Carmelite nuns say they were asked to lie about ownership of seminary

seminary

Archbishop Anthony Apuron, the Rev. Pius Sammut and others, in 2014, tried to get the Carmelites Sisters to lie said Mother Dawn Marie, the superior of the Carmelite Monastery on Guam.

The Carmelites had anonymously donated the $2 million used by the Archdiocese of  Agãna, to buy a former hotel in Yona.

They considered suing the church after finding out the property was not being used by the archdiocese, but for a seminary operated by the Neocatechumenal Way,

Sr Dawn Marie says they were asked to state that they had purposely earmarked their gift for the use of the Redemptoris Mater Seminary and for the Blessed Diego Luis de San Vitores Catholic Theological Institute for Oceania.

She said  it was a “pretty toxic environment for the nuns to live in.”

“Because the gift was an anonymous gift from the very beginning, that anonymity was not respected by the archbishop.”

“So many people knew and misunderstood that the Carmelites in Malojloj had donated the $2 million. The Carmelite community in Guam hadn’t even have a savings account,” she said.

The latest edition of The Archdiocese of Agãna’s newspaper, Umatuna Si Yu’os corrected its earlier story about the ownership od trhe former hotel.

A story published on the front page of the newspaper on 29 November last year it carried the headline indicating that the Archbishop was the legal and sole owner of the property.

The story did not include any information about a declaration of deed restriction that clearly stated that the Owner hereby covenants and declares that the Property is and shall be held, used, transferred, sold and conveyed subject to the covenants and restrictions set forth herein:

The restriction stated:

The property shall be dedicated, to and for the use, of the Redemptoris Mater Archdiocesan Missionary Seminary of Guam, a non-profit coporation with identification number #66-0626532, in perpetual use as a see of the Redemptoris Mater Archdiocesan Missionary Seminary of Guam, and by the Blessed Diego Luis de san Vitores Catholic Theological Institute for Oceania.”

This week, the Archdiocese announced that it has “acted to transfer complete and unrestricted control and possession of the Yona property back to the Archdiocese of Agaña.”

Source

Additional reading

News category: Asia Pacific.

Tags: , , ,