Catholic group calls for 5 to be removed

By Neil Pang
Guam Daily Post
June 18, 2017

https://www.postguam.com/news/local/catholic-group-calls-for-to-be-removed/article_fdab8160-5270-11e7-91b1-2706cc86083a.html

RESTORE TRUST: Lou Klitzke from the Laity Forward Movement Holds picket signs asking for the defrocking of Archbishop Anthony Aporun. Around 60 people walked the picket line for the defrocking of Apuron on Sunday morning. The Concerned Catholics of Guam and the Laity Forward Movement are both seeking the removal of Apuron and held their 49th picket in front of the Dulce Nombre de Maria Cathedral-Basilica on June 4. Photo by David Castro

"The Catholics of Guam cannot trust or have confidence in the Chancery leadership with these clergymen still enjoying some position of authority within our Archdiocese and benefits from our contributions." – David Sablan, president, Concerned Catholics of Guam

The Concerned Catholics of Guam is calling on the leaders of the Archdiocese of Agana to remove four priests and a deacon from administrative and ministerial duties within the church in order to "restore some trust in the leadership," according to CCOG president, David Sablan.

Sablan said CCOG is calling for the removal of the following five men: David C. Quitugua, former vicar general; Adrian Cristobal, former chancellor for the Archdiocese of Agana; Alberto Rodriguez Salamanca, former vice chancellor; Edivaldo da Silva Oleveira former spokesman and an aide to Archbishop Anthony Apuron; and Deacon Frank Tenorio.

Sablan told The Guam Daily Post the five were closely involved with Apuron during his tenure as the highest authority within the Archdiocese of Agana.

Sablan accused Quitugua of being responsible for the confusion surrounding the former Hotel Accion, now Redemptoris Mater Seminary, in Yona, and the misleading publication of a false certificate of title of the Yona property to "mislead the Catholics in Guam by trying to fool them into believing the Yona property was still part of the assets of the Archbishop of Agana, Corporation Sole."

According to Post files, the scandal surrounding the seminary had to do with a secretive transfer of ownership of the Yona property, estimated to be valued at $40 million, from the Archdiocese of Agana to the Redemptoris Mater Archdiocesan Missionary Seminary of Guam. The issue of ownership was settled by action taken by Archbishop Michael Byrnes before his arrival in Guam.

Sablan said CCOG wanted the five church officials to be disciplined in light of the actions, he said, that harmed the church.

"They, in fact, should be put through a Canonical trial for the destruction of Chancery records, the lies, and deceit that caused tremendous scandal among the Catholic faithful on Guam," he said. "The Catholics of Guam cannot trust or have confidence in the Chancery leadership with these clergymen still enjoying some position of authority within our Archdiocese and benefits from our contributions."