GUAM
Pacific Daily News
Haidee V Eugenio , heugenio@guampdn.com April 21, 2017
Archbishop Michael Jude Byrnes has asked Catholics to join the rest of Guam in observing child abuse prevention month, to help bring hope and healing to victims, including those who are sexual assault survivors.
“Please do not cast a blind eye or a deaf ear to something that you see or hear,” Byrnes said in an April 16 pastoral letter. “Take advantage of the social and legal remedies available to us. And if you know someone who is suffering silently with the shame of having been abused as a minor by a member of the clergy, please give them the number to the Hope and Healing hotline: 1-888-649-5288.”
Byrnes, in his Easter Sunday message, said he is mindful of the many victims of sexual assault and child abuse on island, particularly the victims of child sexual abuse perpetrated by members of the Catholic clergy.
The Archdiocese of Agana faces 54 clergy sex abuse lawsuits filed in local and federal courts as of April 19, including allegations against Archbishop Anthony S. Apuron, who is also undergoing a Vatican canonical penal trial.
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