Church Sex Abuse Allegations Must Be Investigated

Guam Daily Post
August 5, 2016

http://www.postguam.com/forum/editorial/church-sex-abuse-allegations-must-be-investigated/article_4381e294-5a04-11e6-9d13-7782b6b6ce0a.html

The accusations of the sex abuse of children by members of the Catholic clergy on Guam must be investigated and those who perpetrated and enabled such heinous activity must be exposed and brought to some semblance of justice.

On Monday, 73-year-old Leo Tudela accused three members of the clergy, by name, of sexually abusing him in the 1950s. His allegations followed those made in the last few months against Archbishop Apron who has been accused of molesting four altar servers when he was a parish priest at Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church in Agat in the 1970s.

It is our understanding that the allegations against Apuron are being investigated by the Vatican and we expect that the results of that investigation will be made known. We also expect that Apuron will return to Guam to face the lawsuit that has been filed against him by his accusers. We understand that he has not been charged with a crime, at least in part because of statutes of limitations. But the accusations against him are serious and must be investigated.

The accusations made by Tudela are particularly troubling. We have since learned that Rev. Louis Brouillard, who was named by Tudela as one of his molesters, was transferred to Minnesota after 33 years of ministry in Guam, and within four years he was removed from active ministry. He was later named by the Diocese of Duluth as a priest who had been “credibly accused” of the sexual abuse of young persons.

If the allegations raised by Tudela are true – and the sanctions in Minnesota support them – it is unlikely that he was the only victim, or that Brouillard did not engage in predatory behavior between the 1950s and his arrival in Minnesota in 1981.

It is not only the Catholics of Guam that have a right to know whether members of their clergy are engaged in such evil behavior. The sexual molestation of children is not only morally abhorrent, it is criminal. The community has an obligation to ensure that its children are not the victims of such predatory behavior. The truth about what has happened and, more importantly, what may be happening, must be made known, the victims must be protected and healed, and the perpetrators brought to justice.

If the church is to have any credibility as a force for good, it must help to heal the sex abuse victims and it must cooperate to bring the perpetrators to justice. It must similarly determine who allowed the victimization to take place – by ignoring, by failing to report or by shielding the predators – and hold them accountable.