GUAM
The Tablet (UK)
19 September 2016 | by Sean Smith
New law which will allow civil suits against church for alleged child sex abuse of archbishop will force sale of assets
Vatican representative pleads with people of Guam to help save church from bankruptcy
A Vatican administrator who was sent to the small pacific island of Guam to investigate accusations of child sex abuse against Archbishop Anthony Apuron, 70, who denies any wrongdoing and refuses to step down from his post, has taken the unprecedented step of issuing a statement that was read out at all church services on the fiercely Catholic island.
Archbishop Savio Hon Tai-Fai who is currently at the Vatican took the step of writing to the Roman Catholic faithful on the island after it emerged that Guam’s legislature passed a bill to remove the statute of limitations on civil lawsuits on the US territory which would allow alleged victims to sue the church for reparation despite many of the alleged abuses taking place in the 1970s and now being out of time to be pursued in the civil courts.
“I can assure you that the gravely serious allegations against Archbishop Apuron will continue to be dealt with… a canonical trial. His Holiness, Pope Francis, is monitoring the proceedings,” Tai-Fai said in the letter read out across the territory which is considered to have one of the most strategically important US military bases in the world – holding thousands of US military personnel on the island which sits in the Pacific Ocean between Hawaii and China.
“On behalf of the church, I want to apologise personally to the survivors of sexual abuse everywhere who have suffered so much at the hands of clergy,” he added. “We cannot undo the betrayal of trust and faith and the horrendous acts that the clergy have committed against the youngest and the most innocent amongst us.”
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.