Vatican visit puts global spotlight on Guam allegations

By Haidee V Eugenio
Pacific Daily News
February 21, 2017

http://www.guampdn.com/story/news/2017/02/20/vatican-visit-puts-global-spotlight-guam-allegations/98179820/

Cardinal Raymond Leo Burke

Roy T. Quintanilla

A Vatican tribunal’s visit to Guam, as part of Archbishop Anthony S. Apuron’s ongoing canonical penal trial, has drawn international attention to the island’s clergy sex abuse lawsuits, even as an Apuron accuser said he didn’t meet with the Vatican mission in Hawaii.

Roy T. Quintanilla, 52 and now living in Honolulu, was the first former altar boy in May 2016 to publicly accuse Apuron of sexually abusing him in Agat in the 1970s.

Quintanilla said Tuesday he didn't provide testimony to the Vatican tribunal in Honolulu because his attorney, David Lujan, wasn't allowed to be present. He said he will submit a written declaration to the Vatican, as his attorney advised.

The tribunal, led by Cardinal Raymond Leo Burke, was on Guam Feb. 16-18 to get testimony from witnesses in the Apuron canonical penal trial process.

The visit drew attention from international media and groups dealing with the Catholic abuse crisis worldwide, from Rome to Washington, D.C.

While the Burke mission received testimony from other witnesses on Guam, it didn’t hear from former altar boy Roland Sondia, because the Vatican team wouldn’t allow Sondia to be accompanied by his counsel, Lujan.

Lujan told reporters last week that without his presence, his other clients accusing Apuron won’t testify in person to the Vatican tribunal.

Quintanilla said he’s thankful for the Guam community’s continued support for him and other childhood sexual abuse survivors. He also said he's glad the Vatican is now taking steps to address his and others’ allegations against Apuron and other clergy.

“I’m just glad they’re doing what I had hoped they would do,” Quintanilla said. “I hope and pray for everybody to get justice. I want justice to be done. I want everybody to be protected. I want the best for all so we can all move on and continue to be faithful Catholics. That's what this is all about.”

Quintanilla said he hopes the Archdiocese of Agana is now dealing with clergy abuse cases better and is taking steps to prevent abuse.

“It’s important to me that we do the right thing. I hope other people (who came forward), when they look back, could say they did the right thing for everybody,” he said. “I hope the church will do better. If this is what it takes for the archdiocese to do better, then it’s all worth it. I’m confident they will do better now.”

Since Quintanilla came forward in May 2016 to publicly accuse Apuron of sexual abuse, three others also came forward to accuse Apuron, including the mother of a now deceased altar boy and two other former altar boys, Sondia and Walter Denton. Denton, now living in Arizona, said Apuron raped him.

The Archdiocese of Agana has formed a task force to help prevent and address clergy abuses, and has adopted a charter to protect minors and young people.

The archdiocese also has assembled a legal defense team from Guam and U.S. law firms to represent it in at least 18 clergy sex abuse cases. Lujan had said the number of lawsuits could double in the weeks ahead.

Media coverage of the Vatican team’s visit to Guam also focused on Burke, Rome's handpicked presiding judge in the Apuron trial.

“Cardinal Burke sent to Guam to oversee sex abuse trial” and “Cardinal Burke denies mission in Guam is a ‘punishment’,” are just examples of stories carried worldwide.

“The Agaña archdiocese is a traumatized community. Justice, accountability, and healing are desperately needed — the stakes for the cardinal's visit could not be higher,” said Anne Barrett Doyle, co-director of BishopAccountability.org, a Massachusetts-based information resource that gathers documents and data about the clergy sex abuse crisis in the Catholic Church.

Burke, a canon lawyer, is a leader of the Catholic Church’s conservative wing and has clashed with Pope Francis on a host of issues. BishopAccountability.org and the Illinois-based Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, or SNAP, said Burke may not be good news for Apuron’s accusers and other clergy abuse survivors.

“Sending Burke to Guam has garnered international attention. That is vitally important for every survivor on Guam, no matter the abuser,” said Joelle Casteix, SNAP’s volunteer western regional director. She said Burke may not be the right person for the job of a presiding judge.

James, Vernon & Weeks PA, a law firm with offices in Seattle and Idaho, and Hawaii-based law firm Rosenberg McKay Hoffman, are the latest to team up with a Guam-based attorney, Anthony C. Perez, in reaching out to childhood sexual abuse survivors.

Months ago, Guam’s Dooley Roberts Fowler & Visosky LLP also partnered with Seattle-based Attorney Michael Pfau, of the law firm of Pfau Cochran Vertetis Amala. Pfau has represented hundreds of clergy abuse survivors in multiple states.

Guam-based Lujan and Wolff has so far been the only law firm to file clergy sex abuse cases in federal court.

Two California-based law firms have been tapped by the Guam law office of John C. Terlaje in representing the Archdiocese of Agana in clergy abuse cases — Weintraub Tobin Chediak Coleman Grodin, and Swanson & McNamara.