Former altar boys sue Guam archbishop

By Mar-Vic Cagurangan
Marianas Variety
November 02, 2016

http://www.mvariety.com/cnmi/cnmi-news/local/90418-former-altar-boys-sue-guam-archbishop

HAGATNA — A new Guam law that lifted the statute of limitation on sex abuse cases has spawned lawsuits against local Catholic Church officials accused of molesting former altar boys almost five decades ago.

“It is each victim’s hope that the filing of the lawsuits will bring positive change in the lives of all victims of abuse resulting in a cleansing and healing of decades-old feelings of fear, embarrassment, shame, hatred, bitterness and blaming of oneself,” said David Lujan, the attorney who represents former altar boys Roland Sondia, Roy Quintanilla, Walter Danton, and Leo Tudela.

Sondia, Quintanilla and Danton filed the civil lawsuit against Archbishop Anthony Apuron, whom they accused of molesting them when he was a priest at Mount Carmel Parish in Agat in the 1970s. Tudela named Father Louis Brouillard as his alleged molester.

“The lawsuits,” Lujan said, “will cause the church to remove the cancer caused by these pedophile priests and restore the Catholic Church to its rightful glory.”

The lawsuits, filed in Superior Court, also named the Archdiocese of Agana as a defendant.

The plaintiffs seek jury trials for damages in sums to be determined during the court proceedings.

In a statement released following the filing of the lawsuits, the Archdiocese of Agana said it “takes the issue of sexual abuse very seriously.”

The archdiocese said it is taking specific steps to address the issue including the establishment of a Victim Support Group and the setting up of a trust fund to address the needs of the survivors of clergy sexual abuse.

“As a church and the body of Christ, we want the survivors to be loved and healed by God in Christ. We pray and reach out to the survivors. They do not have to suffer in silence anymore. We hear their cries and feel their suffering,” the statement read.

The archdiocese also urged “anyone who has been the victim of sexual abuse, by a priest or any other person within the Church, or Catholic schools and other organizations,” and those with pertinent information, to “please contact your pastor or priest or the Victim Support Group.”

The archdiocese has established an expanded Support Group for victims to receive free counseling, to do whatever is necessary to help heal the suffering and bring closure as much as possible.

Church officials earlier warned that the enactment of the sex-abuse law is likely to open the floodgates for lawsuits against the Archdiocese of Agana, and cause the local church to collapse financially.

But Lujan said “the lawsuits will not cause the destruction of the church. After all the church has outlived every empire and civil government known to man, the church will reform itself and become even greater.”

Lujan said that despite the lawsuits, none of the victims has thought of leaving the Catholic Church, despite their decision to take ecclesiastic officials to court.

In related news, the Vatican has appointed Detroit Regional Bishop Michael Byrnes as the coadjutor archbishop of the Archdiocese of Agana, making him the likely replacement for Archbishop Apuron who is awaiting canonical trial in Rome.