The Roman Catholic archbishop of the U.S. island territory
of Guam, Anthony Apuron, has been definitively convicted of sexual abuse of
minors and removed from office, the Vatican said on Thursday.
Apuron, who was accused of abusing three young men decades
ago, was first convicted by a Vatican tribunal a year ago and had appealed.
He has, however, denied wrongdoing.
“The tribunal of the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine
of the Faith upheld the first verdict.
“Apuron, 73 and a native of Guam, was removed from office
and prohibited from living on the island, even temporarily,’’ the Vatican said.
The allegations against Apuron first emerged in 2016 when
one of the victims, a former altar boy, came forward when he was in his 50s and
other victims followed.
The Vatican said the decision was definitive and no longer
could be challenged on appeal.
Apuron had served as the island’s archbishop since 1986.
The Church’s credibility has been crushed in much of the
world by abuse scandals in countries including Ireland, Chile, Australia,
France, the U.S. and Poland, paying billions of dollars in damages to victims
and forcing parishes to close.
The scandals have reached the upper echelons of the Vatican
itself with the conviction of Cardinal George Pell, jailed this month for six
years for abusing boys in his native Australia.
He had served as the Vatican treasurer and a member of the
Pope’s innermost council of Cardinals until his conviction in 2018.
Other senior Church officials have been accused of knowingly
covering up abuse, including the archbishop of Lyon, who was convicted this
year in France for failing to report abuse.
Archbishop Michael Byrnes, a former assistant bishop of
Detroit, succeeds Apuron as archbishop of the island’s single archdiocese,
Agana.
The archdiocese, which has been hit by a number of lawsuits
by victims of abuse, has filed for reorganisation bankruptcy in the island’s U.S.
district court.
Guam’s population of about 170,000 is predominantly
Catholic.
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