ROME
Pacific Daily News
Eric J. Lyman, For USA Today
May 7, 2017
ROME — Guam Archbishop Anthony Apuron isn’t the first high-ranking church official to be accused of sexual abuse, but his ongoing canonical trial at the Vatican is ground-breaking, according to experts.
A new trial process for these types of allegations is in place under Pope Francis, and Apuron would be the first to be investigated and tried since its implementation.
Former Agat altar boys Walter Denton, Roy Quintanilla, Roland Sondia, and the relatives of former altar boy Joseph “Sonny” Quinata have accused Apuron of child molestation and rape when he was parish priest in the late 1970s. Apuron has denied the allegations.
The Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith last October named Cardinal Raymond Burke the presiding judge in Apuron’s trial. Burke’s office did not reply to requests for comment.
According to Iacopo Scaramuzzi, a Vatican expert who has written a book about Pope Francis called “Tango Vaticano,” Francis has completed a reform process started under Pope Benedict XVI that makes it possible for those accused of sexual abuse to face two trials: a canonical trial and a criminal trial. Previously, only the criminal trial was used.
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