GUAM
Marianas Variety
19 Sep 2016
Mar-Vic Cagurangan – For Variety
HAGÅTÑA — The passage of a bill that would lift the statute of limitation for sex-abuse cases, if signed into law, would open the floodgates for lawsuits against the Archdiocese of Agana and drive the Guam church into financial bankruptcy, Archbishop Savio Hon Tai Fai said Sunday.
“In other states where similar laws were enacted, the results have been school closures and cessation of vital services,” the apostolic administrator said in a message addressed to the faithful and read at Sunday Mass.
Hon is now back in Rome to ask Pope Francis to remove Archbishop Anthony S. Apuron as head of the Archdiocese, citing the “gravely serious allegations” that the church will continue to deal with during a canonical trial at the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith.
The Archdiocese is facing mounting allegations of sex abuse against Apuron, who is accused of molesting altar boys when he was a priest at the Mount Carmel Parish in Agat in the 1970s. At least four former altar boys, the mother of a deceased altar boy and a third-party witness have come out with claims against Apuron, revealing secrets kept for almost five decades.
“On behalf of the church, I want to apologize personally to the survivors of sexual abuse everywhere who have suffered so much at the hands of clergy,” Hon said. “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.”
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