{"id":236799,"date":"2016-09-20T06:00:57","date_gmt":"2016-09-19T20:00:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=236799"},"modified":"2016-09-20T06:00:57","modified_gmt":"2016-09-19T20:00:57","slug":"administrator-urges-vatican-remove-guams-archbishop","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/administrator-urges-vatican-remove-guams-archbishop\/","title":{"rendered":"Administrator urges Vatican to remove Guam\u2019s archbishop"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_236818\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-236818\" style=\"width: 221px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/Administrator_pix-221x300.jpg\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-236818\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Rev. Fr. Jeffrey C. San Nicolas, apostolic delegate, delivers a homily on Sunday, Sept. 18, 2016, at the Dulce Nombre de Maria Cathedral-Basilica in Hagatna, Guam. (AP)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><strong>HAGATNA, Guam<\/strong> (AP)\u2014A Roman Catholic administrator is urging the Vatican to remove Guam\u2019s archbishop, who has refused to resign amid accusations of sexual abuse against altar boys. <\/p>\n<p>The move comes after a letter delivered in July from leaders in the Archdiocese of Agana did not move Archbishop Anthony Apuron to leave his post. <\/p>\n<p>Archbishop Savio Hon, a temporary apostolic administrator for Guam who was appointed by the Vatican after the allegations surfaced, also is urging parishioners to sign a petition upholding the statute of limitation on civil lawsuits for child sex abuse. He said the archdiocese \u201cwill be exposed to unlimited financial liability\u201d forcing the sale of church property. Guam\u2019s population is about 80 percent Catholic. <\/p>\n<p>A bill that lifts the current statute of limitation passed the Guam Legislature and is expected to be delivered to the governor\u2019s desk on Sept. 21. The Guam church has not submitted any substitute bill for consideration. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cRight now we hope any legislation would not damage the social service agencies and the schools that are not a part of these accusations,\u201d said Father Jeff San Nicolas, who is Guam\u2019s apostolic delegate. <\/p>\n<p>Priests of the island\u2019s 26 Catholic churches were asked to read a two-page letter during Sunday masses, which Hon sent from Rome, in which he addressed these matters and also stated that Apuron would undergo a canonical trial. <\/p>\n<p>Parishioner Roland C. Flores, 40, who heard the letter being read at a Sunday mass, said he signed the petition \u201cso they won\u2019t shut down Catholic schools.\u201d He attended Catholic schools and does not want to see them turned into government facilities. <\/p>\n<p>Hon in the letter also announced the creation of a trust fund to provide compensation for Guam\u2019s survivors of clergy sex abuse. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe are already in the process of assessing certain assets to create this fund. We will address this financial obligation&#8211;financial settlements through this fund that we create,\u201d said San Nicolas. <\/p>\n<p>Catholics make up about 80 percent of Guam\u2019s population. Apruon, 70, was appointed as archbishop in 1986 by then-Pope John Paul II and has been beset by recent allegations from former altar boys that he sexually abused them in the 1970\u2019s. <\/p>\n<p>Hon is expected to return to Guam on Wednesday. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>HAGATNA, Guam (AP)\u2014A Roman Catholic administrator is urging the Vatican to remove Guam\u2019s archbishop, who&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":236818,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[10800,13463,13464,2613],"class_list":["post-236799","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news","tag-archbishop-anthony-apuron","tag-archbishop-savio-hon","tag-dulce-nombre","tag-guam-legislature"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/236799","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=236799"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/236799\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/236818"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=236799"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=236799"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=236799"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}