GUAM
Hawaii Tribune-Herald

By GRACE GARCES BORDALLO Associated Press

HAGATNA, Guam — The new leader of the Catholic church in Guam will meet with his brother priests as his first order of business on Monday as he attempts to heal this U.S. territory rocked by allegations of sexual abuse at the hands of clergy, even the current archbishop.

“I have been praying for those who have brought forward the allegations, who brought forward their own experience. I have great compassion for that,” Archbishop Michael Byrnes, 58, of Detroit told The Associated Press in a phone interview. “I’ve been praying for them.”

Byrnes has been sent by the Vatican to replace current Archbishop Anthony S. Apuron on an administrative basis. Apuron, 71, has been Guam’s highest Catholic leader for 30 years but faces a church trial over multiple allegations of sex abuse of altar boys in the 1970s. He denies…