GUAM
Guam Daily Post
Neil Pang | Post News Staff
At least one of the civil lawsuits filed in the Superior Court of Guam last week on Nov. 1 by abuse victims Roland Sondia, Roy Quintanilla, Walter Denton and Leo Tudela included written testimony from an abuser and former priest of Guam that states that archdiocesan officials knew about child sex abuse being committed by priests and did little to address it.
Of the four complainants, Sondia, Quintanilla and Denton have accused Archbishop Anthony Apuron of sexually abusing them as children when they served as altar boys at the Agat parish that Apuron ministered in the 1970s.
Tudela, 73, came forward in August of this year to give oral testimony in favor of Bill 323-33, which would remove the statute of limitations for civil litigation for cases involving child sex abuse, and disclosed details of abuse that he endured as a child while attending Catholic school on Guam in the 1950s. He named two individuals, Fr. Louis Brouillard and a “Brother Mariano” as church officials who ministered at parishes of the Archdiocese of Agana, as his abusers.
Bill 363-33 was signed into Public Law 33-187 on Sept. 24 by Gov. Eddie Calvo, opening the door for civil litigation against individuals, organizations and aiders and abettors who permitted the sexual abuse of children. Last week’s filing marks the first such suits to make use of the provisions of the new law.
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