Guam clergy sex abuse cases tracked in database

By Haidee V Eugenio
Pacific Daily News
May 29, 2017

http://www.guampdn.com/story/news/2017/05/29/guam-clergy-sex-abuse-cases-tracked-database/335618001/

VictimsSpeakDB.org's page showing compiled data about Guam's Catholic clergy sex abuse cases based on lawsuits filed and other known victims' accounts.

Father Louis Brouillard is shown in this undated Pacific Daily News file photo receiving a Silver Beaver award for his scouting hierarchy from a Navy captain.

Guam is a great example of how changing the law can provide enormous but long-delayed benefits to clergy sex abuse victims, according to the publisher of one of the most comprehensive databases on Catholic clergy sex abuse of minors worldwide.

G.R. Pafumi, publisher of Victims Speak Database or VictimsSpeakDB.org, said Guam alone has 75 Catholic clergy sex abuse cases involving 70 unique victims and 15 clergy.

The bulk of the alleged abuses are contained in 69 clergy sex abuse lawsuits filed so far in local and federal courts since Guam lifted on Sept. 23, 2016 the statute of limitations on childhood sexual abuse.

The law allows victims of child sex abuse to sue their abusers, and the institutions with which they are associated, at any time.

“When victims come forward, it encourages other victims to come forward who otherwise might have continued to remain silent,” Pafumi said. “Guam has demonstrated that justice delayed is not necessarily justice denied.”

But the Guam law’s constitutionality is now being challenged by the Archdiocese of Agana and other defendants such as the Boy Scouts of America and Archbishop Anthony S. Apuron, through their separate counsels.

VictimsSpeakDB.org includes a database profiler called the Survivor Accounts of Catholic Clergy Abuse, Denial, Accountability and Silence, or SACADDAS, which contains summarized abuse data for a region, state or province. 

The website provides profiles to victims, victims' groups and the media at no charge, Pafumi said.

"Every news story has the potential to reach more victims," he added.

A sample profile focused on Guam, for example, shows nine victims out of 75 records reportedly were coerced to not reveal the abuse. There also is data on the ages of victims, the offenders, and the type of abuse.

Pafumi said VictimsSpeakDB.org also has a profile for each cleric or offender. For example, a profile on former Guam priest Louis Brouillard shows 42 identified victims, based on the database.

He said Brouillard is "one of, if not the most prolific, clergy abuser in Guam." Brouillard is named as the offending priest in dozens of clergy sex abuse cases on Guam. All his victims were minor boys, as young as 7 years old.

“As shown in the sample state profile on Guam, over 98 percent of the 75 records of abuse in Guam occurred prior to the year 2000. On the other hand, 85 percent of the first accusations of abuse by victims occurred in the 2015-2019 time period category. These new accusations are the result of new lawsuits filed against Catholic clergy within the last nine months due the enactment of Public Law 33-187, enacted in September 2016,” Pafumi said last week.

VictimsSpeakDB.org is separate from BishopAccountability.org, which tracks abuse of individual Catholic clergy primarily in the United States.