To the Apostolic Visitators

Jungle Watch
December 27, 2014

http://www.junglewatch.info/

Dear

Most Reverend Archbishop Savio HON Tai-Fai

Your Excellency Archbishop Martin Krebs

Reverend Father Nowak

The people of Guam were made aware of your upcoming visit to our island (January 4 - 10) by Archbishop Apuron’s news release of December 18, 2014.

While we are sure that you would have preferred a quieter context for your visit, now that your arrival is a matter of very public attention and in fact proudly (but falsely) trumpeted as a response to an invitation from Archbishop Apuron, please permit me to publicly share and document just a few of the matters at the heart of the ongoing and crippling division in the Archdiocese of Agana.

To assist you in your investigation (though Archbishop Apuron wants us to think you are just dropping by for coffee), I will attempt over the next few days to address and document as many of the following tragic items as possible. Most of these are already thoroughly documented throughout this blog but I will gather them together for easier reference.

Thank you for your attention to the war that rages in this archdiocese. We pray you will see what is at the root of it...or rather, WHO is at the root of it.

Here are a few of the items I intend to document for you:

The illegitimate removal of Fr. Paul Gofigan as pastor of Santa Barbara parish.

The defamation of Joseph Lastimoza and the subsequent persecution of his family for implying that he was guilty of a crime that he did not commit when labeling him a "danger to children".

The slander and calumny of Fr. Paul Gofigan and Joseph Lastimoza by Archbishop Apuron by his implying to a group of clergy that Fr. Paul and Mr. Lastimoza were engaged in a homosexual relationship.

The public rejection of a magisterial instruction issued by the Prefect for the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Sacrament as regards the manner in which the neocatechumenals distribute Holy Communion.

The public disgracing of Msgr. James Benavente by accusing him publicly of financial mismanagement without according Msgr. James his right to defend himself.

Archbishop Apuron's lie about procuring the counsel and agreement of the Presbyteral Council and the College of Consultors to fire Msgr. James as Director of the Archdiocesan Development Group and remove him as rector/pastor of the Cathedral parish.

Archbishop Apuron's public lie about the closure of the National Museum (located at the Cathedral), wherein Archbishop Apuron blamed the closure on Msgr. James even though Msgr. James had been removed from his position several days previously.

The attempt to assign the title of a multi-million dollar property owned by the Archdiocese of Agana to a separate corporation (Redemptoris Mater Seminary).

The en masse dismissal of four of the five members of the Archdiocesan Finance Council when those members would not permit Archbishop Apuron to assign said title, an illegal act given that the en masse dismissal left the archdiocese without a canonically required finance council until a new one was appointed.

The incardination of a priest, Fr. John Wadeson, into this archdiocese who had been banned from the Los Angeles diocese because he was "credibly accused" of child molestation without publicly acknowledging the priest's past even to discredit the charges.

The refusal of Archbishop Apuron to follow his own sex abuse policy in the matter of Fr. Wadeson, and his removal of Deacon Steve Martinez as the Sex Abuse Response Coordinator, when Deacon Martinez pressed for an investigation as required by the policy.

Archbishop Apuron's sudden dismissal of Fr. John Wadeson once Wadeson's record was made known on this blog and Archbishop Apuron's subsequent hiding of Wadeson.

The lie to Aaron Quitugua about the reasons why he could not attend an accredited off-island seminary: Aaron was told the archdiocese did not have the money to send him but he was still refused sponsorship even when Aaron said he would pay for his education himself.

The false accusation of the Concerned Catholics of Guam, Inc. as an organization which "plots against the church".

There are also a few items that cannot be as thoroughly documented but perhaps you will be able to investigate these yourself:

The inordinate influence Father Pius Sammut, who is NOT a priest of the Archdiocese of Agana, has over Archbishop Apuron's every decision.

The just as inordinate and extremely detrimental if not outright dangerous influence Giuseppe Gennarini has over critical decisions in this archdiocese including who gets ordained at RMS.

Relative to the above item, the ordination of men from RMS who have not passed academic and psychological muster, men who Archbishop Apuron knows he should not ordain but ordains them anyway.

And while this is referenced in item 8, a more explicit investigation into the assignment of the "control" of the very valuable property which the Redemptoris Mater Seminary occupies. We fear that Archbishop Apuron, after his en masse firing of the members of the Archdiocesan Finance Council who opposed him, assigned the control of the property to RMS, which is a corporation separate from the Archdiocese of Agana and controlled by a Board of Guarantors 100% of which is the Neocatechumenal Way and 50% of which is the Gennarini's.

The recent accusation by Mr. John Toves that Archbishop Apuron sexually molested his cousin while both the alleged victim and Mr. Toves were seminarians at the minor seminary on Guam in the early 1980's. While this is just an allegation by a person who was not himself the victim, as apostolic visitors empowered by the pope, you would be able to address this issue privately and directly with Archbishop Apuron and take the appropriate course of action if necessary. We assume of course that Archbishop Apuron wouldn't lie to you as he has to us.