By Amritha Alladi
Pacific Daily News
October 21, 2009
http://www.guampdn.com/article/20091021/NEWS01/910210340/1014
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| Meeting: Legislative Vice Speaker Benjamin Cruz, left, and Archbishop Anthony Apuron listen during a meeting between senators, priests and others in Tumon yesterday. Photo by Masako Watanabe/Pacific Daily News/mwatanabe@guamp |
As the domestic partnership bill approaches key action by senators soon, the local Catholic Church leadership and some of the island's senators met yesterday morning in a dialogue initiated by the church.
But the breakfast meeting at the Hilton Guam Resort & Spa turned sour as it occurred a day after Vice Speaker Benjamin Cruz accused the Catholic Church of hypocrisy on Monday, revealing that he was a victim of sexual abuse by a priest in Los Angeles when he was 13.
Cruz has said he didn't mean to disclose that part of his past, but felt compelled to do so after Archbishop Anthony Apuron, addressing churchgoers during Mass on Sunday, condemned homosexuality and called on Catholics to oppose Bill 185.
The church yesterday said Bill 185 would "contribute to the end of Western Civilization" and called homosexuality a "culture of self-absorption." The church also referenced "Islamic fundamentalists" as understanding the damage that homosexual behavior "inflicts on a culture."
On Friday, Apuron sent out the invitation to yesterday's meeting, writing to Cruz that he would like to "offer an opportunity for dialogue and clarity on the issue, ... of what's at stake in Bill 185."
Apuron emerged from the closed-door meeting and declined to comment.
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