Catholics Appeal to Vatican Group

By Gaynor Dumat
Pacific Daily News
January 6, 2015

http://www.guampdn.com/article/20150107/NEWS01/301070008/Catholics-appeal-Vatican-group

Former.jpg Former hotel: The Redemptoris Mater Archdiocesan Missionary Seminary of Guam in Yona, as photographed on July 31, 2014. / Virgilio Valencia/Pacific Daily News/vvalenciaj@gu

A prayer walk scheduled for this afternoon, a prayer vigil on Friday and a third public prayer gathering, also on Friday, are being organized as part of a grassroots effort to send messages to a visiting delegation of Vatican representatives.

One of the organizers, Dwayne Santos, said the prayer walk will give island residents who can't secure an appointment with the Vatican representatives a way to call attention to concerns that have divided the local Catholic community.

Participants of the prayer walk, scheduled for 4:30 p.m. today, will meet across from St. Anthony's Church in Tamuning and proceed to the Carmelite Monastery several blocks away.

The Vatican delegation is expected to hold private meetings with certain members of the local church community in the monastery compound.

"Anyone can join the walk even if they just want to be there to pray," Santos said.

Walk participants can carry signs, which Santos said "have to be peaceful, ... not violent or offensive."

Women to lead vigil

At 1:30 p.m. Friday, a group of Guam women will lead a prayer vigil at St. Anthony's Spiritual Center in Tamuning.

Carmen Kasperbauer, Lou Klitzkie, Marilen Artero and Josefina C. Diaz are among those leading the prayer vigil, Artero said.

"We want to bring together the island's Catholic community in this prayer vigil, employing the most powerful weapon for spiritual warfare -- the Rosary," Artero said.

"We are gathering in prayer protest for resolutions to very grave concerns," Artero said.

Kasperbauer said the prayer vigil is a way for island Catholics to be heard, including on their concerns that Archbishop Anthony Apuron has lost touch with those who aren't affiliated with the Neocatechumenal Way.

A third public prayer gathering is scheduled to start at 4:30 p.m. Friday outside the Carmelite monastery compound in Tamuning.

Neocatechumenal Way

The Neocatechumenal Way is a movement worldwide within the Catholic Church, but its practices and influence on Apuron are being opposed locally, including by those affiliated with the newly formed nonprofit group Concerned Catholics of Guam.

"We feel there is (a) deep chasm developing in our church community, and it's not good for us," Kasperbauer said.

"We want to be heard -- not just the other side," Kasperbauer said. "We feel the archbishop has a fiduciary responsibility to all of us Catholics here on Guam."

She said it's heartbreaking to see Apuron publicly chastise local priests, including Monsignor James Benavente and Father James Gofigan, who aren't associated with the Neocatechumenal Way. Benavente and Gofigan were stripped of their leadership roles at the Dulce Nombre de Maria Cathedral-Basilica and the Santa Barbara Church, respectively.

Real estate asset

Concerned Catholics also has voiced concern that a prime real estate asset of the church, the former Accion Hotel, may no longer be under the full control of the Archdiocese of Agana.

In 2011, against the advice of the archdiocese finance council members at the time, Apuron signed a deed of restriction. That document, recorded with the Department of Land Management, authorized the Redemptoris Mater Seminary "perpetual use" of the property that the archdiocese purchased using donated money. The seminary's Articles of Incorporation state the seminary is under a board of governors with four members. One is Apuron and the three others are New Jersey residents affiliated with the leadership of the Neocatechumenal Way, the Articles of Incorporation state.

The former Accion Hotel cost about $57 million to develop, but when it failed as a hotel business, the archdiocese bought the 100-room oceanfront property in Yona for $2 million more than a decade ago using money from an anonymous donor, Pacific Daily News files show.

Vatican visitors

The Vatican visitors include Archbishop Savio Hon Tai-Fai, secretary of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples, the Vatican office to whom some of Guam's Catholics sent letters over the past several months, seeking an investigation of the various controversies in the local archdiocese.

A few weeks ago, the archdiocesan leadership stated the visit is "meant to foster reconciliation and mutual understanding within the archdiocese."

Father Pius Sammut, of the Neocatechumenal Way on Guam, stated in August that second-guessing Apuron's decision on Benavente and Gofigan was "an effort to try to find a scapegoat and not deal with the reality of the problems."

Gofigan was accused of allowing convicted sex offender and killer Joseph Lastimoza, who has served prison time and has sought forgiveness, to work within church premises as a building maintenance worker.

The archbishop has publicly mentioned financial record-keeping problems under Benavente's watch, but former archdiocese finance council members rebutted the archbishop by saying the problems predated Benavente.

Sammut stated in August that the purchase of the Accion Hotel was proposed by the Neocatechumenal Way to the archbishop. The money for the purchase of the hotel was donated to the archdiocese by an off-island benefactor who offered it with the explicit intention of erecting the seminary and the theological institute, Sammut has stated.