GUAM
KUAM
[with video]
Updated: Jun 08, 2016
By Sabrina Salas Matanane
During an interview Thursday morning on Isla63-AM, Walter Denton revealed that the Vatican has been investigating his allegations of rape since August 2015. On Tuesday, Denton appeared before island media and alleged that he was raped by Archbishop Anthony Apuron when he was 13 years old. He alleged that the sexual abuse happened when Apuron was a priest in Agat and Denton was an altar boy.
Denton in his interview with radio host Jess Lujan said he was on Guam in January 2015 when he had heard about his cousin who had allegedly been sexually abused by Apuron several years ago. Denton said his cousin was a seminarian at the time. Denton said he realized he needed to come forward and sought advice on how he should go about filing a complaint about what happened to him.
He realized that he could not report it to the local archdiocese because the Archbishop was the accused and controlled all investigations of sexual abuse. He says he was referred to Archbishop Martin Krebs, the Apostolic Delegate to the Pacific Islands. Although Archbishop Krebs was on Guam in January 2015, Denton said he was not aware of the visit. Denton says it wasn’t until August 2015 that he sent a notarized letter to Archbishop Krebs detailing what happened to him.
He said Archbishop Krebs then took his statement directly to the Vatican. From there he said it was around October or November of that same year he was contacted by Bishop Olmsted in Phoenix, Arizona for an interview. Denton said Bishop Olmsted told him that he had been appointed by the Vatican to gather information about the alleged abuse. Although he has not heard from the Vatican since, he did say Bishop Olmsted assured him that the Vatican is conducting an investigation.
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