Deacon says Apuron innocent: Church won’t investigate molestation allegation

GUAM
Pacific Daily News

Written by
Gaynor Dumat-ol Daleno
Pacific Daily News

A victim in the sexual molestation allegation against Archbishop Anthony Apuron hasn’t surfaced, so there’s nothing to investigate, a church official said yesterday.

Deacon Larry Claros, the archdiocese’s newly appointed sexual abuse response coordinator, made the statement yesterday morning outside the archdiocese’s Chancery office after a brief meeting with the archbishop’s accuser, John Toves.

Toves, 50, said when he was a 16-year-old altar boy, Toves’ relative and co-seminarian at a high school seminary on Guam was allegedly sexually abused by Apuron, who was a priest at the time.

Apuron issued a statement on Nov. 29 that the allegation “is a horrible calumny and I am obliged to defend not my person, but the Church.”

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