GUAM
Pacific News Center
Written by Janela Carrera
The Archdiocese of Agana says the attacks against the archbishop are made to incite hatred, ignorance violence.
Guam – The Archdiocese of Agana is firing back at their critics for what they call vicious attacks against Archbishop Anthony Apuron and they’re planning to take the people behind the attacks to court.
In a press release issued by the Archdiocese of Agana today, the church says the barrage of vicious attacks against Archbishop Anthony Apuron over the last three years only instills hatred, ignorance and violence.
They are responding to a series of allegations against the archbishop, from claims that he molested young boys in the 1970s and 80s, to alienating a multimillion dollar seminary property to orchestrating poison pill amendments on a bill that sought to lift a statute of limitations on pursuing civil suits for child sexual abuse cases.
Earlier in the week, the Concerned Catholics of Guam released paid advertisements calling on victims of sexual abuse to come forward. The ad specifies certain dates and locations which, according to Catholic blogger Tim Rohr, targeted Archbishop Apuron when he was a priest in the 1970s and 80s.
The press release does not deny the allegations of sexual abuse, however, it does state that the paid ads are “seeking to insinuate criminal sexual abuse by the Shepherd of the Catholic Church,” and that it “demonstrates that they have no proof to substantiate any allegations and that their purpose is to confuse and mislead the people or even to induce some to bring false testimony.”
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