“I think that it would be a disaster if Archbishop Apuron were to return as the bishop of record,” Archbishop Byrnes said during a news briefing on July 6.
Byrnes said that he learned from the Notary of Canonical Tribunal in the Vatican that “the discovery period of the trial has ended” and the three judges overseeing the case will convene to deliberate on the evidence presented.
He could not say how long the deliberation would take but did say there were three possible findings the group could render: guilty, not guilty, or not proven.
Regardless of which ruling is made, Archbishop Byrnes said he agreed with former Apostolic Administrator for our archdiocese Archbishop Savio Hon Tai Fai who said last September that Archbishop Apuron should be removed as Archbishop of Agaña.
“His sentiments I entirely endorse. I’m convinced actually, that this archdiocese would be unable to achieve peace really, until it’s clear that Archbishop Apuron is no longer the bishop of record for this archdiocese.”
Byrnes said he was not making that statement on the basis of the trial but from his experience of being here for the past seven months. He described seeing “widespread disarray” in our archdiocese and “ineffectiveness of many of the operations that you’d would expect to be going on in a regular archdiocese.”
On the day before the press conference, Concerned Catholics of Guam president David Sablan and Laity Forward Movement president Lou Klitzkie, along with Catholic issues blogger Tim Rohr, announced that they would bel hold their last picket in front of the Dulce Nombre de Maria Cathedral-Basilica on Sunday.
The pickets have been held each Sunday for about a year.
Klitzkie said those who have showed up at the Sunday pickets have accomplished a lot in drawing the Vatican’s attention.
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