Klitzkie: Church Published ‘deceptive’ Property Document

By Jasmine Stole
Guam Daily Post
March 7, 2016

http://www.postguam.com/news/local/klitzkie-church-published-deceptive-property-document/article_3723c950-e43d-11e5-ac3a-4b83aad78e2b.html

Former Sen. Bob Klitzkie is calling on the Department of Land Management to look into what he suspects are deliberately doctored government documents that the Archdiocese of Agana printed in the Nov. 29, 2015 issue of the U’Matuna Si Yu’os.

The U’Matuna Si Yu’os printed a copy of a certificate of title on the front page of the paper. In the article, approved by the Monsignor David Quitugua, vicar general, Quitugua said the certificates established that the archdiocese, by Archbishop Anthony Apuron, “maintains legal ownership of the seminary property and it is only the archdiocese through the mechanisms of Canon Law that will determine the transferor conveyance of this property.”

The property in question is that on which sits the Redemptoris Mater Seminary of Guam in Yona. At issue is the legal ownership of the property. Critics, like Klitzkie, refute the archdiocese’s claims that the property is under the control of Apuron and the archdiocese.

The church printed the certificate of title retrieved from DLM records on Oct. 30, 2015, and the accompanying article, under the headline “Ownership of Seminary property confirmed.”

About a month after the article was published, in a December letter to DLM Director Michael Borja, Klitzkie wrote that four certificates of title are “clearly erroneous on their face.”

There are four certificates of title because the seminary property is made up of two lots and two rights-of-way, according to the U’Matuna article.

Mischief

Klitzkie wrote the certificates are “potentially the source of great mischief and require your prompt corrective action.”

The former senator said he obtained certified true copies of the certificates on Dec. 15, that list, under a Memorial section, a third instrument called a “Declaration of Deed Restriction.” This Declaration of Deed Restriction document was listed on all four certificates of title on Nov. 22, according to Klitzkie.

The certificates of title published in the U’Matuna on Nov. 29, however, do not list this Declaration of Deed Restriction.

The document’s declaration states the property “shall be dedicated, to and for the use, of the Redemptoris Mater Archdiocesan Missionary Seminary of Guam, a nonprofit corporation … in perpetual use as a see of the Redemptoris Mater Archdiocesan Missionary Seminary of Guam and by the Blessed Diego Luis San Vitores Catholic Theological Institute for Oceania.”

This sentence, Kltizkie wrote, shows the charge in the property’s memorial is in favor of the Redemptoris Mater Seminary, not the archbishop.

Klitzkie also said the Declaration of Deed Restriction document was omitted from the certificates of title.

On Nov. 22, the certificates issued listing the Declaration of Deed Restriction in the memorials were wrong because the certificate of title list the deed restriction in favor of Archbishop Anthony Apuron, the former senator wrote.

According to Klitzkie, the deed restriction should not be in favor of the archbishop but of the seminary.

“So we went from omitted memorials to memorials that were dead wrong,” Klitzkie wrote in his letter to Borja. “These egregiously incorrect public documents cry out for your action as the Registrar of Titles.”

Borja did not respond to inquiries from the Post about Klitzkie’s letter.

Attorney Jacqueline Terlaje in November defended Apuron’s control over the seminary property, after attorney Jacques Bronze opined that the property was not under Apuron’s control.

Terlaje, in a statement, referred to the Declaration of Deed Restriction that Klitzke wrote was omitted from the property’s certificate of title.

“In fact, the declaration declares that the Archbishop of Agana, A Corporate Sole, is the ‘owner’ of the property, imposing on itself a restriction. By imposing on itself a restriction, the archbishop, in the same way, can impose further conditions on himself as the owner of both the seminary property, and the seminary itself,” Terlaje said.

Terlaje, who has said she is not an attorney for the archdiocese, also said in her statement that the archbishop has taken steps to ensure he has “ownership, control and authority” over the seminary and the seminary property. Those steps include obtaining title reports, which show that the tile is in the name of the archdiocese, getting an opinion from the Pontifical Council for the Interpretation of Legislative Texts and seeking a legal opinion from Lewis Roca Rothgerber.

Terlaje said in her statement that “in every instance, the conclusion has been consistent – that the archdiocese is the legal owner of the seminary property; the seminary holds a right to beneficial use of the property; and as the corporate sole member of the seminary, the archbishop retains complete authority over the seminary.”

According to receipt documents from DLM, the fee paid to obtain archbishop’s certificates of titles paid for in November, the $768 fee was paid for with two checks, one from Bertha Evangelista and one check from Jacqueline Terlaje.