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Blas Did Right with Bill

By Tim Rohr
Pacific Daily News
December 3, 2016

http://www.guampdn.com/story/opinion/readers/2016/12/03/opinion-blas-did-right-bill/94853958/



In his post-election analysis on a local news show, Guam pollster Ron McNinch attributed Sen. Frank Blas Jr.’s loss to his introduction of a bill lifting the civil statute of limitations on crimes involving child sexual abuse of minors.

McNinch may be right, but so what.

Guam has a problem ­— a big one. Last year the Pacific Daily News reported that Guam has twice the rape rate of the rest of the nation and noted that 80 percent of Guam’s registered sex offenders have assaulted a child. Another news source labeled the rate of child abuse on Guam “a frightening epidemic.”

In response to this horror, we have had the usual fare of roundtables, candle lightings, awareness weeks, education efforts and general legislative hand-wringing, but the papers keep telling us one horror story after another.

Recently the horror got more horrible as we learned of the unimaginable alleged assaults on young boys in the 1970s by the priest who would become Guam’s archbishop for three decades.

According to his accusers, now-Archbishop Anthony S. Apuron used his position to seduce, molest and rape innocent altar boys, and then threatened them into a torturous decades-long silence that haunted and broke their lives.

As the “boys” — now in their 50s — began to come forward beginning in May, Apuron threatened to sue them into silence. Without the benefit of a law permitting them to hold Apuron accountable, the accusers were doomed to be crushed under Apuron’s episcopal jackboot.

Into the middle of this stepped Blas. After being amended in committee to include institutional liability, Blas’ Bill 326-33 raced through the Legislature and on to unanimous passage like nothing some experienced senators said they had ever seen.

But at the outset, there was no guarantee of such support for Blas. In fact, he stood alone. By introducing Bill 326-33, Blas pitted himself against Guam’s most powerful person: the Archbishop of Agana.

In this Sept. 8 file photo, Sen. Frank Blas Jr., center, speaks after receiving a petition with over 3,000 signatures from Silent No More campaign founder Joe Santos, during a brief ceremony at the Guam Legislature in Hagatna. (Photo: PDN file photo)

Not only did Apuron, metropolitan archbishop of Agana, have access to all the resources of the archdiocese to take down his opponents, he also had the backing of the “dons” of the Neocatechumenal Way who controlled immense financial resources as well as a gaggle of red hats in the Vatican.

And then, too, there was the “elephant in the room” — the cultural taboo on speaking against the clergy.

Over the months since the first abuse victims came forward, other victims who preferred to keep their names out of the news, shared (with me) how they were slapped, ridiculed, cussed at and otherwise shamed into silence by their own parents and grandparents at the slightest hint of clergy misbehavior.

One of these victims was a teenage girl who was raped by her pastor. Another, a seventh-grader, was asked (by the same pastor) if she knew what a “69” was and was told to come to the rectory after school to find out. (The pastor got scared when she showed up with a friend.)

Another was grabbed and fondled. Several others had stories about their brother, sister, even their mother. In one case, a priest having an affair with a mother, raped the daughter while he was at it. But, as one woman told me, there was a belief that you would “get sick” if you spoke out against a priest.

Into all this, Blas stepped. To my knowledge, two other senators had already been asked to introduce the bill. Both ran. Blas did not.

Blas may have lost this election, but there is a much greater probability that he lost because he was on the wrong side of the pay raises (rather) than anything having to do with his desire to protect children from monsters.

The final proof of this is that the archdiocese, even with the full force of the pulpit, failed in its attempt to petition the governor to veto the bill.

On Sept. 12, Gov. Eddie Calvo signed Blas’ bill into law, permitting at least four men (one posthumously), to finally seek justice.

Even if it did cost Blas the election, so what.

Tim Rohr is a resident of Agat.

 

 

 

 

 




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