The church needs to be “cleaned up,” according to Cruz.
The statue of limitations bill, patterned after a California law, was drafted four months ago, but Cruz was reluctant to introduce it in the legislature, saying “I didn’t want to legislate from the position of vengeance; I didn’t want to do it out of anger.”
The former chief justice made a public confession in a KUAM interview that he was sexually abused by a priest when he was 13 years old. At the time, he was attending St. John Bosco High School in Los Angeles, California.
The spontaneous admission, Cruz said, was prompted by the local church’s “vitriolic” attacks on homosexuality and Archbishop Anthony S. Apuron’s suggestions for member of the Legislature to convert to a different religion or denomination.
“I just lost it, so I said it. This sanctimonious hypocrisy must stop,” said Cruz, author of the controversial Bill 185, which seeks to recognize same-sex union. “It has gotten to the point when I was told not to come to the church.”
But Cruz is unperturbed by the threat of expulsion from the church. “The worse has been done to me by a priest. If being forced to sexually satisfy a priest didn’t drive me away from the church, their words cannot force me out now. They have to excommunicate me first, because I am not leaving,” he told Variety.
Apuron, who has mounted an aggressive lobbying effort against Bill 185, on Tuesday had an audience with senators during a breakfast meeting at the Guam Hilton Resort and Spa.
“It was an occasion for us to share with them the reasons why Bill 185 represents a concern for the society of Guam under many profiles — moral, religious, health,” Apuron said in a statement read before members of the media.
He said the meeting with the senators resulted in “the willingness to defend marriage on Guam as the fundamental institution of our society.”
The archbishop did not entertain questions from reporters, but in the same written statement, Apuron responded to Cruz’s revelation about his troubled youth.
“I reiterated my personal regret for the event that painfully affected the life of Sen. BJ Cruz,” Apuron said. “Unfortunately, sins committed by individuals from every walk of life bear consequences that are painful and should be prevented.”
Cruz said he is awaiting a green light from a social workers group before taking action on his shelved bill. “I don’t want people to think of this as a form of retaliation. I want professional advice,” he said.
