Catholic priest, Father Andrew Manetta, accused in new molestation case

By Steve Limtiaco
Pacific Daily News
July 17, 2019

https://bit.ly/32rcqGN

Father Andy Mannetta, pastor of the Santa Teresita Church, in Mangilao, as photographed June 24, 1988.

A man who took confirmation classes at the Chalan Pago church in the mid-1980s, when he was a teenager, has accused Father Andrew Manetta, who was parish priest at the time, of sexually assaulting him during a sleepover.

The man, identified in Superior Court of Guam documents by the initials L.L.L., has asked for at least $5 million in damages from the Capuchin Franciscans, Manetta's religious order.

According to the lawsuit, Manetta molested L.L.L. when he and another boy slept over at the priest’s residence to help prepare for a swimming outing for the confirmation class.

It states Manetta caught the two boys smoking marijuana, then smoked a marijuana joint himself and gave the boys wine.

L.L.L. fell asleep, the lawsuit states, and woke up when he felt Manetta molesting him. He confronted Manetta, and the two boys then walked home, the lawsuit states.

Manetta, originally from New York, first came to Guam in 1980 as a seminarian and was ordained into the priesthood at the Archdiocese of Agana in May 1983, according to Pacific Daily News files.

Manetta has been accused of sexually abusing other boys on Guam, based on previous lawsuits filed. One of the attorneys for the priest's first two alleged victims described Manetta in a previous lawsuit as a "notorious pedophile" who was shifted from parish to parish within Guam before being transferred to Hawaii.