GUAM
Pacific Sunday News
Written by
Gaynor Dumat-ol Daleno
Pacific Sunday News
A high-level Vatican official is visiting Guam’s Catholic community next month, but whether the visit will be friendly, or investigatory, is in dispute.
“The Archdiocese of Agana is happy to welcome the pastoral visit of His Excellency, the Most Reverend Archbishop Savio Hon Tai-Fai,” the archdiocese stated Friday, in part, in a written statement to the media.
Hon is the secretary of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples, the Vatican office to whom some of Guam’s Catholics sent letters over the past several months, seeking an investigation of the various controversies in the local archdiocese.
The Archdiocese of Agana emphasized, by underlining in Friday’s media statement, that Hon’s Guam trip is a “pastoral visit.”
Hon’s visit, according to the archdiocese, comes “in the wake of Archbishop Anthony Apuron’s successful visit with Pope Francis last month in Rome.” …
More than a week ago, certain members of different parishes on Guam formed a nonprofit group called Concerned Catholics of Guam Inc., and announced the group plans to investigate the management of the local church, its financial books, and the archdiocese’s handling of a sexual molestation allegation against Apuron.
Apuron has called the allegation a “horrible calumny,” but declined to respond further to the allegation on the advice of his attorney because he’s planning a defamation lawsuit to defend the church.
The group’s president, Greg Perez, made a statement on Dec. 9 on why Concerned Catholics was formed. “A few of us would meet occasionally to discuss these stories about the archbishop, priests who have been allegedly blamed for mismanagement of funds or alleged disobedience and then removed from their parishes, the lack of transparency with the finances of the archdiocese, neglect of precious artifacts in the archdiocesan museum, among other issues,” Perez said.
Tim Rohr, a Guam resident who writes a blog on Catholic issues, called Jungle Watch, believes the nature of the Vatican official’s visit is investigatory. “The people who are coming — the nature of their office is investigation,” Rohr said.
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