Group of Catholics Protest at Yona Seminary

By Haidee V Eugenio
Pacific Daily News
October 12, 2016

http://www.guampdn.com/story/news/2016/10/12/group-catholics-protest-yona-seminary/91934108/

Members of the Leity forward Movement, including Lou Klitzkie, at right, hold a protest at the Redemptoris Mater Seminary in Yona on Wednesday.

A group of women Catholics held a protest at the Redemptoris Mater Seminary in Yona Wednesday, saying they believe Archbishop Anthony S. Apuron and the Rev. Pius Sammut, the highest official in the Neocatechumenal Way hierarchy on Guam, are back on island and staying there.

Sammut on Wednesday said he is back on island, but said Apuron is not here as far as he knows.

Apuron, who has not been seen in public on Guam since late May, faces a canonical trial at the Vatican for allegedly sexually abusing altar boys in the 1970s in Agat.

Pope Francis placed Apuron on leave on June 6 and sent Archbishop Savio Hon Tai Fai to temporarily administer the local Catholic church.

Lou Klitzkie, president of the Laity Forward Movement, led more than a dozen Catholics, some of them holding “Defrock Apuron” signs.

Klitzkie said the group's main goal is to have the seminary, controlled by the Neocatechumenal Way, returned to the archdiocese.

But she said their Wednesday protest at the seminary was prompted by information that Apuron and Sammut are staying at the massive facility in Yona.

“We found out that Pius and Apuron are hiding in there. We want to see them and we want to ask Apuron questions,” she said. “Why did he give away the RMS to the Neocatechumenal Way? Return the RMS to the Archdiocese of Agana. It’s not for him to give away.”

Dr. Ricardo Eusebio, a member of the RMS board of directors and a member of the Neocatechumenal Way for 19 years, will be holding a press conference at 2:30 p.m. Thursday at the seminary library to respond to an archdiocesan committee report about the state of the seminaries on Guam.

The report was critical of the Yona seminary's operations.

At least two seminarians closed the seminary's big wooden door on the group Wednesday morning.

“They didn’t want us to see what’s happening in there. Why is it so secretive in there? They’re hiding Apuron and Pius in there. That’s why they closed the doors on us,” Klitzkie said.

That’s when the group started asking, “Why?” “What are you hiding in there?” “Where is Apuron?” “Where is Sammut?” “Don’t you know that this is church property? Everybody should be welcome.”

Dolores Camacho, 78, said the seminarians shouldn’t have closed the door on the Laity Forward Movement.

“What’s there to hide? We we wanted this back to the Archdiocese of Agana. It belongs to us Catholics,” she added.

Klitzkie said if Apuron is back, he should apologize to his victims. Former altar boys started coming forward in May, public accusing Apuron of raping and sexually molesting them in the 1970s.

Ernie Perez, 65, also of the Laity Forward Movement, said she was expecting that the seminary would at least ask them their reason for visiting, but instead closed the door on them.