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Concerned Catholics questions priest’s canon law studies

By Haidee V Eugenio
Pacific Daily News
January 16, 2017

http://www.guampdn.com/story/news/2017/01/16/concerned-catholics-questions-priests-canon-law-studies/96419736/

In this 2014 photo, Father Adrian Cristobal gives an opening prayer at All Souls' Day Mass at Guam Memorial Park in Barrigada. He was reassigned to the Umatac church.

Archbishop Michael Jude Byrnes, center, follows closely behind the korosa transporting the Santa Marian Kamalen, or Our Lady of Camarin, statue through the streets of Hagåtña on Dec. 8, 2016.

Members and supporters of the Concerned Catholics of Guam and the Laity Forward Movement protest with signs reading: "Defrock Apuron" and "Hon - No More $$ For RMS" at Dulce Nombre de Cathedral Basilica in Hagatna on July 31, 2016.

A group of Catholics is raising concerns about a recent decision to send a priest to Canada to study canon law. The priest defied an archbishop’s decision to reassign him to Umatac and has been accused of a string of alleged misconduct throughout the years. Canon law governs the Catholic Church.

The Concerned Catholics of Guam Inc. said Father Adrian Cristobal is “one of the most despicable clerics” in the Archdiocese of Agana for his conduct.

A few days before he was to leave Guam, Cristobal said that his being sent to study canon law is “nothing out of the ordinary.” The Concerned Catholics disagrees.

“Father Adrian Cristobal should be disciplined, not rewarded, for lies he has perpetrated that has harmed the Church on Guam. He is one of the priests at the center of this division within our Church,” Concerned Catholics president David Sablan said in a Jan. 10 letter to the Archdiocesan Presbyteral Council.

The council, which is comprised of 11 priests and other clergy, serves as an advisory group to Coadjutor Archbishop Michael Jude Byrnes.

The archdiocese announced that Byrnes decided to send Cristobal to study canon law in Ottawa, Canada.

Sablan told Pacific Daily News Wednesday that for a priest on Guam to study canon law in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada is suspect.

"Why study there of all places?  Why not in the U.S.? There is a Redemptoris Mater Seminary near Toronto, Ontario, just south of Ottawa," Sablan said. On Guam, many Catholics do not agree with the ways of the Neocatechumenal Way, which has controlled the formation of priests at the multimillion Redemptoris Mater Seminary in Yona. The Archdiocese of Agana acknowledged last year the issues associated with the Neocatechumenal Way on Guam and the Yona seminary's control and ownership.

Cristobal's reassignment

In September, Archbishop Savio Hon Tai Fai reassigned priests to new villages and positions, including Cristobal, who was reassigned as pastor of San Dionisio Church in Umatac after years of being pastor of San Vicente Ferrer Catholic Church in Barrigada.

Cristobal, in an Oct. 4 letter to parishioners, said his canonical rights were violated because he was not afforded the right to due process before he was reassigned to another village. The changes were supposed to take effect Sept. 30 but he did not move to his new parish assignment.

The Concerned Catholics, in its 10-page letter to the Council, said sending Cristobal to Canada, in the face of his insubordination after Hon’s assigning him to Umatac seemed not only to condone Cristobal’s misdeeds, but reward him at churchgoers’ expense.

Cristobal, according to Concerned Catholics, cited the need to research canon law to contest his new assignment.

“Hence, two months later, he is being sent to study canon law, the better to contest his assignment. How absurd is this? This is a slap in the face of the people of Umatac, who at this point, probably don’t want Cristobal for their pastor anyway, as he seems to view them to be below his station,” Sablan told the Council.

The Concerned Catholics posed four questions to the Council, including the justification for a decision to send Cristobal to study canon law, the process in which Cristobal and other priests went through before he was selected to study canon law, how Cristobal was admitted to the university so quickly, and whether the Council truly believes Cristobal is deserving of this opportunity over all his fellow priests.

The group said during Archbishop Anthony Apuron’s reign, priests were not given the opportunity to pursue higher education no matter how faithful and meritorious these priests were. The also said sending Cristobal to study canon law is a slap in the face of Guam’s faithful Catholics.

“Proceeding on the basis that Archbishop Byrnes acted out of nescience rather than malice, we are wondering if the Presbyteral Council provided him with advice on this matter? Archbishop Byrnes should have been advised not to make this blunder of rewarding one of the most despicable clerics in the Archdiocese for his misconducts,” Sablan said.

Apuron accusations

Concerned Catholics gave the Council a long list of Cristobal’s alleged lies sent to the media, many of them on behalf of Apuron.

Apuron is now facing a canonical trial at the Vatican, church officials said, after he was accused of sexually abusing altar boys in Agat in the 1970s. Concerned Catholics, along with the Laity Forward Movement, has been calling for Apuron to be defrocked for his alleged sex abuse of children, ill-treatment of priests and parishes and his ties to the Neocatechumenal Way, among other things.

The Archdiocesan Presbyteral Council has yet to respond to requests for comment on the Concerned Catholics letter as of press time.

Contact: heugenio@guampdn.com




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