VATICAN CITY – A specially-appointed Vatican tribunal Friday announced that Guam Archbishop Anthony Apuron was “guilty of certain accusations” related to be sexual abuse of minors, stripping the 72-year-old Guam native of his office and prohibiting him from returning to native island.

Within hours of Friday’s ruling, Apuron said he would appeal the ruling, which dismissed some of the charges against him.

“God is my witness; I am innocent and I look forward to proving my innocence in the appeals process,” Apuron said in a statement released by his lawyer. Apuron previously threatened to sue his accusers, but his latest statement did not repeat the threat.

The tribunal’s penalties against Apuron will be suspended until the appeal process is concluded, according to Giorgio Giovanelli, an expert on canonical law with Rome’s Pontifical Lateran University.

Apuron was suspended as archbishop in June 2016 in the wake of allegations he had sexually abused altar boys starting when he was a priest in the village of Agat in the 1970s. Months after the suspension, Pope Francis appointed Archbishop Michael Jude Byrnes to fill Apuron’s role in Guam, and a five-member secret tribunal was formed to look into the charges.

The tribunal’s decision was welcome news in Guam, where the archdiocese has been named in more than 160 sex abuse lawsuits.

Roland Paul L. Sondia, 56, who accused Apuron of molesting him as a 15-year-old altar boy in 1977, said he felt deep relief after the verdict.

“We’ve waited so long for this day to come,” said Sondia, who still lives in Agat with his family. “The Vatican tribunal believed us, believed what was done to use. I’m still trying to take it all in.”

Sondia said he hugged his wife when he heard the news: “We hugged each other,” he said. “We were in tears. Tears of joy.”

Another accuser, Roy Quintanilla, said he was not surprised by the ruling.

“I always believed the Vatican would find Apuron guilty,” said Quintanilla, who said he was raped as a 12-year-old, 40 years ago. “How could they now, after our written and personal testimony? This verdict was a long time coming.”

“I am so glad we stopped being silent,” said Quintanilla, who now lives in Hawaii. “The Vatican’s verdict was made possible because Guam’s faithful stood together against an injustice.”

The full membership of the Vatican tribunal is secret: the only member known to the public is Cardinal Raymond Leo Burke, a Wisconsin native.

The tribunal had been scheduled to make its ruling twice before Friday: in August and then October last year. But it was delayed, at least in part because new evidence kept coming into light. In the latest, Mark Apuron, the archbishop’s nephew, accused his uncle of raping him when he was a teenager, in 1989 or 1990.

The Vatican said the decision of the tribunal will become “final and effective” if the tribunal’s decision is upheld. Giovanelli, the canonical law expert, said Pope Francis could choose to intervene, though other sources said that is unlikely.

Giovanelli said Apuron would formally retain the title of archbishop even if the decision is ultimately upheld, though being stripped of his title would mean Apuron would no longer have a pastoral role. It is not clear what options would be available to Apuron if he remains barred from returning to Guam, though in the past high-ranking church figures accused of misconduct -- such as Boston Cardinal Bernard Law -- have retired to isolated lives in Rome. But Apuron is the highest ranking church figure to have been convicted of first-hand sexual misconduct. Law and others were accused to helping to cover up such activities.

There is no set time table for how long an appeal would last, according to Chicago native Joshua McElwee, Vatican correspondent for National Catholic Reporter.

“It’s not a transparent process,” McElwee said. “We probably won’t know when it starts, or what is happening in an appeal. We will probably only find out what happens when a statement is suddenly released, the way it was for the tribunal’s ruling” on Friday.

Apuron, in a wheel chair because of health issues, met with Pope Francis a month ago in Paul VI Hall in the Vatican City. Italian media reports said Francis embraced Apuron and whispered a few words into the archbishop’s ear, but Francis made no public statement about Apuron.

Francis, who celebrated his fifth anniversary as pontiff March 13, has repeatedly said the church should take more responsibility for sexual abuse scandals in its past.

Apuron, a former altar boy himself, rose from priest to archbishop in just 14 years. He was installed as the leader of the island's faithful in 1986.

His descent from power was also swift, hastened by a group of community leaders, a tenacious blogger and a few former altar boys represented by a prominent attorney.

Initially, the archbishop came under scrutiny because of his close ties to the Neocatachumenal Way, a group within the Catholic Church that was often at odds with traditional Catholics on the island. After a multi-million-dollar property transfer and the removal of two popular priests, Apuron became the target of public protests.

As critics worked to unseat the archbishop, their efforts uncovered a massive child sex abuse scandal, propelled an overhaul of the archdiocese and changed Guam law.

Photo: Catholic Archbishop Anthony Apuron
Credit: Courtesy of Kuam News official YouTube channel (11/02/16)

Story/photo publish date: 03/16/18

A version of this story was published in USA Today.