Former Guam Resident Re-files Clergy Sex Abuse Suit

By Haidee V Eugenio
Pacific Daily News
July 19, 2018

https://www.guampdn.com/story/news/2018/07/19/former-guam-resident-re-files-clergy-sex-abuse-suit/799233002/

A former Guam resident now living in Las Vegas refiled on Thursday a clergy sex abuse lawsuit he voluntarily withdrew in August, in which he accused Father Antonio C. Cruz, who is now deceased, of molesting him when he was about 9 years old, around 1964.

The $5 million lawsuit has been refiled in the U.S. District Court of Guam by the plaintiff, identified only as A.J.A. in court documents, to protect his privacy.

The lawsuit says the priest pulled down A.J.A.'s pants and began touching the boy's private parts when the boy delivered the priest's clothes to him in his bedroom at the Chalan Pago church rectory.

At the time, A.J.A. and his family would cook for Cruz and wash the priest's clothes, the lawsuit states. A.J.A., represented by Attorney David Lujan, is now in his early 60s.

Cruz, a priest at the Our Lady of Peace and Safe Journey Church in Chalan Pago, died in 1986.

Sex abuse cases nearing 180

The named defendants in A.J.A.'s lawsuit include: the Archdiocese of Agana; Capuchin Franciscans; Capuchin Franciscans Province of St. Mary; Capuchin Franciscans Custody of Star of the Sea; and other John Does. The lawsuit states Cruz was an agent of the Capuchin Franciscans.

The cases filed against the archdiocese, clergy and others associated with the Catholic Church are nearing 180 in total, and the parties are trying to pursue mediation to settle the cases.