VATICAN CITY
Catholic Register
BY CAROL GLATZ, CATHOLIC NEWS SERVICE
October 31, 2016
VATICAN CITY – Pope Francis appointed a Detroit auxiliary bishop to a Guam archdiocese whose leader is under a Vatican investigation for the alleged sexual abuse of minors.
Coadjutor Archbishop Michael J. Byrnes, 58, also was given “special faculties” or authority in the Archdiocese of Agana, according to a Vatican press release Oct. 31.
The appointment came several weeks after the apostolic administrator of the Agana Archdiocese requested the Vatican remove the current leader, Archbishop Anthony S. Apuron, and name a successor. A coadjutor archbishop – as opposed to an auxiliary bishop – immediately succeeds an archbishop who retires or dies.
Archbishop Savio Hon Tai-Fai, apostolic administrator of the Agana Archdiocese, said in mid-September that he had asked the Vatican to remove Archbishop Apuron, given his refusal to resign on his own accord.
“Gravely serious allegations” of sexual abuse have been made against Archbishop Apuron, Archbishop Hon had said, adding that the situation was still being “dealt with by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, which will hold a canonical trial.”
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