GUAM
Pacific Daily News
Haidee V Eugenio, Pacific Daily News October 9, 2016
Guam Archbishop Anthony Sablan Apuron, 70, is one of 84 bishops worldwide who have been accused publicly of sexual wrongdoing, according to BishopAccountability.org, a group tracking public records involving bishops.
Apuron has been publicly accused of raping two altar boys and sexually abusing two others in the 1970s when he was the parish priest at the Our Lady of Mount Carmel Catholic Church in Agat.
To date, just four accused bishops worldwide have been laicized, according to the website. Laicization, in the canon law of the Catholic Church, is the removal of a bishop, priest or deacon from the status of being a member of the clergy. The term corresponds closely in meaning to defrocking, which the Concerned Catholics of Guam wants to happen to Apuron.
The Vatican is preparing for the canonical trial of Apuron, said Rev. Jeff San Nicolas, delegate of the Archdiocese of Agana’s temporary apostolic administrator.
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