HAGåTñA (GUAM)
Pacific Daily News [Hagåtña, Guam]
August 6, 2023
By Haidee Eugenio Gilbert
Convocar: Healing demands justice, restitution
Millions in cash contributions from the Archdiocese of Agana and its insurers have reached about 280 survivors of childhood sexual assaults by Guam priests and others associated with the Catholic Church, bringing a measure of “justice” and “healing” to those who have suffered from the abuses, some dating as far back as the 1950s.
Each abuse survivor reportedly received anywhere from about $40,000 to $100,000.
This is only the first of multiple rounds of payouts under a bankruptcy court-approved settlement plan that the archdiocese and its creditors worked on for years.
Lawyers representing the survivor-claimants got a certain percentage of each survivor’s settlement payment.
The amount of settlement payment depends, among other things, on the severity, length and frequency of the claimed sexual assault, according to survivors and those representing them.
Among the survivor-claimants were raped by priests once or multiple times, sometimes for a period of months or years, when they were children. They were entitled to the largest compensation possible.
Many were inappropriately touched and groped in church property or during scouting activities.
Some were as young as 8 to 10 years old when they were assaulted. Most were in their teens, and many were altar boys at the time.
Healing demands justice, restitution
The restitution to hundreds of survivors of Guam clergy sexual assaults is front and center of a court-approved plan to get the archdiocese out of a four-year bankruptcy that started in 2019.
This restitution, according to Archdiocese Apostolic Administrator Father Romeo Convocar, brings a good measure of “justice” and “healing” to the abuse survivors, which also paved the way for the archdiocese to be out of bankruptcy.
“We acknowledge the sins of the past. We take care of our responsibilities. Justice demands restitution so we restitute to the best of our ability,” Convocar said in a chance interview on Saturday. Convocar oversees the archdiocese until the pope names a new archbishop.
Tony Diaz, director of communications for the archdiocese, said the transfer of cash and insurance contributions to the trust paved the way for the actual payments to survivors.
Many of the survivors received their settlement payments in June, although some got theirs earlier or later. Some got theirs in July.
In some cases, it took a while for the survivor-clients to be located.
Convocar said besides the monetary awards, the archdiocese also agreed to provide non-monetary compensation to the survivors and their families, including tuition vouchers at Catholic schools and Catholic burial plots.
“The victims will continue to receive some forms of healing. We have expressed our sorrow, we have compensated them financially and there are nonmonetary terms we are trying to fulfill. So it’s like a new chapter for them to receive that wholeness, of healing, and healing demands justice, restitution, and we have given that,” Convocar said.
Also a key part of the settlement is the survivor-pushed protocols and others instituted by the archdiocese itself, that will help prevent more clergy sex abuses within the archdiocese.
“Moving forward, we don’t want anything like this to happen. So we have the safe environment program in place so that as the church continues its mission, there are, shall I say safeguards, safety nets, so that as the church performs its ministry, the vulnerable, the adults, the young are protected,” Convocar said.
More paymentsUnder the settlement plan, survivors could get paid a combined total of anywhere from $34 million to $101 million.
However, the cash, real property and other assets transferred to the survivors’ trust is estimated to value some $34 million to $45 million.
The first round of payments to survivors came from the archdiocese’s cash contribution of $6.6 million and about $20 million from its insurers, which were transferred to the survivors’ trust.
The trustee is Craig Wade, who’s paid $250 an hour, based on the bankruptcy court-approved plan. Wade is currently off-island.
A second round of payment is planned for January 2024, and a third is eyed for January 2025. However, these dates are subject to change.
The next payments will depend on how much or how soon the trustee is able to sell the more than 80 properties that the archdiocese transferred to the trust, as well as payments from other liable parties.
Earlier estimates placed the value of these former archdiocese properties from $16.3 million to $23 million. They include properties adjacent to or near Catholic schools and parishes.
During bankruptcy court proceedings, attorneys for the archdiocese and its creditors said some $55 million could be from the Boy Scouts of America, which also filed for bankruptcy over a cascade of sexual assault cases.
2016 law
A law enacted in 2016 allowed individuals to sue those who sexually abused them as minors, regardless of how far back the assaults happened.
The deluge of lawsuits, claiming more than $1 billion in damage, later forced the archdiocese to file for bankruptcy.
It’s one of the largest bankruptcy cases on Guam.
Most of the Guam clergy sex abuse survivors are represented, as early as 2016, by Lujan & Wolff LLP, while the rest are represented by Berman Law Firm, Roberts Fowler & Visosky LLP, and attorney Anthony C. Perez, along with the stateside law firms they have partnered with.
Meanwhile, the archdiocese spent $9.3 million to pay law firms in the bankruptcy case, including those that represented claimants and survivors, based on documents filed in court in July.
Among the abusive priests and other clergy named in lawsuits and claims was former Archbishop Anthony Apuron, who was earlier convicted by a Vatican tribunal for sexual assault of multiple minors.
Haidee Eugenio Gilbert is a freelance reporter. Contact her at hgilbert@guampdn.com. Follow her on Twitter @haidee_gilbert and Instagram @travelandscandals