The Obstacle To Unity

According to KUAM news:

Monsignor James today issued the following statement in response to the public allegations: "I want to thank the people of God in the Archdiocese of Agana for their support and prayers during this time." He added. "Despite my repeated pleas to be presented with the written allegations of financial mismanagement and the opportunity to respond, the decision was made to go to the media and public first. I am confident that this entire situation could have been resolved amicably in order to spare our community the hurt and division that exists today; however, the lesser road was chosen. “I ask for your continued prayers for our Church as I work to resolve these matters through deep prayer and dialogue in order that truth and justice prevail for the good of all.”

Contrary to what Monsignor James stated, the Archbishop never went to the public first.  When the Archbishop fired Monsignor James from his duties, who had wind of this story first??  It was Junglewatch.  Junglewatch is a PUBLIC blog just like this one.  Tim Rohr admitted in his blog dated July 26, 2014 that his sources said that Monsignor James was removed for financial mismanagement. 

The Archbishop had not come out publicly and made any statements yet.  It was already made public by the jungle and then KUAM picked up the story from Junglewatch, which they made public on Blog speculates on removal of Monsignor James.   By this time, the jungle was already calling the Archbishop a liar.  Did the jungle wait for the Archbishop to go public and explain his reasons for removing Monsignor James?  No.  The stage was already set by Tim Rohr to rile people up and convince them that the Archbishop was a liar.  So, why does Tim Rohr come up FIRST before the Archbishop to make his own explanation?? Why the purpose in doing that?  The answer is because he wants the Archbishop to be removed or resign.  According to Tim in KUAM news:

In Tumon, local blogger Tim Rohr spoke before island Rotarians. Rohr writes Jungle Watch, a blog that covers issues involving the island's Catholic community. Even prior to the removal of Monsignor James Benavente Rohr has been highly critical of Archbishop Anthony Apuron for his controversial removal of Father Paul Gofigan last year from the Santa Barbara Church.

Rohr said, "My only hope is that the archbishop for his own health resigns ASAP."One Rotarian questioned, "There seems to be a lot of conviction on your part on the archbishop's part - do you see any amicable meeting or meeting or meeting of the minds or compromise?", to which Rohr replied, "Absolutely not." He then reaffirmed his belief that the archbishop needs to resign.

By going public FIRST, Junglewatch made sure that unity would not be achieved.  By publishing the minutes from a closed door clergy meeting, Junglewatch also sowed distrust among the clergy so that unity could not be achieved.  When Father John expressed his disappointment that information was leaked from a closed clergy meeting and tried to ensure his brothers that unity is still possible, Tim Rohr was the first to go public with the information surrounding Father John's past.  So, here was one voice pleading with his brothers that the fight was not between themselves, but with the fallen angel Satan, who is the enemy of both man and God, and the jungle was able to get rid of him.  When Father Pius spoke to the Pacific Daily News, the jungle is now trying to bring down Father Pius through a petition.  Nevermind the fact that Father Pius also has the right to speak to the media as Tim Rohr has been doing. Other brothers and sisters in the Way like Melanie and David G. have gone to the jungle trying to reach our brothers there with compassion and reason but to no avail. 

The jungle never gave unity a chance because they were not interested in unity.  Anything that the Archbishop said was ridiculed and mocked.  Even his homily was mocked.  His whole homily was misconstrued and taken out of context as the Archbishop was speaking on the Gospel reading.  Those of you who are intelligent, open your eyes and ask yourself how unity can be achieved when the jungle comes out to the public FIRST and never gave a chance for the Archbishop to speak first......especially when the jungle had already set the stage with their accusations. 

Some of the brothers in the community have already written to the Pontifical Delegate.  The rest of us need to do the same.  The media needs to hear our side that this whole fiasco is a personal vendetta of one man.