Claim church rewarded priest who protected abuser

GUAM – The Catholic Church in Guam is being accused of rewarding a priest who shielded its Archbishop from abuse allegations.

The Concerned Catholics of Guam has written a letter to the church questioning the decision to send Father Adrian Cristobal to study in Canada.

Concerned Catholics president David Sablan told Radio New Zealand that Father Cristobal is also a member of an alternative movement within the Church that has caused division and abused its resources.

“Father Adrian Cristobal was the chancellor during the reign of Archbishop Anthony Apuron who was allegedly accused of numerous sexual abuse of young altar boys when he was the pastor prior to being elevated to bishop.

“ I would believe that Father Cristobal knew about some of these allegations but basically did not say much about it – that’s just my opinion knowing how he interacted with the Archbishop.

“But our concern primarily is that he has basically lied about numerous issues and now we find that this new Archbishop, Archbishop Byrnes has basically decided to send him off to study Canon Law in Canada.

“Which in the opinion of many in Concerned Catholics it’s basically a reward for his misdeeds, that’s the only way we can look at it.”

RNZI: When you say a reward for his misdeeds, do you mean that he has effectively been rewarded for protecting Archbishop Apuron?

“That’s kind of how we view it because of the fact that he has been one of the individuals that has caused this division within our church here.

“He is a member of this Neocatechumenal Way, and he (the archbisop) has been giving them many favours and, you know, he was also instrumental in providing them resources from our archdiocese to continue their religious practices here on the island.

“There’s a seminary that was taken over by the Neocatechumenal Way and that has been funded by the archdiocese and in the end we felt that he (Father Cristobal) should be disciplined rather than being sent off to go study Canon Law.”

- RNZI