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Catholic lay organizations prepare for legal action on Yona property
By Neil Pang
As the weekly protests by Catholic activists continued yesterday outside the Dulce Nombre de Maria Cathedral-Basilica, leadership of the respective lay organizations said they are preparing to take legal action in order to return control of the Redemptoris Mater Seminary property in Yona to the Archdiocese of Agana. Beyond the recent allegations of child sexual abuse leveled against Archbishop Anthony Apuron in May, the return of the seminary has been a central point of contention for the past couple of years. David Sablan, president of Concerned Catholics of Guam, said a five-year window in which a complaint can be filed with the Superior Court of Guam to contest the declaration of deed restriction will close on Nov. 21. According to Sablan, there is a five-year statute of limitations on filing such complaints with the Superior Court of Guam. "The statute of limitations on filing a complaint in Superior Court to have the Yona property returned to the patrimony of the Church will expire on 21 Nov. 2016," Sablan said. "We have five years from the date the Declaration of Deed Restriction was filed with the Department of Land Management on 22 Nov. 2011 to file a complaint in Superior Court to get the property back, and rightfully keep it as an asset of the Archdiocese of Agana." Never signed Post archives show that attempts by lay organizations to return the Yona property to the Archdiocese of Agana have been ongoing since at least 2015. Archbishop Anthony Apuron, who was accused of giving the property away, was presented with documents in November 2015 that, if signed by him, would authorize the return of the title of the RMS property and its value to the archdiocese. However, Apuron never signed the documents. CCOG has repeatedly claimed that the RMS property is not the property of the Archdiocese of Agana and that ownership of the property was relinquished by Apuron under clandestine conditions outside the purview of ecclesiastical law and against the advisement of the then-Archdiocesan Finance Council, Sablan said. “It was done covertly to hide the fact that Apuron was directly conspiring against the Holy See,” Sablan said previously. In 2015, the group hired lawyer Jacques Bronze to look into the ownership of the property. CCOG said Bronze opined that control of the property rests not with the archbishop but with a board of guarantors. In the opinion, Bronze wrote that "in light of the significant governance problems surrounding giving veto powers to voting shareholders in for-profit corporations, the granting of such broad veto powers to an unelected, unremovable board of guarantors in a nonprofit corporation is a very poor corporate governance practice and can lead to significant abuse." Archbishop Savio Hon Tai Fai, apostolic administrator of the Archdiocese of Agana, addressed concerns surrounding the RMS property dispute in August. He reported findings presented to him and the Archdiocese’s Presbyteral Council detailing the current status of the seminary property. "The 'property' was no doubt acquired by the archdiocese, and yet its use has been conceded in perpetuity to RMS and the Blessed Diego Theological Institute," he said. "I request that community which now enjoys in perpetuity the use of the 'property' to spontaneously and effectively renounce, without any litigation, such a benefit obtained from the Archdiocese of Agana," Hon said on Aug. 18. Sablan told the Post that CCOG has been gathering evidence to file the complaint in court and that they expect to put their case together before the expiration of the statute of limitations in November. Sablan said that CCOG has kept the archdiocese abreast of their work. In the pursuit of that end, other lay organizations have reported their efforts to support CCOG's proposed legal action. Lou Klitzkie of the Laity forward Movement, reported that a fundraiser held last week Friday was a great success and that the funds raised would go to CCOG in support of their "legal battle." Another opinion Other groups have said that opinions expressed by CCOG are unfounded. The board of directors of RMS held a press conference Oct. 13, at the RMS where they responded to conclusions drawn from a report concerning the validity of RMS as a viable seminary. Of note, their response referenced the Bronze opinion and referred to it as merely the opinion of one lawyer. "The Bronze opinion, argues that the property has been alienated, and therefore, the seminary is no longer diocesan, is unfounded and ridiculous," said Dr. Ricardo Eusebio, member of the RMS board of directors. Eusebio said that the Yona property is owned by the Archdiocese of Agana and referenced a number of sources including the judgment of the Pontifical Council of Legislative Texts by Bishop Arrieta which stated that no alienation occurred, the certificates of title confirming ownership by the Archdiocese of Agana issued by the government of Guam through the Department of Land Management, the RMS Articles of Incorporation which state that the archbishop is the sole administrator and a legal opinion that he said is often overlooked. "The opinion of the Lewis-Roca law firm, specialized in corporation sole laws, (stated) that the ordinary (Apuron) never lost control of the property or of the corporation and that therefore the restriction of use, decreed by the ordinary to establish the juridical person of the seminary and to protect its stability, can be freely revoked by the ordinary or his successor," Eusebio said. Contact: neil@postguam.com
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