Archbishop Anthony S. Apuron (CNS photo)
By Catholic News Service
AGANA, Guam — No matter the outcome of a Vatican trial against Guam’s archbishop, Archbishop Anthony S. Apuron of Agana should not return to lead the archdiocese, said the archdiocese’s coadjutor.
“I think it would be a disaster if Archbishop Apuron were to return as the bishop of record,” said Coadjutor Archbishop Michael J. Byrnes, because of the extent of the loss of trust among the faithful and the “widespread disarray” left behind in church operations.
Coadjutor Archbishop Byrnes, a former auxiliary bishop of Detroit, spoke to the press in Agana July 6, offering an update of the canonical investigation and trial of Archbishop Apuron and his own personal thoughts about what would be best for the archdiocese moving forward.
U.S. Cardinal Raymond L. Burke, a church law expert and former head of the Vatican’s highest court, led a Vatican team to Guam in February to investigate allegations of sexual abuse leveled against Archbishop Apuron.
Three men have publicly accused the archbishop of sexually abusing them when they were altar boys in the 1970s. The mother of a fourth man, now deceased, also accused the archbishop of abusing her son.
Archbishop Byrnes said the Vatican trial was in its final phases.
“In the next several weeks,” three judges will convene at the Vatican to deliberate the evidence gathered during the investigation, publish what the accusations were and then decide among three possibilities: “not guilty, guilty or not proven,” he said. It could be “end of summer, early fall,” or later for the Vatican to release its decision, he added.
Asked if the archbishop was also being charged for financial mismanagement, not just alleged child abuse, Archbishop Byrnes told reporters he did not know what the charges ended up being, but that they would be published eventually after the Vatican judges deliberated.
