GUAM
Pacific Daily News

Haidee V Eugenio , heugenio@guampdn.com Published

April 11, 2017

Archbishop Michael Jude Byrnes on Tuesday named the head of a new independent body to help victims of clergy sex abuse on Guam find healing and closure, using an initial $1 million in funding.

California attorney Michael Caspino was named executive director of the non-profit Hope and Healing Guam, which the Archdiocese of Agana said could impact the dozens of clergy sex abuse cases currently in local and federal courts.

In the weeks ahead, the archdiocese plans to ask the federal court to postpone the clergy sex abuse cases for three to four months while the church tries to address the complaints outside of court, through the new program.

The archdiocese, through its attorneys, this week also asked the federal court to dismiss the lawsuits, arguing the 2016 law that retroactively lifted the statute of limitations…