Mother of Deceased Altar Boy: It's Now up to Vatican

By Haidee V Eugenio,
Pacific Daily News
April 27, 2017

http://www.guampdn.com/story/news/2017/04/27/mother-deceased-altar-boy-s-now-up-vatican/100963992/

[with video]

Doris Y. Concepcion said Thursday it is now up to Rome to decide Archbishop Anthony S. Apuron’s fate, after she testified before a Vatican tribunal about Apuron’s alleged sexual abuse of her son in the 1970s.

Concepcion said her deceased son, Joseph “Sonny” A. Quinata, shortly before he died 12 years ago, told her that Apuron molested him when he was an altar boy in Agat.

“I did what I have and needed to do from the get-go. All I ever wanted from all this was to expose Apuron and have him defrocked,” said Concepcion, now living in Prescott, Arizona.

The Vatican tribunal led by Cardinal Raymond Leo Burke received Concepcion’s personal testimony in Arizona in March, followed on March 17 in California by former altar boy Walter Denton, who accused Apuron of raping him in a church rectory when he was 13 in 1977.

The tribunal is handling Apuron’s canonical penal trial. Apuron, who was suspended by Pope Francis on June 6, also is being sued in civil court for allegedly sexually abusing four former altar boys — including Denton and Quinata — when he was parish priest at the Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church in Agat in the 1970s.

“I know this is what Sonny would have wanted Walter and I to do. They were both raped by Apuron. ... My son was only 9 years old, just a baby. Apuron took his innocence away in the most heinous way. Walter and I both have made up our minds to testify. This is what we wanted to do from the get-go. This was what we all wanted to do. I back Walter in everything and anything he wants to do as far as Apuron is concerned,” Concepcion said. “Walter and I want to expose Apuron and have him defrocked. That was our intention from the very beginning, even before any lawsuit was brought up.”

Concepcion will be on Guam next week for the 12th anniversary of her son’s death in May. She said Quinata's own son, Christopher Valencia, now 22, will be accompanying her to Guam this time around.

Joseph A. Quinata, as a child in Guam. (Photo: Courtesy of Doris Concepcion)

Former altar boys Roy Quintanilla and Roland Sondia, who also accused Apuron of sexually abusing them in the 1970s, are scheduled to testify before the same Vatican tribunal in Honolulu, Hawaii on May 6.

Their counsel, David Lujan, previously advised them not to give their testimony to the Vatican tribunal unless he is present. The tribunal was on Guam on Feb. 16 to 18, but Sondia didn’t testify, upon Lujan’s advice. Quintanilla, the first to publicly accuse Apuron in May 2016, also did not testify.

Quintanilla said he's grateful for a compromise reached between parties this time around. He said the compromise is that he will be able to ask the tribunal for a break, if he wants to confer with his counsel, who can be outside the room or on the phone.

Concepcion said it was Quintanilla’s public accusation of Apuron, in May 2016, that gave her the strength to also come forward and share what her son told her 12 years ago. Her son died in May 2005 at the age of 38.

She said giving her testimony to the tribunal in March was her first time to meet Vatican officials. At the time, she was hospitalized because of a heart surgery.

Concepcion said she felt a big weight was lifted off of her shoulders after testifying.

“Now the rest is up to them,” she said.

Concepcion, Sondia, Denton and Quintanilla filed a libel and slander lawsuit against Apuron and the Archdiocese of Agana on July 1 for calling them liars when they publicly accused Apuron of sexual abuse. The case still is pending in the Superior Court of Guam.

Quintanilla, Denton, Sondia and Quinata's estate also filed clergy sex abuse lawsuits in the U.S. District Court of Guam against Apuron and the archdiocese, demanding a total of $20 million in damages.

Apuron is one of 10 Guam clergy accused of sexually abusing and/or raping minors from the 1950s to the late 1980s, based on 57 clergy sex abuse lawsuits filed in federal and local court as of April 26.

Contact: heugenio@guampdn.com