BishopAccountability.org

New lawsuit accuses Capuchin friar of sexual abuse

By Mindy Aguon
Guam Daily Post
April 12, 2017

https://www.postguam.com/news/local/new-lawsuit-accuses-capuchin-friar-of-sexual-abuse/article_020b6d2e-1f3b-11e7-8c26-1f99c72c36f7.html

PROTEST: Palm Sunday saw around 40 people continue to walk the picket line in front of the Dulce Nombre de Maria Cathedral-Basilica, Sunday, April 9, amid a rising number of sex abuse allegations.
Photo by David Castro

“The lawsuit against the Capuchins marks a new chapter in the Guam Catholic clergy abuse crisis." – Michael Pfau, attorney

Allegations of sexual abuse have been raised against a former priest on Guam who is credited with having established the altar boy program at Mount Carmel Catholic Church in the early 1970s.

A civil lawsuit, filed by an individual with the initials “J.M.,” alleges Father Sigmund Hafemann sexually abused the plaintiff while he was a parishioner at the Agat church.

Hafemann is credited with establishing the altar boy program at Mount Carmel Catholic Church, said the plaintiff's local counsel, Kevin Fowler, who filed the lawsuit on Wednesday in the Superior Court of Guam.

The victim, who is now 54, alleges he was first abused when he was 10, when he accompanied his mom while she cleaned the church. 

Hafemann allegedly abused his position as a priest to sexually abuse the boy and continued the sexual molestation and abuse for three years while teaching Confraternity of Christian Doctrine classes at the Agat parish.

This is the first of dozens of civil complaints filed against the Archdiocese of Agana that also names the Capuchin Franciscans as a defendant in the case. The Capuchin Franciscans are a religious order with its own set of rules and leadership separate from the Archdiocese of Agana.

The archdiocese and Capuchins engaged in “extreme and outrageous conduct” by providing Hafemann, a known serial sexual child predator, with direct access to children, the lawsuit states.

“The lawsuit against the Capuchins marks a new chapter in the Guam Catholic clergy abuse crisis,” attorney Michael Pfau of mainland law firm Pfau Cochran Vertetis Amala said. 

The complaint alleges the defendants “knew or should have known” that Hafemann posed a threat of “foreseeable harm” to their client and other young boys, but failed to take reasonable steps to protect the minors from that harm.

Attorney Fowler said the altar boy program Hafemann is credited with establishing is the same program that provided access to altar boys who allege they were later abused by Archbishop Anthony Apuron between 1976 and 1978.

Hafemann left Guam in 1976 and served in parishes in New York, New Hampshire and Florida before he died in 1996, according to an online obituary posted by the Capuchin Franciscans. 

The lawsuit seeks a jury trial and damages to be determined at trial.




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