SNAP Responds to Archdiocese "Year of Reparation"

By Neil Pang
Guam Daily Post
July 7, 2017

https://www.postguam.com/news/local/snap-responds-to-archdiocese-year-of-reparation/article_4a0e3fec-61e5-11e7-8721-f7633f839283.html


"Coadjutor Archbishop (Michael) Byrnes must stop putting the burden of amends on the laity – that burden must sit squarely on the shoulders of church officials and their attorneys."

— Joelle Casteix, Western regional leader, Survivors Network for those Abused by Priests

Following the announcement from church leadership about the start of the Archdiocese of Agana's "Year of Reparation," a Survivors Network for those Abused by Priests (SNAP) representative asked why church officials in Guam are shirking their responsibilities to victims of clergy sex abuse.

"Coadjutor Archbishop (Michael) Byrnes must stop putting the burden of amends on the laity – that burden must sit squarely on the shoulders of church officials and their attorneys," said Joelle Casteix, Western regional leader for SNAP. "Prayers are for those without the immediate power to enact change. Coadjutor Byrnes has the immediate power to enact change in the courts, open files, stop wrongdoing and hold those who committed or covered up child sex abuse accountable."

Criticism of church leadership

According to Post files, SNAP – and Casteix in particular – has long criticized local Catholic leadership for its handling of abuse allegations.

"The laity of the Archdiocese of Agana has already showed tremendous solidarity with victims by standing with them, believing them, praying for them, protesting outside of the cathedral and demanding transparency and accountability from archdiocesan leadership and the Vatican," she told The Guam Daily Post.

"The only way that the archdiocese can now make amends is to stop fighting victims in the civil courts, cooperating completely with civil authorities, and turning over and making public all evidence of child sex abuse and cover-up in their secret personnel files."

'Tremendous loss of trust'

During his Thursday press conference, Archbishop Byrnes told the media that the disclosure of personnel files is something that would happen over the course of the civil proceedings pending in local and federal courts.

Until then, Byrnes said, he is working to fix the "tremendous loss of trust" Catholic laity have expressed since suspended Archbishop Anthony Apuron fled the island, though Byrnes acknowledged such trust would be difficult to win back.