GUAM
Pacific Daily News
Jojo Santo Tomas, jsantotoma@guampdn.com June 20, 2016
Protesters filled the walkway in front of the Dulce Nombre de Maria Cathedral-Basilica on Sunday morning, marching as they have at different locations around Guam for the last few months.
The protests have called for Archbishop Anthony Apuron to resign as head of Guam’s Catholic church. And while the initial protesters mostly accused Apuron of mismanagement, the last few weeks have been all about sexual abuse accusations stemming from incidents more than 30 years ago.
The protesters have usually been members of organized church groups such as the Concerned Catholics of Guam and Laity Forward Movement, but many people have joined the protests on personal accord – such as Jose Okada of Dededo.
Okada said that although he’s not a member of any group, he came to Hagåtña Sunday because he wanted to show that he too, wanted Apuron’s resignation. His words were spiked with Chamorro inflection as he shared the thoughts that were once restricted to family.
“Before, I was just … you know, his attitude, nai? And then, things started coming out that he was abusing kids!” Okada said. “So that’s why I’m really here, for him to just get out, adai, step down, ‘sa we don’t need a bishop that is in there that is molesting kids.”
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