Haidee V Eugenio, Steve Limtiaco and Dana M Williams, Pacific Daily News, Aug. 8, 2017<\/p>\n
Editor’s note: Some details in this report, while important to the understanding of the story, are graphic.\u00a0Also,\u00a0the USA TODAY Network does not identify alleged sexual abuse victims who do not wish to come forward.<\/em><\/p>\n HAG\u00c5T\u00d1A, Guam \u2014 It started\u00a0off innocently: a 15-year-old boy\u00a0helping out at San Miguel,\u00a0a local church named for Archangel Michael, the leader of all angels.<\/p>\n There was\u00a0yardwork and cleaning, followed by\u00a0invitations to the rectory to eat and watch TV. Soon, there were offers to drink sacramental wine and watch X-rated movies. Then\u00a0sexual assault.<\/p>\n More\u00a0than 50 times over three years.<\/p>\n By the parish priest.<\/p>\n Those jarring allegations come\u00a0from a recent lawsuit claiming assault\u00a0from 1985 to 1988.\u00a0It is one of nearly 100 lawsuits that describe rampant child sexual abuse by some of Guam\u2019s most revered men: the\u00a0Catholic clergy.<\/p>\n An investigation by the\u00a0USA TODAY Network’s Pacific Daily News<\/em> unearthed allegations\u00a0of decades of assault, manipulation and intimidation of children reared on this remote, predominantly Catholic U.S. territory. \u00a0Among the accusations: a\u00a0boy fondled on the way to his grandmother\u2019s burial, and\u00a0another molested for the first time\u00a0on his seventh birthday, then raped or assaulted 100 more times<\/a>.<\/p>\n The children’s\u00a0steadfast faith\u00a0in the\u00a0island’s priests made them vulnerable, the lawsuits say.\u00a0\u00a0Accuser William Payne’s parents\u00a0“had raised him to honor and respect the priest, and told him that he had to do what the priest told him to do,” according to his lawsuit. \u00a0He had\u00a0“been instilled with the belief that clergy are never wrong, and that the clergy were like Jesus.\u201d<\/p>\n The lawsuits and other public statements\u00a0collectively claim that priests preyed on children for nearly four decades, with\u00a0allegations of wrongdoing reaching\u00a0the highest levels of the Guam Catholic hierarchy.<\/p>\n Archbishop Anthony Apuron, 13\u00a0Guam priests\u00a0and others, including\u00a0a Catholic schoolteacher,\u00a0a Catholic school janitor\u00a0 and a Boy Scout leader, are alleged to be sexual predators. Guam’s Archdiocese\u00a0of Agana is a defendant\u00a0in 96 lawsuits.\u00a0The\u00a0complaints detail\u00a0alleged attacks from 1955 through 1994 and claim some religious leaders knew of the exploitation\u00a0and ignored it.\u00a0One retired priest, who admitted in an affidavit that he sexually abused 20 or more boys, still receives a monthly stipend from the archdiocese. The accusations also ensnare the Boy Scouts of America, where that priest also served as a scoutmaster.\u00a0The scouting group is\u00a0named\u00a0as a co-defendant in 52 lawsuits.<\/p>\n While clergy abuse is\u00a0well documented elsewhere in the U.S. and in cities around the world \u2014 even as the subject of the Academy Award-winning movie Spotlight<\/em> \u2014 a similar pattern of allegations in Guam has\u00a0gone largely unnoticed outside this tiny island. The accusations only recently\u00a0caught the attention of\u00a0the Vatican.<\/p>\n In June 2016, Pope Francis suspended Apuron, who has since been accused in four lawsuits of sexually abusing four altar boys in the 1970s.<\/strong> The Vatican is now\u00a0trying him in a secret\u00a0procedure\u00a0that could lead to him\u00a0being dismissed from the clergy, also known as being\u00a0laicized. Apuron\u00a0is among the highest-ranking church officials to be tried by the Vatican for sexual wrongdoings.<\/p>\n Apuron has denied the abuse charges via statements on video and through written statements issued by the archdiocese. His attorney has filed motions to dismiss lawsuits against him.<\/p>\n Apuron\u2019s Vatican\u00a0trial is \u201cvery, very rare, and the reason it\u2019s rare is because the Vatican or the popes have protected the bishops,\u201d says Dominican priest Tom Doyle,\u00a0a specialist in canon, or church, law\u00a0who advocates for abuse victims.\u00a0 \u201cThey consider them to be the most important part of the church, so they protect them, no matter what they\u2019ve done.”<\/p>\n Complaints against the Boy Scouts say\u00a0the group\u00a0ignored the priest\u00a0abuse and enabled clergy to prey on young boys.\u00a0 At times\u00a0the church required\u00a0Guam altar boys\u00a0join the Boy Scouts, and Boy Scouts were encouraged to serve in the church, according to lawsuits.<\/p>\n The Guam\u00a0lawsuits join a steady stream of accusations against Catholic clergy. In June, Pope Francis aide Cardinal George Pell was charged with “historical sexual offenses”\u00a0by authorities in his native Australia. Pell denied the charges <\/a>in a Vatican news conference.<\/p>\n The Boston scandal is one of the most high-profile examples of clergy abuse. In 2003, there was a\u00a0$85 million settlement\u00a0of 552 lawsuits against the Boston Archdiocese involving more than 150 priests.\u00a0\u00a0Yet, Guam’s sexual abuse controversy appears to have seeped more deeply into its smaller community. There\u00a0are more than 4.7 million people in the greater Boston area, while the population of Guam \u2014 an island\u00a0about 3,800 miles west of\u00a0Hawaii \u2014 is fewer\u00a0than 163,000 people.\u00a0Per capita, that\u2019s 12 lawsuits per 100,000 in Boston, compared with 59 lawsuits per 100,000\u00a0in Guam.<\/p>\n Scandal runs deep<\/strong><\/p>\n Indeed, the accusations\u00a0touch\u00a0the personal and professional lives of many here. All eight\u00a0of Guam’s trial court judges, for instance, have recused themselves from\u00a0at least some lawsuits, saying they have familial or business ties to either the plaintiffs or the defendants, court documents show.<\/p>\n The deluge of Guam abuse claims arrived after lawmakers passed a bill in September 2016\u00a0retroactively<\/b>eliminating the statute of limitations for civil lawsuits involving child sexual abuse.\u00a0The criminal statute of limitations was lifted in 2011 but can\u2019t be applied retroactively.<\/p>\n Attorneys for the archdiocese,\u00a0Apuron and the Boy Scouts,\u00a0as well as two accused clergy members \u2014 \u00a0retired Saipan Bishop Tomas Camacho and the Rev. David Anderson \u2014 \u00a0have filed motions to dismiss the lawsuits, arguing that the law lifting the statute of limitations for civil claims in child sexual abuse cases is unconstitutional.\u00a0As of late July, some of the defendants had not been served with legal papers and had not filed responses, according to court records.<\/p>\n The archdiocese has said it takes all allegations \u201cvery seriously.”<\/p>\n “We care deeply about every person who steps forward and we look forward to a full resolution of all cases,” the archdiocese said in a July 28 news release.\u00a0<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0The Vatican didn\u2019t reply to requests for comment.<\/p>\n The Boy Scouts \u201cdeeply regrets that there have been times when scouts were abused\u201d and has developed safeguards, such as not allowing\u00a0a leader to be alone with a child,\u00a0scout Aloha Council CEO Jeff Sulzbach said in a statement.<\/p>\n The lawsuits filed\u00a0in the District Court of Guam and the Superior Court of Guam claim pervasive incidents of abuse dotted through everyday island life.\u00a0\u00a0Some examples of the allegations:<\/p>\n Brouillard, a priest on Guam from 1948 to 1981, has been named as an abuser in 55 lawsuits. He admitted in an affidavit in October\u00a02016 that he sexually abused 20 or more boys on the island. The affidavit, an exhibit in some of the lawsuits, was obtained by an investigator who went to Brouillard\u2019s home in Minnesota. The investigator was hired by David Lujan,\u00a0the attorney for 75 plaintiffs in the church lawsuits.<\/p>\n Brouillard said in that affidavit that fellow clergy, including then-Bishop Apollinaris Baumgartner,\u00a0who is now dead, knew\u00a0of his actions and told him to \u201ctry to do better\u201d and to say prayers as penance.<\/p>\n Reached by the\u00a0Pacific Daily News <\/em>by phone after he was named as an abuser in a Guam Legislature hearing last summer,\u00a0Brouillard said \u201cit\u2019s possible\u201d he abused altar boys on the island.<\/p>\n Brouillard hasn’t filed a legal response and couldn\u2019t be reached for additional comment.<\/p>\n The Archdiocese of Agana still provides Brouillard, 96, with a monthly stipend of $550.<\/p>\n Do what the priests say<\/strong><\/p>\n Catholicism\u00a0has long been an\u00a0integral part of life on this\u00a0Western Pacific island.<\/p>\n \u201cSince the 17th century, Catholic churches have been the center of village activities,\u201d proclaims the Guam Visitors Bureau on\u00a0a website describing the culture of its native Chamorro population.<\/p>\n About 85% of its residents are\u00a0Catholic, populating\u00a026\u00a0parishes on an island just\u00a030 miles long.<\/p>\n Extreme reverence for\u00a0church leadership, paired with Guam’s\u00a0remote location, left abused children geographically trapped with few places to go for help, says Joelle Casteix, a volunteer regional director of the support group Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, known as SNAP.<\/p>\n Priests used their clout to gain access to the boys, as well as to\u00a0keep their victims\u00a0quiet, according to many of the\u00a0lawsuits.\u00a0One accuser,\u00a0described in his lawsuit only as S.A.F., said that in 1975 Brouillard told him, “If you tell anyone, no one will believe you because I am a priest.”<\/p>\n In some cases, they were\u00a0told that sexual acts were \u201cpenance\u201d or were needed to earn Boy Scout badges,\u00a0according to lawsuits.<\/p>\n Some\u00a0accusers\u00a0say they were too terrified to tell their devout parents, while others told adults\u00a0but weren\u2019t believed, according to the lawsuits.<\/p>\n \u201cI thought about it a million times, but I was scared to tell them, especially my mom,\u201d a man identified only as R.B. in his lawsuit told the Pacific Daily News<\/em> in a phone interview. \u201cShe’s a die-hard Catholic. If I tell her a priest did that to me, I don’t think she would believe me.”<\/p>\n In at least two lawsuits, accusers said the abuse was reported to local police decades ago. However, the Guam Police Department recently said it has no record of the reports, which would not have been retained because the statute of limitations for criminal prosecution passed long ago.<\/p>\n Even as adults, victims feared\u00a0discussing what happened, says\u00a0SNAP\u2019s Casteix, who came to Guam in 2009 to follow up on a call she received from an accuser.<\/p>\n \u201cI was told outright that victims were scared that they would be shunned from their families, kicked out of the church, lose their jobs, or that by speaking out against the church or Apuron, they would threaten the financial security of their loved ones,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n Some were even concerned their phones might be tapped, she says.<\/p>\n \u201cNo one wanted to be seen with me, not even the tipster who initially called me,\u201d she says. \u201cI was told that the church was the most powerful entity on the island, outside of the military. Messing with Apuron was worse than messing with God.\u201d<\/p>\n Power beyond the pulpit<\/strong><\/p>\n Apuron,\u00a071,\u00a0wielded\u00a0much influence.<\/p>\n \u201cHe, as archbishop, had immense power,\u201d says Guam Legislature Speaker Benjamin Cruz,\u00a0a former judge and Guam Supreme Court justice.<\/p>\n Apuron, the second native Chamorro archbishop and once an altar boy himself, led the Catholic faithful here for three decades.\u00a0He officiated thousands of masses, baptisms, weddings and funerals and positioned himself as a fierce defender of morality, local culture and tradition. When \u201cFather Tony\u201d was the pastor, families considered it a source of pride to have their sons serve as altar boys.<\/p>\n He readily used his stature as spiritual leader to help shape\u00a0political decisions. In one instance, he threatened to excommunicate any Catholic lawmaker who voted against a measure that outlawed all abortions except when necessary to save the life of the mother.<\/p>\n Yet, in recent years, Apuron faced detractors who criticized him for how he handled church real estate and finances. In December 2014, disgruntled civic leaders formed Concerned Catholics of Guam,\u00a0a non-profit group that called for greater financial transparency from the archdiocese and for Apuron\u2019s resignation.<\/p>\n In May 2016, Concerned Catholics ran a full-page ad in local newspapers including the Pacific Daily News<\/em>\u00a0urging sexual abuse victims to come forward. The ad listed specific dates and locations, each corresponding to Apuron\u2019s service dates and parishes.<\/p>\n Concerned Catholics President David Sablan says the ads were placed at the request of local Catholic issues blogger Tim Rohr,\u00a0who had encouraged clergy sex abuse victims to come forward via a post on his JungleWatch blog.<\/p>\n Rohr says he posted that blog item after he spoke with three of Apuron\u2019s accusers:\u00a0\u00a0Quintanilla, Denton and Roland Sondia. Like Quintanilla and Denton, Sondia \u2014 who is an employee of the Pacific Daily News<\/em> \u2014 has filed a sexual abuse lawsuit against Apuron, the archdiocese and others.<\/p>\n Nine days after the Concerned Catholics ad came out, Quintanilla held a news conference to accuse Apuron of molesting him. Then Doris Concepcion, the mother of former altar boy Joseph \u201cSonny\u201d Quinata,\u00a0said in an interview with the\u00a0Pacific Daily News<\/em> that soon before Quinata died, he told her Apuron abused him. The estate of Quinata also has filed a lawsuit against Apuron, the archdiocese and others.<\/p>\n On June 6, 2016, Pope Francis<\/b>stripped Apuron of his administrative authority and installed a temporary apostolic administrator in Guam. Apuron\u00a0said the appointment was made at his request. \u201cThe holy father has understood the importance of establishing the truth and will allow an independent investigation of these false allegations to proceed,\u201d he said on a video released by the archdiocese.<\/p>\n In October, the pope appointed Archbishop Michael Byrnes of Detroit to run the Guam archdiocese. He is designated as Apuron’s eventual successor.<\/p>\n The Vatican tribunal’s discovery phase of Apuron’s trial has ended, and a group of judges are deliberating on his fate.<\/p>\n Last week, a federal judge\u00a0agreed to temporarily halt proceedings in most of the clergy sex abuse lawsuits so they can go through an out-of-court settlement process. The church\u2019s financial arm has identified dozens of its island properties that\u00a0could be sold to help finance the settlements. The church also has set up a “Hope and Healing Guam”\u00a0initiative to provide\u00a0counseling for\u00a0victims.<\/p>\n Apuron still officially holds the title of archbishop.<\/p>\n Some still have faith<\/strong><\/p>\n Some lawsuit plaintiffs say the alleged abuse damaged their spirituality, and at least one abandoned\u00a0the Catholic Church.<\/p>\n Yet, many retained their religious beliefs. After the first group of former altar boys filed suit late last year, plaintiff’s attorney Lujan said the men\u00a0“hope and pray that the church flourishes for another 2,000 years.\u201d<\/p>\n On the island, resident Mae Reyes Ada,\u00a074,\u00a0says she sometimes feels embarrassed and guilty that she did not speak up when she first heard rumors of clergy abuse in the 1970s. \u00a0“The mentality at the time was you don\u2019t say anything bad about the church and the priests,\u201d she says, adding that she\u00a0didn’t have proof.<\/p>\n \u201cWe should have, and we could have, done something a long time ago,” says\u00a0Ada, who joined the peaceful\u00a0protests to have Apuron permanently removed from the clergy.<\/p>\n Despite\u00a0the\u00a0scandal, she says, her religious conviction has only intensified.<\/p>\n \u201cThe church is going through purging and cleansing,\u201d she says. \u201cIt takes somebody with a strong faith to fight this war.”<\/p>\n And one\u00a0young island resident\u00a0\u2014 born after the alleged abuse took place \u2014 \u00a0stands ready to make sure the church flourishes.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m here to help these people in their fight against the evils that have infiltrated our church,\u201d Jaden Comon, 14,\u00a0said during a\u00a0July protest to have Apuron removed.<\/p>\n Comon’s aspiration: to become a priest.<\/p>\n \u201cAs young people, we are the future of the church,\u201d he says. \u00a0\u201cIt\u2019s our responsibility, especially when we were baptized in the faith, to come and help.\u201d<\/p>\n Contributing: Nichelle Smith, USA TODAY;\u00a0Eric J. Lyman, USA TODAY<\/em><\/p>\n Victim resources<\/strong><\/p>\n Here are resources for those who have been victims of abuse or know an abuse victim who may need help.<\/p>\n\n
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