Vatican Mission Hears Guam Witnesses

By Haidee V Eugenio and Masako Watanabe
Pacific Daily News
February 16, 2017

http://www.guampdn.com/story/news/2017/02/15/vatican-officials-arrive-chancery-hear-testimony/97969714/

Attorney David Lujan, center, stands with his client Roland Sondia, right, as he addresses a questions from media representatives at the Archdiocese of Agana chancery office in Hagatna on Thursday, Feb. 16, 2017. Sondia, was scheduled to meet with Vatican tribunal members on his case of allegedly being sexually assaulted by Archbishop Anthony Apuron in the 1970s when he served as an altar boy with Apuron at a church in Agat.

A Vatican tribunal sent to Guam as part of Archbishop Anthony S. Apuron’s canonical trial heard from some witnesses Thursday, but didn't directly hear from one of Apuron’s alleged sexual abuse victims.

Deacon Steve Martinez, a former sexual abuse response coordinator — whom Apuron reportedly fired for raising concerns about the archdiocese’s mishandling of sex abuse allegations for several years — was among those deposed by the tribunal. Apuron has denied all sex abuse allegations against him and hasn't been charged criminally, although he’s facing multiple civil lawsuits.

Former altar boy Roland Sondia didn't agree to be deposed by the Vatican team without his counsel, David Lujan, of the law firm of Lujan and Wolff.

Cardinal Raymond Leo Burke, a prominent leader of the Catholic Church’s conservative wing and a seasoned canon lawyer, heads the mission to interview Guam witnesses as part of Apuron’s canonical trial. Burke, who has clashed with Pope Francis on some issues, is the presiding judge in the Apuron trial.

Sondia and Lujan left the Archdiocese of Agana Chancery, where the deposition was being held, after the Rev. Justin M. Wachs told David Lujan the process doesn't allow a witness to bring a lawyer. Wachs serves as the Vatican court reporter for the Apuron trial.

Sondia, who accused Apuron of sexually abusing him during a sleepover at an Agat church rectory in the 1970s, will submit a written declaration next week, David Lujan said.

“Honestly, I really don’t believe that they’re going to change what they have been doing for centuries, you know, to appease me,” David Lujan said.

18th abuse lawsuit

An 18th clergy sex abuse lawsuit was filed Thursday in the U.S. District Court of Guam.

Anthony Lujan, 50, of Barrigada, alleged former island priest Louis Brouillard sexually abused him when he was an altar boy, a Boy Scouts of America scout, and while attending San Vicente Catholic School in or about 1979. He said he was about 12 years old at the time.

Brouillard, now 95 and living in Minnesota, publicly admitted to sexually abusing more than 20 altar boys when he was on Guam from the late 1940s to 1981.

David Lujan said the clergy sex abuse lawsuits could double in the weeks ahead as more victims come forward, including possibly three more accusing Saipan’s Bishop Emeritus Tomas A. Camacho of sexual abuse when he was a priest on Guam decades ago, David Lujan said.