VIRGINIA BEACH (VA)
Patheos / Friendly Atheist
May 31, 2020
By Terry Firma
When Walter Denton, a resident of Guam, was 12 or 13 years old, he was a good Catholic boy, obedient to the church and the men who ran it. So when priest Anthony Apuron asked him to spend the night in the rectory of the church, the flattered boy thought he was was being singled out for special attention.
And in a way, he was.
[Denton] had fallen asleep in the church rectory, where Apuron had asked him to spend the night, and then “woke up screaming,” laying on his stomach with his hands pinned down and Apuron on top of him.
Not that Apuron was a monster about it or anything.
Denton says when the priest finally stopped, he offered to give Denton straight A’s in theology class.
But wait, it gets better/worse. Denton eventually told a friend, and together they worked up the courage to confide in a priest called Jack Niland.
“Well boys,” the priest allegedly replied. “Priesthood is a lonely life.” (Niland is now the subject of multiple sexual abuse lawsuits. He died in 2009.)
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