Byrnes Responds to Recent Sex Abuse Cases

Guam Daily Post
March 3, 2017

https://www.postguam.com/news/local/byrnes-responds-to-recent-sex-abuse-cases/article_66fd3b3c-ff19-11e6-9e40-f784912e1b84.html



Coadjutor Archbishop Michael Byrnes has asked Catholics in Guam to pray for all victims of clergy sexual abuse.

In a statement issued yesterday, Byrnes reacted to the latest five lawsuits filed in the District Court of Guam against the Archdiocese of Agana and former clergy who worked in parishes around the island.

Children must be 'safeguarded'

"With every person or persons who come forward to share accounts of being abused by clergy in the Catholic Church on Guam, each of us should grieve deeply," Byrnes said. "Sexual abuse of children, no matter when or where it occurred, represents a betrayal of trust and harm of the worst kind; it has a devastating impact on the victim."

The archbishop said everyone in the Catholic Church must ensure that children entrusted to its care are "stringently safeguarded" from abuse or harm of any kind.

The archdiocese has implemented mandatory training on sexual abuse prevention, reporting and background checks of all its employees and volunteers, after it adopted the United States Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People.