Man Says Priest, Who Was Family Friend, Abused Him at Home
By Steve Limtiaco
A 58-year-old man has accused former Guam priest Antonio Cruz, who died more than 30 years ago, of sexually abusing him in 1974, according to a lawsuit filed Tuesday in the U.S. District Court of Guam. The lawsuit, filed by a man identified only by the initials “L.J.G.” states Cruz was close friends with the man’s parents and visited the family weekly. It is the 143rd lawsuit filed in federal or local court, accusing a clergy member or other person associated with the Catholic Church on Guam of sexual abuse. It is the 10th lawsuit accusing Cruz of sexual abuse. If the allegations are true, Cruz abused boys on Guam for about 20 years, from 1957 to 1977. Cruz died in 1986. The latest lawsuit accuses Cruz of molesting L.J.G. on several occasions, at the boy’s home. Cruz was the parish priest at the Our Lady of Peace and Safe Journey Catholic Church in Chalan Pago, at the time, the complaint states. It states representatives of the church on Guam were aware of the sexual abuse committed by Cruz, but remained quiet to protect Cruz and the church, “thereby placing their loyalty above their duty to protect the minor children and their legal responsibilities.” The lawsuit demands $5 million in damages from the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Agana. Attorneys involved in the lawsuits filed so far are negotiating a possible settlement, and the court has been postponing action on cases, pending the outcome of that process. The Catholic church on Guam now is a defendant in cases that demand at least $935 million in damages. The Boy Scouts of America is a co-defendant in dozens of those cases, primarily because of alleged sexual abuse by former priest Louis Brouillard, who also was a scoutmaster.
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