GUAM
The Guam Daily Post
March 19, 2018
By Kevin Kerrigan
Attorney David Lujan reacted to the guilty verdict handed down Friday against suspended Archbishop Anthony Apuron by the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.
“I think it’s a great verdict,” Lujan said. “It vindicates what everyone has been saying.”
The attorney represents five people who have publicly accused Apuron of sexual abuse.
Walter Denton, Roy Quintanilla, Roland Sondia and the late Joseph “Sonny” Lujan, through his mother Edith Doris Concepcion, have accused Apuron of sexual abuse when he was a priest at Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church in Agat more than 40 years ago.
A fifth victim, Apuron’s nephew, Mark Apuron, came forward in January accusing his uncle of raping him in the chancery bathroom nearly 30 years ago after he had already been promoted to archbishop.
A five-member tribunal, that lasted nearly one year, reviewed several accusations, including accusations of sexual abuse of minors, and found Anthony Apuron guilty of “certain of the accusations.”
The suspended archbishop appealed the verdict, putting a stop to the imposing of penalties cited by the Vatican that included stripping him of his title and banishing him from Guam.
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