GUAM
Pacific Daily News
[with video]
Haidee V Eugenio , heugenio@guampdn.com Feb. 10, 2017
Vatican investigators will be on Guam soon as part of Archbishop Anthony S. Apuron’s ongoing canonical trial, Coadjutor Archbishop Michael Jude Byrnes said at a news briefing Friday, during which he announced tougher church policies to protect children from clergy sexual abuse.
Apuron’s trial at the Vatican started after several former altar boys accused him of molesting or raping them in the 1970s, when he was a parish priest in Agat.
Byrnes, who will replace Apuron if he retires, resigns or is removed, announced the Archdiocese of Agana’s voluntary adherence to the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops’ revised “Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People.”
Byrnes said there will be: required automatic reporting to civil authorities of any allegation of clergy sex abuse involving minors; suspension of the clergy if the accusation is deemed credible and while the investigation is still ongoing; legal background checks, from priests to church volunteers, working with children; and, permanent removal from ministry if the sexual abuse allegations are substantiated.
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