Wednesday, September 26, 2018

Guam's Connection On TSW

The following article is a very important article written by Father Gordon MacRae.  Strangely, there is a connection to Guam. A part of the post involves a "cold case" unsolved homicide that occurred in Guam in 2000.  You can find the article here.

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This is the long-awaited story of Pornchai Moontri and Fr. Gordon MacRae, two lives denied justice and deprived of hope that converged upon the Great Tapestry of God.
Editor’s note: The photo of Pornchai Moontri at the top of this post was a middle school yearbook photo taken at age 12 just after his arrival in America and just prior to the onset of events described in this post. His brother Priwan wrote the word “Brother” with the two hearts under the photo in the yearbook.
In nine years of writing for These Stone Walls, this is the most important post I have ever composed. If you have never before shared my posts on social media or emailed them to friends, I urge you to share this one. It is not about me – at least, not directly. It is about something that has haunted my every day for the last twelve years. It’s about someone who committed a ‘real and tragic criminal act, but was himself the victim of a horrible crime. It is something so ironic it defies belief.
There is no short version of this account, so please come back here to finish it if it’s too much for one sitting. I recently hinted that this story was coming. After twelve years in the making it came to its apex this month on the Feast of the Most Holy Name of Mary. Here’s what I wrote in a recent post about “Mary, Undoer of Knots”:
“I want to put some unexpected context on the significance of that day – September 10, 1985 – as I eulogized my beloved Uncle near Harvard. Unbeknownst to me, on that same day and moment on the far side of the world, Pornchai Moontri turned 12 years old in Bangkok, Thailand where he was reunited with his mother after her ten-year absence from his life. On that day, he began a journey to a promised new life in America.”
Six-and-a-half years later, on Saturday evening, March 21, 1992, in a state of intoxication, 18-year-old Pornchai Moontri walked into a Bangor, Maine supermarket and tried to walk out with a six-pack of beer. He was chased into the parking lot. In his drunken state Pornchai had trouble piecing together what came next. He heard much of it for the first time sitting in court.
As he fled across the Shop’n Save parking lot that night, 27 year-old Michael Scott McDowell injected himself into the scene. He saw store employees chasing a young Asian man and assumed it was for shoplifting. The much larger McDowell tackled Pornchai and wrestled him to the ground. Pinned down and helpless, Pornchai described this moment in “Pornchai’s Story” as “something that lived in me got out.”
Pornchai remembers getting up and running, running, running. Later that night he wandered the streets alone, exhausted and confused. He lived on those streets, a homeless teenager in a small port city of 31,000 in a foreign country. He slept under a bridge. As he fled, hunted, through the streets of Bangor that night, a car pulled up. A man he neither knew nor remembers told him to get in.
There, in that vehicle, he sat in silence until the police came for him. To this day, he knows nothing of the identity of the man who sheltered him. Pornchai was charged with assault with a deadly weapon, a knife he carried for protection while living on the streets. The next morning, the police told him that the charge is upgraded to murder. Michael Scott McDowell had died.
On Thursday, September 30, 1992, journalist Steve Kloehn penned a report for the Bangor Daily News entitled, “McDowell murder closed with a verdict, not a reason.” Its opening paragraph set the stage for the mystery contained therein:
“Thomas Goodwin, representing the state of Maine, was trying to explain to a jury the inexplicable: how Pornchai Moontri walked into the Shop’n Save a teen-ager and came out a murderer.”
Until now, I have not been able to write the whole truth of my last twelve years behind these stone walls. I have alluded to some of it in cryptic prose, but not everyone caught it. But many understood that there is an important story coming, a true story of unimaginable pain, power, and consequence. This is the most important post I have ever written.
If you have been reading these pages with any regularity at all, then you have come to know Pornchai “Maximilian” Moontri. This is his story, and it may bring tears. It should. But the sun also rises, and with the long awaited dawn comes – if not rejoicing – then at least a modicum of peace.
SOLITARY CONFINEMENT
Pornchai and I first met at the New Hampshire State Prison in 2006. He had been transferred from a “Supermax” prison in the State of Maine where he served the previous fourteen years – half of them in the utter cruelty of solitary confinement. He had a short fuse. He lived with a despair and a rage that walls could not contain.
The system deemed Pornchai to be dangerous, unfit for the presence of other human beings. A day in his life in Maine’s “supermax” prison was chronicled by the social justice site, “Solitary Watch” in an article entitled, “Welcome to Supermax.” After fourteen years in and out of that horror – including nearly four years in one long grueling stretch – Pornchai was transferred to another state.
The transfer from a prison in Maine to one in New Hampshire was administrative and not at Pornchai’s request. His arrival in 2006 took him to a very familiar place: an initial stay in solitary confinement. After a few months he was sent to a close custody unit, and finally to a unit in the general prison population where he and I met and became friends in early 2007.
I remember the first time we met I was walking through the prison “chow hall” carrying my tray of food. As I made my way among the crowded tables looking for a seat, I heard my name “Hey G, sit here with us.” I spotted my young Indonesian friend, Jeclan Wawarunto sitting next to the meanest looking young Asian man I had ever encountered. I could instantly see why the other two seats at their table were still empty.
“Come sit with us,” said the ever-smiling Jeclan. This is my new friend, Ponch. He just got here.” As I sat down, I looked into the dark eyes of the young man across from me and saw anger, but it was anger masking something else, a hurt and pain I had never imagined possible. “Ponch wants to ask you a question,” said Jeclan. His friend looked so agitated that I looked quickly away. “I just want to know if you can help me transfer to a prison in Bangkok, Thailand,” said Pornchai with hostility.
I had, ironically, just finished reading a book – 4,000 Days – about the horror of life in a Bangkok prison. I told the young man that I would not help him do something that would only destroy him. “Who is this jerk?” he asked Jeclan. Weeks later, I was surprised to see that same young Asian man dragging a trash bag with his belongings into the housing unit where I lived. I approached him and said, “I’m glad you’re here.” He glared at me as though I were crazy.
We slowly became friends. I cannot really explain this long, slow, gradual building of trust with someone for whom trust is a deadly affair. I today know the courage it took for Pornchai to trust me. One day, his assigned cell mate came to me and said that he did not know what to do. He said that Pornchai had not spoken, eaten or even gotten out of bed for days.
I went to see Pornchai. He was known for having a short fuse, but I told him I would not leave until he got out of that bunk and spoke with me. I told him that I know what is under how he feels right now. I asked him to let me try to help him.
Some time later, his cell mate moved. Prison officials were cautious in imposing a new cell mate on Pornchai, so they told him to find someone he wanted to live with. He asked me and I said yes. It was early 2007. Over time, as trust developed, the story of Pornchai’s life was drawn out of him – de profundis – from out of the depths. It is a remarkable account that is now fully corroborated, and it is shocking.
FROM THAILAND TO TERROR
Pornchai was born on September 10, 1973 near the village of Bua Nong Lamphu in the Northeast of Thailand beyond the city of Khon Kaen. His father was a Thai marshal arts fighter who earned a hard-won living traveling from town to town for bouts. He was sometimes away for long periods. When Pornchai was two years old, and his brother, Priwan, was four, their mother, Wannee, left telling them that she was going to the city. She did not return. The two boys were abandoned and stranded.
Their father came home weeks later to find Pornchai and Priwan foraging for food in the streets. Pornchai was hospitalized for severe malnutrition. When he left the hospital, his father was also gone, leaving them in the custody of another woman. She eventually put them out into the street where again they had to forage for food and shelter.
Learning of this, the extended family of Pornchai’s missing mother sent a 17-year-old uncle to search for the two boys and bring them to their small farm. Pornchai and Priwan grew up there raising rice, sugar cane, and water buffalo. They worked hard, but they were happy. Over time, Pornchai forgot his mother. He came to believe that his Aunt Mae Sin was his mother.
It was 1975 when Wannee left Pornchai and Priwan at ages two and four. She went to Bangkok to find work. While there she met Richard Bailey, an American military veteran and air traffic controller from Bangor, Maine who was a frequent visitor to Thailand. He brought Wannee to the United States.
Nine years passed. In 1985, when Pornchai was 11 years old, his mother, Wannee, suddenly reappeared in Thailand to claim her sons. Pornchai had no memory of her, and was traumatized to be taken away by a stranger. He never saw his home and family again. Wannee took Pornchai and Priwan to Bangkok for several months to await passports and travel documents. Pornchai turned 12 in Bangkok on September 10, 1985. Wannee told Pornchai and his brother that in America, they would never be hungry again.
In early December, 1985, they flew from Bangkok to Boston where Wannee’s husband, Richard Bailey, met them. On the long drive from Boston to Bangor, Pornchai and Priwan had their first meal in America at a McDonalds drive-thru. Both boys vomited the meal out the back seat windows of the car.
From the moment of their arrival in Bangor, the tone changed rapidly. Richard controlled their money, their speech, and their every move. The two boys and their mother were forbidden from speaking Thai in Bailey’s presence, and neither boy spoke or understood English.
Richard Bailey’s sister, who always treated Pornchai and Priwan with kindness, asked them what they wanted for Christmas. The boys did not know much about Christmas, but they understood that it involves presents. Pornchai’s adjustment had been traumatic. He asked for a watch and a teddy bear.
I caution you that from here on, this story may be difficult to read but please be brave for our friend who lived it. That night Pornchai was awakened from sleep and brought to a basement room by Richard Bailey. While there, Pornchai was forcibly raped by Bailey, an event that was to be repeated too many times to count. Pornchai was traumatized and terrified.
He did not understand what was being said, but its meaning was clear. If he resisted or told, the consequences to his mother would be severe. To demonstrate this, Bailey beat Wannee in the presence of both boys. When they tried to stop him, he beat them as well. They were treated as slaves.
Bailey then arranged separate bedrooms for the two brothers. Only much later did Pornchai learn that Bailey also raped his brother Priwan. In fear for each others’ safety, they both kept silent. They lived in a nightmare from which they saw no escape.
Witnesses who grew up in Bangor, and had read of Pornchai on These Stone Walls, have come forward with accounts of the 12year-old who showed up at their homes traumatized, beaten and bloody. One man reports that he confronted Richard Bailey who later beat Pornchai again while forbidding him to interact with neighbors. Others have similar accounts. A school nurse reported his injuries. Nothing happened.
The first police intervention came when Pornchai was 13. He had run away, following railroad tracks out of Bangor. After a day or two, Richard Bailey reported him missing. Sheriff’s deputies pursued Pornchai through the woods and caught him. They did not understand his protests as they handed him back over to Bailey, but they filed a report alluding to their suspicions. Nothing happened.
LOST IN AMERICA
By the time Pornchai was 14 in 1987, his brother, Priwan, traumatized and broken, fled Bangor. Pornchai was alone. He ran away again and again, and while evading police he lived for months on the streets of Bangor. For the second time in his life, he was forced to forage for food in the street. He also amassed a police record for stealing food, for truancy, and for being a chronic runaway.
At one point, Wannee asked Pornchai why he keeps running away. Pornchai broke down and told her in Thai what Richard Bailey had been doing to him. She warned Pornchai never to speak of this again. She said Bailey would beat her and then send her back to Thailand with no means to support them.
In the summer Pornchai lived in the woods, or under a downtown Bangor bridge (photo above) where his mother would sometimes bring him food. She held a job as a hotel maid arranged by Richard Bailey, but he tightly controlled her earnings. In the winter, Pornchai would sleep in vacant buildings or at times in the homes of friends whose parents’ welcome of him was at times generous but sometimes not. At 15, he was sentenced to reform school, the Maine Youth Center, and became a ward of the state.
While there, social worker Nancy Cochrane built some trust with Pornchai. When she learned of the severity of the physical and sexual violence he suffered, she filed a formal report with the Sheriff’s department. Deputies interviewed Richard Bailey, but no one else. Bailey convinced them that he heroically gave Pornchai a home in America and Pornchai made this whole story up. The deputies dropped the case without questioning Pornchai or his mother or brother or the social worker treating Pornchai.
The Maine Youth Center staff did not drop the matter so easily. They brought it to other authorities. During the investigation, Wannee visited Pornchai at the facility where he was held. She told him that the police questioned Bailey who then sent her to warn Pornchai to withdraw his claims. The implication – the truth of which Pornchai had already witnessed – was that Wannee would face Richard Bailey’s violence.
Fearing for his mother’s safety, Pornchai refused to cooperate further with the investigation. She was his only contact in both worlds, the nightmare he lived in America and the world he left behind in Thailand. He suffered in silence, consuming the injustices visited upon him like a toxin.
For many years, Pornchai believed that his mother chose to protect Bailey over him and Priwan. But at that moment Pornchai came to see that Wannee was as much a victim of Richard Bailey as he was. The evidence for that belief was still looming on the horizon.
State officials did not understand what was behind Pornchai’s silence. He was transferred to the Goodwill Hinckley School in Maine where he met Joe and Karen Corvino, foster parents who, for a brief period, became instrumental in his life. He later lost contact with them. Their tearful reunion with him came twenty years later when they discovered him though These Stone Walls, a story relived in “Loved, Lost, Found: A Gift for Mothers Day.”
Pornchai did well at the Hinckley School. He excelled in Math and Soccer, and the Corvinos recognized the special child who had come to them. They considered legal adoption of Pornchai, but were told this would be difficult given that his biological mother still lived in Maine.
One day, at a soccer match with a rival school, a group of players realized that they could not win with Pornchai on the Hinckley team, so they targeted him for harassment. They pushed him, struck him, checked him, and he endured it all. Finally they shouted slurs about his mother. In seconds, all three of the larger boys were on the ground.
Pornchai was expelled from the game. The next day, over the strenuous objections of Joe and Karen Corvino, he was also expelled from the school. Joe and Karen had no choice but to put the 16-year-old alone on a bus to Bangor. They were told that a social worker would be at the other end but there was no one. At 16, Pornchai was again living on the streets. Sleeping in alleys and doorways, he began to carry a knife for protection.
Pornchai went in search of his brother, Priwan, and found him living in an Asian community in Lowell, Massachusetts. But because Pornchai was still a minor, authorities required that he return to Maine. He petitioned to be emancipated from being a ward of the state. At 17, Pornchai’s legal emancipation was processed by a reluctant Maine Youth Center staff.
THE FATEFUL DAY AND THE LOSS OF ALL HOPE
At age 18, on March 21, 1992, Pornchai became intoxicated and the tragic offense that began this story took place. It was the last day Pornchai knew freedom, but in reality, his freedom had been taken from him six-and-a-half years earlier at age 12.
This is the context, the “why” that journalist Steve Kloehn asked in the Bangor Daily News at the end of Pornchai’s trial in 1992. Once charged, Pornchai was held without bail for months while awaiting trial in the Penobscot County Jail.
He was assigned a public defender. After a month, Wannee came to visit Pornchai once. Again sent by Richard Bailey, she pleaded with him to protect her by saying nothing of his past life with Richard Bailey. Convinced his mother was in danger, he again became silent, refusing to allow any defense that included an evaluation of his life. Under duress, he refused to participate in his own defense.
Pornchai’s brother, Priwan, told the public defender of the years of traumatic sexual and physical abuse, but Pornchai refused to discuss this and refused to allow the lawyer to raise it. He was never evaluated, and none of what happened to him became part of the court record. The judge mistook Pornchai’s silence for a defiant lack of remorse. Citing that he “had many opportunities in America but squandered them,” she sentenced 18 year-old Pornchai to 45 years in the Maine State Prison.
After the trial, Richard Bailey sold his Bangor home, took Wannee, and purchased land and a home on the U.S. Territory of Guam in the Western Pacific. At age 18, alone and in prison, Pornchai was thousands of miles from his only contact with the outside world.
Eight years passed before he saw his mother again. She traveled to Thailand, and then to Maine to visit Pornchai in prison. She told him she was returning to Guam to finalize her divorce from Richard Bailey and financial settlements in the Guam courts. The year was 2000, Pornchai’s eighth year in prison.
To this day, the financial agreements ordered in the divorce decree have not been met. A cousin of Wannee in Thailand today reports that, upon her return to Guam, Wannee called her in 2000. Richard could be heard shouting in the background. The cousin states that Wannee cried that she is being threatened, and if she is found dead, she wants her cousin to demand an investigation.
Weeks later, Pornchai learned in prison that his mother had been murdered on the Island of Guam. He could learn no details except that it was filed as a homicide. The autopsy report indicates that she had been beaten to death and her body left on a beach. A Guam police report shows that Richard Bailey reported her missing, then the next day reported finding her body himself. No one has been charged. It remains today a “cold case” unsolved homicide in Guam.
This was a breaking point for Pornchai. He gave up, and ended up spending the next nearly seven years in and out of solitary confinement in Maine’s supermax prison. After seven years in hell, Pornchai was transferred to the New Hampshire State prison where we met. You know most of what followed, but not all. [Editor: WGBH-PBS Frontline’s documentary “Locked Up in America – Solitary Nation” depicts the nightmare of Pornchai’s solitary confinement. The prisoners you see were in solitary with him in adjacent cells. It’s now behind a $1.99 paywall, well worth the time to get a sense of the intensity of that total hell:]
Once I learned the entire story, I could not let it go. I began several years ago to make discreet inquiries into Pornchai’s life in both Thailand and Maine. In 2007, shortly after we became friends and cell mates, a U.S. Immigration judge ordered that Pornchai is to be deported from the United States upon completion of his sentence. I assisted him in an appeal based on the severity of his life and his need for asylum, but to no avail.
I told Pornchai that we will need to build some connections in Thailand. He said that he did not even know where to begin. Pornchai felt overwhelmed, and took refuge in his imagined “Plan B” – his own final self-destruction. I challenged him to trust. A few years later, on Divine Mercy Sunday, 2010, Pornchai became a Catholic, and accepted my challenge to place his future in God’s hands with the guidance of his chosen Patron Saint, Maximilian Kolbe, whose name Pornchai chose as his own.
Then, Felix Carroll and Marian Press published Loved, Lost, Found with a beautiful chapter about Pornchai’s conversion. Felix graciously made the chapter available for posting. It made its way to Thailand where it moved many people in Bangkok to become involved in Pornchai’s story. A group called “Divine Mercy Thailand” organized to help bring him home. They have assured him of a home and support system when he returns.
A DAY IN COURT
Richard Alan Bailey at the time of his arrest on forty counts of felonious sexual assault.
After being received into the Church, I convinced Pornchai to seek some treatment in the prison system. He was diagnosed with acute anxiety and severe Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. He is working with a counselor and is prescribed a medication for acute anxiety and another to inhibit nightmares.
The inquiries I had been making produced some amazing results. Clare and Malcolm Farr, a husband/wife team from an intellectual property law firm in Perth, Australia had been reading These Stone Walls. Entirely pro bono, they immersed themselves in Pornchai’s story with overtures to the government of Thailand and the State of Maine. Clare Farr, one of the attorneys, has been in daily contact with us over the last three years.
Their tireless efforts gained the notice of the Thai Consulate in New York from where officials have since visited Pornchai and involved themselves in his plight. This story also gained the attention of law enforcement in the State of Maine from where an investigation was launched. Detectives from the Bangor police traveled to Concord, NH to interview Pornchai and also met with his brother, Priwan. An Assistant District Attorney came on the second interview.
In 2017, Richard Alan Bailey was indicted on forty felony counts of gross sexual misconduct for his well documented victimization of Pornchai and his brother. He was arrested at his West Lake, Oregon home and released on $49,000 cash bond. On September 12, 2018, the Feast of the Most Holy Name of Mary, Richard Bailey entered a plea of no contest but was found guilty and stands convicted of the charges. At this writing, the 2000 Guam case remains an open unsolved homicide.
Bailey’s sentence may bring the biggest gasp of all, forty-four years in prison, but all suspended, and eighteen years of supervised probation. He will not serve a day in prison. This was a hard truth for me. I am serving 67 years in prison for crimes that never took place, with a fraction of the charges faced by Richard Bailey and with none of the evidence. It is clear. He is not ‘Father” Richard Bailey.
Covering this story for the Bangor Daily News, reporter Judy Harrison referred to Pornchai as “the now 45-year-old convicted killer.” Fully one third of her brief coverage of this story focused not on Richard Bailey’s crimes, but on Pornchai’s. Judy Harrison turned a deaf ear to the profoundly troubling serial victimization that his Victim Impact Statement describes.
The shallowness of reporters notwithstanding, Pornchai has also learned the ways of Divine Mercy. He learned them from me. In his submitted impact statement, he asked the court for justice but also for mercy for his tormentor, the very person who has haunted his nightmares for all these years. From Pornchai’s Victim Impact Statement presented in court:
“My brother has struggled with gambling and alcohol addictions and my mother is dead. Richard carried out more sexual assaults against me than there are current charges against him. His actions have robbed me of a normal life which I can never reclaim. Fortunately I have since had a lot of counseling and with the guidance of a wonderful Catholic priest I have found faith and a firm belief in God… I asked God to help me to forgive Richard and through my strong faith I have done this… I cannot forget what he has done but I do forgive him. The law must pass a just sentence, but I agree with the terms of this plea agreement.”
But there is something even more compelling in this story. Pornchai Moontri came to me, a Catholic priest whom he believes with all his heart to be innocent of the very things that stole his hope and his ability to trust. The irony sends me to my knees in thanksgiving for an opportunity. The most important mission of my life as a man and as a priest has been walking with Pornchai Moontri from dusk to dawn in his survival of the darkest night.
                                  
Editor’s Note: Please share this important post. This story continues over the next two weeks on These Stone Walls with guest posts from Attorneys Clare and Malcolm Farr, the Perth, Australia lawyers who pursued this case and were instrumental in restoring Pornchai’s life and hopes for a future. You may also see these related posts in a new light:

Saturday, September 22, 2018

My Response

This post is in response to the following comment: 
AnonymousSeptember 22, 2018 at 11:39 AM 
I find that hard to believe that through all the court filings, lawyers and the mediation process that the church will sit back and pay every victim without checking the validity of the accusations. And please don't blame JW,CCOG or LFM. Blame the past Bishops who knew about the abuse and did not do nothing. To some people the church is their sanctuary, it is unfortunate that some of these abuses occurred in the church. With some Dioceses in the States and elsewhere being exposed on sex abuse, I think the Catholic faith as a whole is being examined under a microscope.
I am not blaming JW, CCOG and LFM for the child sexual abuse of the past.  The clergy members who sexually abused the kids and covered it up are certainly the ones responsible.  JW, CCOG, and LFM had nothing to do with that.  

On the other hand, JW, CCOG, and LFM are responsible for the endless lawsuits, the shutting down of the parishes and Catholic schools along with Catholic services, and the loss of all Church assets. Of course, the Church is going to pay every alleged victim without checking the validity of their accusations because they have already made its position very clear.  According to Lawyers.com:
Settlement” is just a term for formal resolution of a legal dispute without the matter being decided by a court judgment (jury verdict or judge's ruling). Usually that means the defendant offers a certain sum of money to the plaintiff in exchange for the plaintiff's signing a release of the defendant's liability in connection with the underlying incident or transaction. This can happen at any point in a civil lawsuit. It can even occur before the plaintiff files a lawsuit at all, if the parties can come together a reach a fair agreement soon after the dispute arises, and both sides are motivated to do so.  
The idea is to offer money to the accusers and in return they will drop their lawsuit against the Church.  The reason the Archdiocese of Boston still receives sex abuse allegations even after 15 years is because the Church does not do any investigations and scammers are aware of this.  See the story here.  Even Tim Rohr was aware of that fact when he stated in his 2010 letter (the bold is mine): 
This is not alarm-ism. This is not exaggeration. This is a pattern. Moral entrepreneurs like SNAP, under the guise of protecting children, attack a diocese with allegations knowing that, even if they are unfounded, the seriousness of the allegations will precipitate a "hanging before the trial." 
Tim Rohr opposed the lifting of the statutes of limitation because he felt that B.J. Cruz only introduced the laws in retaliation against the Catholic Church and Archbishop Apuron.  According to Tim Rohr in his letter dated February 23, 2011:

However, there are a couple things that you should know about Bill 34. First, Bill 34 and its predecessor, Bill 334 in the last legislature, despite what Senator B.J. Cruz continues to publicly disclaim, IS AIMED at the Catholic Church in general and the Archbishop in particular.
Bill 34 is Senator Cruz's personal act of retaliation against the Archbishop for opposing Bill 185 which would have legalized same-sex unions.  
However, when it was Tim Rohr himself who retaliates against the Archbishop, it was okay for him to lift the statutes of limitation.  It was not okay for B.J. Cruz to retaliate against Archbishop Apuron by lifting the statutes of limitation.  But it was okay for Rohr to retaliate against the Archbishop by lifting the statutes of limitation.  The bill was aimed at Archbishop Apuron just as Rohr admitted in his blog:
More SMH and LOL. The words "Catholic Church" NEVER appeared in the bill. Neither its author nor the legislature as a whole ever brought up the words "Catholic Church." Not even the victims who publicly testified in support of the bill used the words "Catholic Church" other than to say they still love and do not blame the Church. 
No, the words which were brought up over and over again were not the words "Catholic Church!" but the two words and one initial which is what Eusebio is really upset about: ANTHONY S. APURON.   
The bill that JW, CCOG, and LFM introduced and worked for its passage was aimed at Archbishop Apuron.  It was in retaliation against Archbishop Apuron just as Rohr admitted.  Although their intention was aimed at only one man, no one can excuse them for not knowing about the endless lawsuits that would come after the bill was passed into law.  Thus, JW, CCOG, and LFM are responsible for the endless lawsuits that will be coming in the years to come, the shutting down of any parishes and Catholic schools, and the loss of any Church assets in Guam.  And once we start seeing the shutting down of our parishes and schools, they will be responsible for the victimization of the thousands of innocent Catholics who will end up paying for the settlements.   

Thursday, September 20, 2018

Many European Bishops Support Pope Francis

While American bishops in the United States remain divided, bishops in several European countries urged support for Pope Francis.  Some people thought that only the liberals and progressives support the pope, but this is not true.  There are also conservatives who support him.  In fact, four bishops in Germany who often argue over communion for civilly divorced and remarried Catholics got together and called for all Catholics to remain loyal to Pope Francis.  The article below can be found here.

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Related imageWASHINGTON (CNS) — Bishops in several European countries issued statements urging Catholics to support Pope Francis in response to a former papal nuncio’s demand for his resignation.
Church leaders in Austria, Switzerland and Germany defended the pope and the church, which they say is being undermined. Similar statements were also recently issued by the Nordic bishops’ conference, which represents bishops in Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Finland and Iceland.
Cardinal Christoph Schonborn of Vienna published a column Sept. 7 in the weekly newspaper Heute. He called Pope Francis a “fighter against injustice and exploitation” who “stands against sexual abuse in the church with great determination.”
Criticism of Pope Francis “comes from circles in the church who want to get rid of this pope as soon as possible,” said Cardinal Schonborn. He said the pope’s opponents are exploiting the opportunity to criticize him during a time when he is experiencing difficult days.
“I thank God for such a compelling shepherd,” the Austrian cardinal concluded. “Thank you, Papa Francesco!”
On Sept. 8, church leaders in Zurich formally denounced Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano’s demand for Pope Francis to resign for allegedly ignoring sanctions Pope Benedict XVI had placed on then-Cardinal Theodore E. McCarrick for sexual misconduct. They called for all Catholics in the city to pray for the pope during Masses Sept. 9.
“The demand for Pope Francis to resign appalls us and strikes us with sorrow,” read a statement released by the Catholic Church of the canton of Zurich. “We find it intolerable and unheard-of that the matter of abuses within the church should be misused to endanger the unity of the church, in pursuit of individual agendas.”
Bishop Felix Gmur of Basel, president of the Swiss bishops’ conference, weighed in on the issue Sept. 5, according to Katholisches Medienzentrum, Switzerland’s Catholic Media Center.
“We do not support a demand for the resignation of the pope,” said Bishop Gmur.
In Germany, four bishops previously at odds in the debate over Communion for civilly divorced and remarried Catholics were unanimous in their call for Catholics to remain loyal to the pope.
“It is time to stand behind the pope and support his efforts for clarification, restoration and prevention,” Bishop Peter Kohlgraf of Mainz wrote on his Facebook page Sept. 3.
“It cannot be that Catholics are only loyal to the pope as long as he represents their opinions. Without loyalty to the pope, it is not possible to be Catholic,” Bishop Kohlgraf said.
Bishop Stefan Oster of Passau expressed support for Pope Francis in a blog post “Why I believe Pope Francis,” on his personal website.
Bishop Oster admitted to personally questioning the pope’s teachings because of traditional Catholics wondering “whether the magisterium, faith, liturgy and the call to conversion are not getting too raw a deal.”
“I must admit that I am familiar with such questions since I have asked them myself,” he wrote.
He said he analyzed debates between liberal and traditional Catholics to determine whose side the pope might be on. However, based on the pope’s writings, he said, the pope is neither a liberal nor a conservative.
Bishop Oster made a detailed study of Pope Francis’s teachings, reviewing the texts of “Evangelii Gaudium” (“The Joy of the Gospel”), “Amoris Laetitia” (“The Joy of Love”), “Laudato Si’, on Care for Our Common Home,” and “Gaudete et Exsultate” (“Rejoice and Be Glad”).
He identified four key teachings of the pope: personal love for Jesus, love in the family, love for the environment, and the universal call to holiness.
“Looking more closely and less anxiously, one can see that the Holy Father does not decide for one way or another way. He searches much more for the path of depth, honesty, genuine love and credibility,” Bishop Oster said. “Ecclesia semper reformanda.” (“The church must always be reformed.”)
Bishop Oster said he sees Pope Francis as someone who “wants to consistently lead the church on a path of renewal that is neither liberal nor conservative, but one of a spirit of holiness, a spirit of the Lord in the present, which becomes a witness for the world and a place where every person — and the world — can experience God’s transformative love and become more healed in his heart.”
Bishop Gebhard Furst of Rottenburg-Stuttgart announced his support for Pope Francis Sept. 3 on Twitter.
“I follow him on the path to renewal of the church, which he has consistently followed since the beginning of his papacy,” Bishop Furst said.
Bishop Wolfgang Ipolt of Gorlitz also expressed confidence in the pope’s leadership in early September, saying it is easy for others to cast blame while not having to take responsibility, according to KNA, Germany’s Catholic news agency.
At the conclusion of their autumn meeting in Szczecin, Poland, the Nordic bishops sent a letter to Pope Francis assuring him of their prayer and loyalty, describing the current climate as one in which “the church is being nearly ripped apart by conflicts and most recently also by attacks on itself.”
The Nordic bishops condemned sexual misconduct by clergy and also denounced “any attempt” to divide the church from within.
“Sexual abuse, abuse of power and internal strife in the highest levels obscure the face of the church,” the bishops wrote.
The bishops have called for a special day of fasting in each of their nations Oct. 5, as well as a day of prayer for the pope and the church Oct. 7, the feast of Our Lady of the Rosary.  

Wednesday, September 19, 2018

Something To Reflect On

In my post More Will Be Coming, I wrote that there will be more sexual allegations coming forward.  I wrote that post on August 22, 2018.  Yesterday, on September 18th, another lawsuit was filed.  The story is reported in the Pacific Daily News.  The lawsuit named Father Louis Brouillard (who is in isolation) and Father Antonio Cruz (who is deceased) as the accused.  The alleged victim (J.W. who is 68 years old) is suing for 5 million dollars.  J.W. will not be the last alleged victim. More will be coming out to sue the Church.  

When Bill 326-33 was introduced into the Guam Legislature, the JungleWatch Nation worked for the passage of this bill.  In fact, Tim Rohr took it upon himself to apologize to the senators on behalf of the Catholic Church when the Church opposed the bill.  Yes, it is interesting to see that Rohr put himself as the spokesperson for the Church despite the fact that the Church never gave him that title.  Nevertheless, you can read his letter here.  According to Rohr's letter dated September 19, 2016: 
In this "script," Fr. Jeff San Nicolas clarifies that is is not we, the laity, who did not understand the consequences of the bill, but YOU, the Legislature. Fr. San Nicolas writes:

"We believe that the legislators in passing the bill...did not understand that the bill threatens the very existence of our parishes, schools and social agencies..."I

Aside from the fact that there is no evidence from the almost 20 years of seeing the effect of similar legislation in many stateside dioceses to support this claim, and aside from the fact that the social agencies (Catholic Social Services and Kamalin Karidat) are incorporated separately from the Archdiocese of Agana, I, and many other are simply staggered that Fr. San Nicolas believes that you did not UNDERSTAND what you were doing and why you were doing it when you voted to pass Bill 326-33. 
Notice that Rohr contradicted Father Jeff's statement.  Rohr stated that there is no evidence that the lifting of the statutes of limitations would threaten the existence of our parishes, school, and social agencies.  However, this is what Tim Rohr wrote on May 12, 2010 regarding a similar law that would lift the statutes of limitations.  You can find his letter here (the bold is mine):
Bills Could Cripple Church in Guam

By Tim Rohr
Tim Rohr
May 12, 2010

http://www.guampdn.com/article/20100512/OPINION02/5120330/1014/OPINION/Bills-could-cripple-Church-in-Guam

Let's be clear. We Catholics in the pews have no interest in defending clerical wrongdoing nor any attempt to hide it. We have been hit from both sides by the news of scandal among our clergy.

First, we are hurt by the news that any child would feel when a child hears bad news about one's own parent. Second, we are hurt by the slander hurled at the Church we consider to be our Mother.

It's difficult to know how to respond. We want to see the wrongs in our Church righted. Most of us are extremely saddened by news of these affairs, but we are also offended by the vicious self-righteousness of outsiders.

We will deal with it and move on, but in the meanwhile, there are some possible consequences all the people of Guam, not just Catholics, need to consider.

Should Bills 334 and 372 pass into law, and should moral entrepreneurs like SNAP, working in concert with local lawmakers hostile to the Church, get their way, the Church on Guam, even if it is innocent, may be forced (as per stateside precedent) to cough up millions of dollars to defend itself. The Archdiocese of Agana does not have millions of dollars, and even with insurance payments, could be forced to sell its properties, as several stateside dioceses have had to do.

The Boston Archdiocese, for example, was forced to close more than 65 churches and sell many other properties to pay for the settlements levied upon it in 2003. Should SNAP and Vice Speaker Benjamin Cruz prevail, a few may benefit from punishing the Church, but almost all will pay. Here's why.

Currently, archdiocesan agencies are feeding, clothing and housing hundreds of homeless, helpless and aged. Catholic schools are educating 5,000 students per year at a saving to the taxpayer of $6,000 per student. Many hundreds of people are employed within the archdiocese and their paychecks represent income tax revenue to GovGuam. Lay members of the Church also provide countless volunteer hours of charitable works through its many organizations.

Should the Church become crippled by lawsuits and forced to begin shutting down its services and schools, GovGuam would need to pick up the tab.

But any negative reaction to these fiscal consequences will probably pale in comparison to what will happen once "Catholics in the pew" realize that their village church, and perhaps their alma mater, will have to be sold to pay for the costs inflicted upon the Church by the likes of SNAP as a result of Cruz's legislation.

Those churches and schools were built at great personal cost and sacrifice to the people in the pews and their ancestors. They are not likely to give them up without a fight -- a big one.

This is not alarm-ism. This is not exaggeration. This is a pattern. Moral entrepreneurs like SNAP, under the guise of protecting children, attack a diocese with allegations knowing that, even if they are unfounded, the seriousness of the allegations will precipitate a "hanging before the trial." Lawmakers cave to the manufactured moral panic and pass legislation to lift the statute of limitations. Decades-old cases are resurrected. Lawsuits follow, churches and schools are forced to close and services are curtailed.

I am all for exposing the wrongdoing in the Church. I experienced clerical sexual "abuse" as a teenager in Los Angeles. ("Abuse" is in quotes because I didn't stick around for the molestation part. I ran.)

Where there is wrongdoing in our Church, let's have it out. And let's not stop there.

The abuse of children is criminal wherever it occurs. Guam Child Protective Services reports an average of 250 child sex abuse cases per year, and experts tell us that the figure probably represents only 10 percent of the actual cases. Guess where most of that abuse occurs.
In 2010, Tim Rohr opposed the lifting of the statutes of limitations because he believed that the parishes, schools, and other services would be shut down.  Six years later, he changed his story.  He disagreed with Father Jeff who stated that the passage of the bill would threaten the existence of the parishes and school.  

So, to the junglefolks......who should you believe?  The Tim Rohr who claimed that lifting the statutes of limittions could shut down the parishes and schools or the same Tim Rohr who claimed that there is no evidence that the lifting of the statutes of limitations threatens the existence of the parishes and schools?  Is it not ironic that the person you follow changes according to his own agenda?  

The lawsuit filed against the Church yesterday will not be the last one.  More will be coming.  If anything, one should have paid more attention to what was happening in Boston.  According to the Boston Globe dated January 2017, hundreds of alleged victims from around the world still continue to come forward claiming they were sexually abused in the State of Massachusetts.  That is correct.  The sexual allegations continue to come even after FIFTEEN YEARS. 

An anonymous poster made the following comment below:  
AnonymousSeptember 18, 2018 at 2:05 PM 
Hope the lawyers have prepared their clients for the reality that they will not see a $5 million check. My guess after attorney's fees, each client may see a check of less than $10,000. Think about it. The Archdiocese does not the resources to pay big settlement checks.
From the PDN July 12, 2017:  
'On the topic of the church's current financial state, Duenas reported the archdiocese still owes more than $8 million for debt service and other payables. He said the church still owes $3.8 million for a bank loan taken out to pay for the Dulce Nombre de Maria Cathedral-Basilica, more than $2 million for the now-defunct St. Thomas Aquinas School and about $230,000 for the Epicure building in HagÃ¥tña' 
The Archdiocese of Agana operating budget estimated revenue for FY 2018 is $2,561,377. Source http://umatuna.org/news/featured/what-is-the-current-financial-condition-of-the-archdiocese-of-agana/  
About 200 claims each seeking $5 million. 200 x $5 million is $1 billion. As of June 30, 2017, total amount of Archdiocese of Agana assets is $154,023,961. Go ahead and liquidate all assets. $154,023,961 for 200 claims. What do we have? About $770,120 per claim. And the loss of all Catholic Church properties. I guess we will have to celebrate Mass in homes as the early Christians did. Oh but, we can only celebrate the Mass on a consecrated altar!  
Alleged victims will be unhappy seeing just a fraction of the $5 million they each are seeking. Catholic faithful will be at a loss as to where has their Catholic Church gone. The only ones happy are all the lawyers involved who will reap hefty fees from settlements. Who will be the happiest for all this mess? Satan will smile and laugh at the destruction of the Catholic Church on Guam.        

Friday, September 14, 2018

A Great Testimony

It is possible to find God in nature.  After all, God is the Creator of the universe.  So, it is not surprising to find that many scientists have come to believe in God.  The following is a story about a man who walks in the Way.  This is his testimony.  The following story is found here.  

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Birdman on the Bay: Peter Kindness sees a connection between birdwatching, the mystery of creation and defending life against abortion. Photo: Mark Bowling

Peter Kindness finds beauty and quiet pleasure in birdwatching by Moreton Bay.
It’s a cherished pastime for the 80-year-old former union leader, who has known the rough and tumble of politics, has faced death and found God’s renewal, and stands up for his beliefs.
He’s been a staunch Labor supporter, was arrested for demonstrating during the Joh Bjelke-Petersen era, and is now speaking out against Labor’s proposed abortion laws in Queensland.
But around sunset at Wynnum, with his binoculars ready, Peter is fascinated by God’s simple mysteries, marveling at migrating birds that flock to the foreshore, then travel to Siberia and back each year.
“Seeing this, how can people not believe in the great Creator of the universe?” he said.
“I’m sure we don’t understand why it happens but there has to be a reason. It’s the wonder of creation.
“If it’s got feathers I want to look at it.”
Peter sees a clear a connection between his passion for birdwatching, the mystery of creation and the importance of standing up for the rights of the unborn.
“God created us, every life that comes into being is a gift from God,” he said.
“It has a purpose. It goes through a gestation, and in that moment it brings enormous joy and expectation to the parents, generally.
“It prepares both the man and woman for something beautiful … and when the baby is born it is awesome to see the beautiful creation.”
Peter grew up in an Anglican family, at one time considered the priesthood, undertook theological studies and converted to become Catholic 20 years ago, while a member of the Neocatechumenal Way in Wynnum’s Guardian Angels parish.
In 1980, doctors diagnosed him with a lung tumour and he was given six months to live.
In his grief, he remembers praying to God “Lord, when I die and come to you, I want to be acceptable to You – what do You want me to do? Make peace with the people I have hurt or even destroyed?”
“In the night, a voice came to me and said ‘Peter, you come as you are’,” he said.
“I woke up a different person.”
A day before major lung surgery, Peter had final X-rays “that revealed whatever was in there was shrinking” and surgery was cancelled.
“I had accepted I was going to die, now I prayed to God saying: You have given me back my life, what do you want me to do with it?” he said.
Peter will always cherish the answer that came to him: “I want nothing. The gift of life is free”.
Along his winding spiritual journey he has not wavered in conviction about the precious nature of life, and the importance of opposing abortion.
“The problem with abortion – they (supporters of the Queensland bill) talk about it being a women’s health issue, but many, many times the woman has no choice because of the pressures put on her,” Peter said.
While undertaking a clinical pastoral education course at Lifeline, Peter took a call from a woman who had been advised by her well-meaning friends that her third pregnancy would ruin her future plans for an overseas holiday with her husband.
They both sought counsel at a family planning clinic and the woman was advised to have an abortion, and she did.
Grief-stricken from having had the abortion, the woman rang the Lifeline number five times during the day.
She was hysterical and incoherent pleading for someone to take away the unbearable pain and grief she was suffering because of the horror of what she had done in terminating her baby’s life.
“Every time I recall the incident, I pray for her and her family,” Peter said.
“Apart from taking the life of a child, it has marked this woman to live in grief for the rest of her life.
“I pray the Queensland Government will have a rethink and become better informed before going ahead with its ill-conceived plan that will bring so much pain and suffering to ill-advised women.”
During his working life, Peter rose to become a Telecom senior technical officer (installing automatic telephone exchanges throughout Brisbane) and an assistant secretary of the ATA – the telecommunication workers union.
As a Labor supporter (but never a party member), he was at odds with the policies of the state government, especially during the latter days of uncompromising-conservative Country (later National) Party premier Joh Bjelke-Petersen.
He was one of about 30 members of a group called Concerned Christians arrested and taken to the police watch-house during an anti-government rally in a New Farm park near an electricity depot belonging to the South East Queensland Electrical Generating Board (SEQEB).
In an ugly and prolonged industrial dispute, the Bjelke-Petersen government had sided with SEQEB that wanted to be able to employ cheaper casual staff – and sacked 1000 Electrical Trades Union staff.
Peter remembers discussing with his wife Deidre the possible dire consequences if he was arrested because “Joh had passed legislation that meant our homes could be confiscated if found guilty of ‘harassing’”.
“We were standing under a cross praying,” Peter said.
“We had priests with us, from different denominations, Fr Pascoe was one of them, and a policeman hauling me to a police van said ‘What are you doing this for, mate?’
“I said ‘We are praying for everybody. We’re praying for Joh, we’re praying for the workers and we’re praying for the people’.”
In a full High Court case in which most of the Concerned Christians were represented by Tony Fitzgerald QC, Peter, unrepentant, chose to represent himself.
“I told the judge ‘I’m at the mercy of the court’,” he said.
The judge dismissed all allegations, against the Concerned Christians and Peter, including praying in public and harassing workers.
“I thought I was doing the right thing. Taking a stance against dictatorial behaviour,” Peter said.
At other times, as a union leader, Peter remembers speaking out to protect workers’ rights.
“I saw very clearly that there had to be some organisation to protect the livelihood of the people in the workforce and ensure that their families were able to live in reasonable comfort and enjoy the benefits of our society,” he said.
“I very rarely came across management that had a compassionate heart. They thought differently.
“At the same time there were some hardliners in the (union) movement – if anybody opposed you, they were an enemy. I didn’t see it that way.”
Decades later, Peter said he had “lost faith” with the labour movement.
He remains annoyed at federal Labor’s vote “Yes” stance during the same-sex marriage debate, and for the State Government’s support for abortion.
“Their reason for existing had shifted from caring for people in the industrial sphere into an area that they had no right to be involved in,” he said.
“Marriage is a sacrament of the Church given to us by God.
“And then with abortion – I honestly can’t comprehend how they could do it.
“(Queensland Premier) Annastacia Palaszczuk is introducing legislation to kill babies in the womb right up to full term. And on the whim of whether the baby is a boy or a girl.
“Is it any different to Hitler – any different to eugenics?”
Peter said he would be knocking on the door of his local state MP – in his case, Labor’s Joan Pease representing Lytton – asking that she used her conscience vote to oppose abortion laws.
“And I would be advising every Queenslander to do the same,” he said.  

Remembering RMS Guam

Image result for Redemptor Mater Seminary, Guam
Redemptoris Mater Seminary in Guam



September 12th is the anniversary of the Redemptoris Mater Seminary in Guam.  Nineteen years ago on September 12, 1999 at Porto San Siorgio, Italy Archbishop Apuron opened the first and only Redemptoris Mater Seinary in Guam, and Guam was given 12 seminarians to start the seminary.  

What a miracle that was!  Those of us there remember that the people of Guam did not spend a single penny to obtain this seminary.  Truly that was a miracle.

And from the 18 years of its existance (up to December 15, 2017 when it was officially closed) we saw 17 priests ordained and 42 seminarians remained until they were all distributed to the other RMS: Newark, Philadelphia, Denver, Miami, Texas, 1 to Peru, 1 to Mexico, and 1 to Ireland.

What marvels the Lord has done!  Even though Guam did not receive them, the universal Church received them!  And already some of them have been ordained into the priesthood.  So, remember the good times and what a blessing it was to have the seminary.  But never worry.  God have something better in store.