GUAM
Guam Daily Post
“It is time to return the property to the Archdiocese of Agana,” said David Sablan, newly elected president of the Concerned Catholics of Guam.
In a press conference yesterday, Aug. 22, CCOG officials responded to Archbishop Savio Hon Tai Fai’s recent statement regarding the ongoing dispute over the Redemptoris Mater Seminary in Yona.
In a statement Thursday, Aug. 18, Hon reported findings presented to him and the Archdiocese’s Presbyteral Council detailing the current status of the seminary property. Hon said that while the property was “acquired” by the Archdiocese of Agana, its use had “been conceded in perpetuity to RMS and (the Blessed Diego Theological Institute).”
“Archbishop Hon’s announcement is an admittance that the seminary property is not controlled by the Archdiocese of Agana,” Sablan said. “An asset of the church worth anywhere between $40 million and $75 million was given away for free with no benefit to the local Catholic church.”
While Hon claimed that legal rights to the Yona property belong “uniquely” to the Archdiocese of Agana, Sablan and CCOG take issue with a “deed restriction” that Archbishop Anthony Apuron filed with the Department of Land Management in November 2011.
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