Concerned Catholics call for return of seminary property to archdiocese

By Kyle Daly
Pacific Daily News
August 22, 2016

http://www.guampdn.com/story/news/2016/08/21/live-concerned-catholics-hold-press-conference/89088358/

Concerned Catholics of Guam President David Sablan speaks during a press conference in Tamuning on Monday, Aug. 22. Sablan expressed the organization's reaction to the statements made by temporary Guam Archbishop Savio Tai Fai Hon regarding the Redemptoris Mater Seminary in Yona. Photo by Rick Cruz

The president of a group that has repeatedly called for the removal of Guam’s archbishop said Monday that a nonprofit organization that has a deed to use Yona property on which a seminary sits should return the property to the local archdiocese.

David Sablan, president of the Concerned Catholics of Guam, held a press conference Monday afternoon in Tamuning.

Sablan’s remarks were a response to a statement released last week by Archbishop Savio Hon Tai Fai regarding the property. Hon currently oversees the local archdiocese. He was put in charge of the archdiocese after several allegations of sexual abuse were made against Guam’s archbishop, Anthony S. Apuron, earlier this summer.

In a written statement released last week, Hon said Apuron didn’t follow instructions by Pope Francis to rescind and annul a deed restriction on the property, which the Concerned Catholics have said is valued between $40 million and $70 million.

The deed gives Redemptoris Mater Seminary, a Guam nonprofit corporation, the authority to use the property indefinitely.

Sablan, on Monday, reiterated statements that the Concerned Catholics made in October 2015 that the deed conveying the property to RMS was recorded at the Department of Land Management by Apuron in November 2011, without the knowledge of the Archdiocesan Finance Council, nor the Vatican, which, the group has said, is required by church law to give their consent before such a major transaction is made.

Sablan said Hon’s announcement fell short of actually getting back the property from the RMS corporation.

He said Hon is asking RMS to return the property. Sablan, however, said Concerned Catholics could take the matter to court if the property is not returned.

“It is time to return the property back to the Archdiocese of Agana,” he said. “It is time for the RMS corporation to do the right thing and sign the deed to return the property back to the Archdiocese of Agana.”