GUAM
Pacific Daily News
Haidee V Eugenio and
Dana M Williams , Pacific Daily News
When Archbishop Michael Jude Byrnes arrives today, he will step into a fractured community of the faith.
Officially, he is coming to assist Archbishop Anthony Apuron in running the Archdiocese of Agana, and to serve as Apuron’s successor. But Apuron has been out of the public eye since June, when the Vatican suspended him and sent Archbishop Savio Hon Tai Fai to temporarily oversee the Guam church. Apuron faces what an archdiocese spokesman described as “credible accusations of child sexual abuse against him,” and a canonical trial is being prepared in Rome.
Prior to his departure, Apuron led the Catholic faithful here for 30 years. He positioned himself as a fierce defender of morality, local culture and tradition, and used his power as a spiritual leader to influence political decisions. He also argued against a law that would remove the statute of limitations for civil suits in child sex abuse cases, and he once wrote a letter to a judge urging leniency for a former altar boy who confessed to sexually abusing a 2-year-old.
Apuron still has loyal supporters. Many are, like Apuron, followers of the Neocatechumenal Way, an organization within the Catholic church that has been at odds with traditional Catholics on the island. The rift in the church began before the sex abuse allegations were made, and involved the Yona seminary, financial transparency and the removal of two popular priests. On an island where, by some estimates, 85 percent of the population is Catholic, the conflict has shaken religious traditions.
Son of Guam
In the 14 years since the Catholic priest sex abuse scandal was uncovered in Boston and spread to parishes across the country and around the world, abuse allegations on Guam remained secret. Until now.
Joelle Casteix, the western regional director of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, said the situation on Guam is unique for a couple of reasons. Based in Chicago, the group is the world’s oldest and largest network of clergy abuse survivors.
“What makes Guam different is that it’s the first place where lay Catholics have taken the lead to blow the lid off the scandal and demand change,” she said. Another difference is that the accused grew up in the community.
“Apuron is a hometown boy,” Casteix said. “It’s very hard for any faith community to think that one of their own — born and bred — could do such horrible things.”
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