Guam reaches Vatican, global audience a year since clergy sex abuses exposed

By Haidee V Eugenio
Pacific Daily News
May 20, 2017

http://www.guampdn.com/story/news/2017/05/20/guam-reaches-vatican-global-audience-year-since-clergy-sex-abuses-exposed/332009001/

Roy T. Quintanilla claims he was sexually abused by Archbishop Anthony Apuron when he was 12 years old, at a press conference in front of the Archdiocese of Agana Chancery Office in Hagåtña on May 17. Quintanilla asked for an apology from the archbishop, and encourages anyone with a similar story to step forward. "I will not be silent anymore," added Quintanilla. Photo by Mark Scott

Within a year since former altar boy Roy Quintanilla came forward on May 17, 2016 to accuse Archbishop Anthony S. Apuron of sexually abusing him in the 1970s, not only has the Vatican promptly stepped in but also placed a global spotlight on Guam’s clergy sex abuses.

“We’ve come a long way,” Quintanilla told Pacific Daily News. “We wouldn’t have come this far were it not for the Catholic community’s support. It’s amazing what we can do as a community.”

In a predominantly Catholic community, publicly accusing any priest, much less the Guam archbishop for some 30 years, was unthinkable, until Quintanilla and other former Agat altar boys stepped forward.

A year later, 66 clergy sex abuse lawsuits involving 11 Guam Catholic priests including Apuron have been filed in local and federal courts.

Pope Francis suspended Apuron on June 6, barely three weeks after Quintanilla accused the archbishop. 

The Vatican has also put Apuron on a groundbreaking canonical penal trial.

The trial could wrap up as early as this summer, a member of the Vatican tribunal told those who testified in the Apuron trial including former altar boy Walter Denton, who accused Apuron of raping him in the 1970s.

Former altar boy Roland Sondia also accused Apuron of sexually abusing him in the 1970s. Doris Concepcion, mother of a now deceased former altar boy, accused Apuron of molesting her son.

“Were it not for Apuron’s arrogance, I believe this would have ended rather quickly,” Concerned Catholics of Guam president David Sablan said. “If only Apuron had been more humble and showed humility and apologized to the victims because that’s what the victims were waiting for at the time. Instead, he threatened to sue them.”

Sablan said the “silver lining” in Apuron’s “arrogance” was that Guam, and even the Vatican, now knows the extent of clergy sex abuses on the island and the community has come together to help clean the Catholic church.

“We will not stop until the church has been purified and the remaining clergy are truly spiritual leaders,” Sablan said.

Concerned Catholics of Guam, Laity Forward Movement, Silent No More and other individual Catholics, along with blogger Tim Rohr, helped former altar boys such as the Apuron accusers expose clergy sex abuses decades back.

The world’s largest and oldest network of clergy sex abuse survivors called the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, or SNAP, said Guam is unique because it is the only place in the world where Catholics -- not survivors -- led the charge for transparency.

“Guam’s strong anti-strategic lawsuit against public participation legislation and the strength of the civil legislation will keep whistleblowers and witnesses safe as well. No one who comes forward should have to fear that they are going to be ‘sued into bankruptcy’,” said Joelle Casteix, volunteer western regional director for the St. Louis-based SNAP.

Casteix said Guam has come a long way in cleaning up its church.

“But there is still a long, long way to go. But because the church is still run by men who operate in secrecy, we will not truly know the full extent of the cover-up until the civil process continues to unfold,” Casteix said.

Casteix said not only have victims realized that they have the support of the laity, but they also have the support of the court system.

"In the past year, survivors of abuse have been able to come forward safely and expose their predators as well as the system that covered up for them,” Casteix said.

She said it is safe for victims to come forward and it is also safe for witnesses and whistleblowers to report and protest. 

“The most important lessons learned? That truth justice for victims was only possible through the civil justice system. I also think that we will learn a lot once we get a final decision from the Vatican on Apuron’s fate,” she said.

Casteix said she has nothing but the highest expectations for Guam’s Catholic laity. 

“I have not witnessed a more driven and faithful group who have been on a path of justice. I hope they continue their quest for transparency from church leadership. I think that the outcome of both the Apuron canonical process and the civil litigation will push them forward into more action. They are the true future of the church on Guam,” she said. “The only way that future generations of Guam’s children will be safe are if people remain vigilant. We must all talk to our children. We must all discuss abuse. We must never allow victims to live in shame and silence.”

The Laity Forward Movement led by president Lou Klitzkie has continued their peaceful picket every Sunday morning in front of Dulce Nombre de Maria Cathedral-Basilica in Hagatna, calling for Apuron’s removal as archbishop of Guam and for the Vatican to defrock or laicize him.