass at the Dulce Nombre De Maria Cathedral Basilica in Hagåtña on June 12.

Nearly two months after the Vatican sent him to temporarily oversee the Catholic Church in Guam, Archbishop Savio Hon Tai Fai will not only hold his first press conference but also confirmed that a revision of the local church’s policy for responding to sexual abuse accusations would include language on how to respond to allegations against the archbishop himself.

Hon’s first press conference set for Wednesday morning also comes five days after his name was included as a defendant in a libel and slander lawsuit filed by former altar boys who accused Archbishop Anthony S. Apuron of sexually assaulting them in the late 1970s.

Former altar boys Roy Quintanilla, Walter Denton and Roland Sondia, along with Doris Concepcion, mother of another former altar boy, Joseph Quinata, accused Apuron of sexually molesting altar boys when he was parish priest at the Our Lady of Mount Carmel in Agat.

Through their attorney David Lujan, the former altar boys revised on Friday their $2 million libel and slander lawsuit, naming other defendants and citing more examples in which the local church allegedly defamed them after they made their allegations against Apuron public.

The accusers said Hon, who has temporarily assumed Apuron’s duties in Guam, should be held equally accountable for past statements by the church because the church has not retracted or repudiated any of the statements.

Hon or the Archdiocese of Agana has not disclosed the nature of Wednesday’s press conference to be held at the Dulce Nombre de Maria Cathedral-Basilica in Hagåtña, the facade of which was the site of press conferences held by former altar boys who came out publicly for the first time to accuse Apuron of sexually abusing them nearly four decades ago.

Since the public accusations in May and June, the local church or the Vatican has not released any detail about any investigation into Apuron.

Church law states only the Vatican can investigate an archbishop, but it’s unclear whether an investigation has even started.

Apuron hasn’t been charged with any crime and remains archbishop, but he’s been temporarily stripped of his administrative authority over the Archdiocese of Agana.

In a July 24 public message as apostolic administrator, Hon said there’s no doubt that everybody wants to have good and holy priests but unfortunately, when scandals break out, “we priests appear suspicious of committing something bad or of covering it up.”

“The vast majority of priests are not sex abusers, but almost everyone feels deep down in his or her heart what was felt by St. Paul: ‘For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing,’” Hon said.

Hon said in recent weeks, the Archdiocese of Agana is “learning a lesson and is making great efforts to improve the policy regarding responding to reports of sexual abuse perpetrated by a church official, so as to create a safer environment and to protect the people we serve.”

“The Archdiocesan policy is being revised by the experts and will soon be approved in a meeting of the Presbyteral Council. It will include clear provisions for the event of accusations against the Archbishop himself,” Hon said.

Deacon Steve Martinez, a former sexual abuse response coordinator for the Archdiocese of Agana, has said the church’s sexual abuse policy is weak, flawed and a failed one that needs to be changed.

Martinez said even if Apuron is the one accused of sexual abuse, the archbishop has the sole authority to determine which sexual abuse allegation gets investigated and has the final word on any investigation findings. He said Apuron, as the accused, cannot be the judge himself.

Hon said he’s hoping the policy that’s being revised will heighten awareness and promote transparent and respectable moral behavior.

“Although it is true that sinful priests and bishops can validly celebrate the sacraments, does this necessarily mean that they should continue to be active pastors? Not at all, it all depends on the gravity of the matter and the situation of the pastor concerned,” he said.

Lujan, counsel for the four Apuron accusers, said Hon himself has refused to meet with the former altar boys who accused Apuron of molesting or raping them in Agat in the 1970s.

In a letter, Lujan asked for a copy of the policies and procedures the archdiocese is using in its investigation of Apuron. He also asked Hon, “Where are you hiding Apuron?”

The Apuron accusers’ libel and slander suit named as original defendants Apuron, the Archdiocese of Agana and up to 50 other unnamed individuals for calling these individuals “liars” when they came out publicly to accuse Apuron of sexually abusing them or their loved ones when they were altar boys.

The archdiocese also has a new sexual abuse response coordinator — Deacon Leonard “Len” Stohr.

The response coordinator post, previously held by Deacon Larry Claros, is a member of a group in the local Catholic church charged with reviewing sexual abuse allegations.

Hon also talked about a long practice in the church that pastors who, because of their wrongdoings in grave matters or because of poor health, spiritual weakness or a very bad reputation, “should choose to renounce their pastoral responsibility in public and to serve the people of God by prayers alone.”

Hon added: “Then there are others who, though having sinned, yet after due penance, healing, and reconciliation could be restored to public service. It is Christ who calls, but it is the Church that discerns."

The Vatican-sent archbishop also talked about the division in the church, which, he said, is always painful, “especially when allegations of sexual abuse against some clergy become added cause for further divisions.”

“In this situation, as priests we naturally all feel somehow beaten, humiliated, and frustrated,” Hon said.

Roy Quintanilla is back in Guam this week for the first time since May, when he became the first former altar boy to publicly accuse Apuron of sexually molesting him in the 1970s in Agat.

Quintanilla, who now lives in Hawaii, will testify Thursday morning on a substitute version of a bill lifting the time limit on filing lawsuits against child molesters.

Denton, Sondia and Concepcion testified on the original version of the bill a few weeks ago. Sondia lives in Guam, while Denton and Concepcion live in Arizona.