Appeal Has Already Been Done

It was brought to my attention that the CDF has found Archbishop Apuron guilty of sexual abuse; however, an inside source revealed to me that an appeal has already been done.  In other words, the Archbishop still remains the Archbishop of Agana because he has already started the appeals process.  Therefore, the battle still continues.  

According to the Catholic Herald (the bold is mine):

A source told The Catholic Herald that Archbishop Apuron will appeal the verdict, and remains Archbishop of Agaña while he does so.

The accusations against the archbishop ranged from the most serious allegations of child abuse to less serious accusations. The CDF rejected most of the accusations, and has not revealed which ones he is guilty of. 

The archbishop denies all accusations against him.

The fact that he is allowed to appeal implies that there are some lingering doubts to the sexual allegations.  What I placed in bold are the doubts.  It appears that the Tribunal rejected MOST of the accusations, but they did not reveal what accusations he is guilty of.  In fact, even the Vatican press release stated that the Archbishop has been found guilty of SOME of the accusations, but did not say which ones.  So, the battle continues on until the final resolutions of the Appeal.  Let us continue to pray for the truth to prevail.

In other News:

The Vatican on Friday removed the suspended Guam archbishop from office and ordered him not to return to the Pacific island after convicting him of some charges in a sex abuse trial.

The Vatican didn't say what exactly Archbishop Anthony Apuron had been convicted of, and the sentence was far lighter than those given high-profile elderly prelates found guilty of molesting minors. It amounts to an early retirement anywhere in the world but Guam, a remote U.S. Pacific territory.

Apuron is 72, while the Vatican retirement age is 75.

The Vatican spokesman declined to comment. Calls placed to the tribunal judge weren't answered. Apuron's whereabouts weren't immediately known.

Pope Francis named a temporary administrator for Guam in 2016 after Apuron was accused by former altar boys of sexually abusing them when he was a priest. Dozens of cases involving other priests on the island have since come to light, and the archdiocese is facing more than $115 million in civil lawsuits alleging child sexual abuse by priests.

Apuron strongly denied the charges and said he was a victim of a "calumny" campaign. He wasn't criminally charged. The statute of limitations had expired.

A statement from the tribunal in the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, which handles sex abuse cases, said Apuron had been convicted of some of the accusations against him. It said he had been ordered removed from office and could no longer live in the archdiocese of Guam.

The conviction and sentence can be appealed. If Apuron appeals, the penalties are suspended until the case is resolved.

In the past, when an elderly or infirm priest has been convicted by the Vatican of sexually abusing minors, he has often been removed from ministry and sentenced to a lifetime of "penance and prayer." Younger priests convicted of abuse have been defrocked, removed from ministry or forbidden from presenting themselves as priests.

Francis, however, has intervened in a handful of cases to lower sentences, and several high-ranking Vatican prelates oppose defrocking convicted molesters and have long lobbied for more lenient sentences.

In the case of Apuron, no restrictions on his ministry as a priest were announced.