GUAM
Marianas Variety
25 Jan 2015 By Jasmine Stole – jasmine@mvguam.com – Variety News Staff
HAGÅTÑA — After Deloitte & Touche, LLC determined the Agana Archdiocese’s finances were not auditable, the archdiocese’s administration took matters into its own hands and completed what the Chancery Office said is an “internal review” of financial affairs.
The archdiocese printed a two-page statement dated Jan. 23 and inserted the statement in this week’s edition of the U Matuna Si Yu’os, the weekly local Catholic newspaper. In the statement, the church administration details five “irregularities” it discovered as a result of its internal review.
The statement released this past weekend lists incidents involving the Dulce Nombre de Maria Cathedral-Basilica account and the Catholic Cemeteries of Guam account, both of which fall under the rector’s management. Monsignor James Benavente was the only named church official tied to the financial irregularities published this past weekend.
The archdiocese said Benavente “commingled funds without respect of restriction on funds” between the Cathedral-Basilica and the Catholic Cemeteries. The former rector allegedly used cemetery funds to pay for Cathedral payroll and allegedly used money for the clergy to pay church loans.
Further, the church said after Benavente was removed, credit cards issued in the name of the Catholic Cemeteries were found and had balances in excess of $60,000. Benavente is said to have used the cards for restaurants, airfare, the Shangri-La Hotel in Manila and other five star hotels between 2009 and 2014, according to the archdiocese. …
In response to the statement issued over the weekend, Catholic blogger Tim Rohr said he sent an email to Archbishop Savio Hon Tai-Fai, secretary for the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples on Saturday. In his letter, Rohr said he will not contribute to Church collections until Savio answers his questions about costs incurred for Apuron’s travel, meals, credit cards and other bills.
Rohr said Benavente is saddened by Apuron’s “apparent need to go public with his accusations instead of meeting with (Benavente) to discuss these matters personally.”
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