Deacon Steve Martinez in JungleWatch

 You can find the following comment in JungleWatch.:

Deacon Steve MartinezMarch 25, 2026 at 5:26 PM

In looking at your link to a 2014 JW post, I don’t recall that post, but it is also very timely.
My take away is that your 2014 post makes it very clear that the NCW is to celebrate the Easter Vigil with the ONE parish Easter Vigil. 

There was a meeting in 2024, when I was delegate to the NCW, where the Apostolic Delegate, Fr Romy Convocar, and Fr Paul made it clear to the NCW leadership that there was to be no separate NCW vigil mass. The NCW representatives were not happy about the decision, claiming it was allowed in their statutes. 

Fr Paul pointed to the GIRM which requires only one Easter Vigil in a parish, and that they were wrong in their understanding of the NCW statutes. 

They left the meeting knowing they were clearly told to join their parishes for a single Easter Vigil.
But as we have seen in other areas, the NCW does what the NCW wants to do. So they celebrated their own Easter Vigil.

Unfortunately, the comment came from a Deacon in Guam. The problem is that there are a few clergymen like this Deacon who is against the Way. The NCW is allowed to celebrate the Easter Vigil according to their Statutes, which was approved by Rome. In 2019, a news article wrote (the bold is mine):

The episcopal council of the Rome diocese, in a document distributed March 1, said the unity of the diocese — seen especially through the unity of the bishop and pastors of parishes in the celebration of the Eucharist — is especially important to emphasize during the triduum: the Holy Thursday Mass of the Lord’s Supper, the Good Friday liturgy of the Lord’s Passion and the Easter vigil Saturday night.

“To express visibly the unity of the holy people of God and express the deepest meaning of belonging to an ecclesial community,” the council said, those who frequent non-parish churches, chapels and oratories or who belong to special groups, associations or new movements “are exhorted to take part in the celebrations of the Easter triduum in parish churches.”

An exception exists for “national churches,” like the U.S. Catholic community at St. Patrick Church in Rome, and for members of the Neocatechumenal Way, whose Vatican-approved statutes allow for small-group celebrations of the Easter vigil, Father Midili said.

Cardinal Angelo De Donatis, the papal vicar for the Diocese of Rome, published the council’s document with a note saying the joint triduum celebrations would make the parishes “the pulsing heart” of diocesan liturgical life, while the other churches and oratories could “rediscover their proper charism as privileged places for personal prayer and the celebration of reconciliation.”

 All bishops should be in communion with the Pope. All priests and deacons should be in communion with their bishops. The Vatican has already approved the Statutes of the Neocatechumenal Way, which specifically instructs the Way how to celebrate the Easter Vigil.

Unfortunately in Guam, we are aware that Deacon Steve Martinez stood against Bishop Anthony Apuron, the bishop who ordained him. According to the Pacific Daily News:

“The archbishop is an accused serial sexual predator," Martinez said. "Because of that, he has selfishly used the policy to ignore the fact that he is in charge in a conflict of interest. Because what the policy clearly says in Section 484, is that the accused, if they are felt to be a potential danger to the community, should step down from their position until the investigation is resolved, until the Review Board has made its recommendation and until the archbishop has decided how to proceed with the accused. But the archbishop has not stepped down.”

 Deacon Steve Martinez was also a member of CCOG (Concerned Catholics of Guam), which is an organization who protested against Apuron. He was later told to step down. According to the Guam Daily Post:

DEACON Steve Martinez said he left his position as treasurer of the Concerned Catholics of Guam as directed by an archbishop from Rome.

“Our visitors from Rome had asked me to step down from my role in CCOG and when an archbishop from Rome asks you to do something, you do it. So I removed myself from any involvement from CCOG,” Martinez said. “So Archbishop Anthony Apuron no longer has any reason to place me under censure.”

Martinez said he advised Apuron that he would stepping down and also apologized for things he wrote that were disrespectful to the archbishop.

“He accepted the apology. We certainly have a strange relationship but we have a relationship. He’s still my archbishop,” Martinez said.

The following video is an example of CCOG's character. Mr. Gennarini, the head catechists in the U.S. mainland, came to Guam and were greeted by CCOG at the airport. The video showed how they greeted him. Yes, this is the group whom Deacon Martinez was once a member of before he was told to step down.