Survivors allege clergy sex abuse on Catholic island of Guam

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A statue of Pope John Paul II stands outside the island's main cathedral, Dulce Nombre de Maria Cathedral-Basilica, during a Mass in Hagatna, Guam, Tuesday, May 7, 2019. Those old enough to remember often cite the pontiff's visit to the island in 1981 as the most thrilling event of their lifetimes, memorialized by the bronze statue of the now-sainted pope designed to slowly rotate on a concrete pedestal. (AP Photo/David Goldman)

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The sky of a setting sun is reflected in the windows of the island's main cathedral, Dulce Nombre de Maria Cathedral-Basilica, during a Mass in Hagatna, Guam, Tuesday, May 7, 2019. The towering white cathedral built on the site of the island's first church dominates the skyline of Hagatna, the island's capital. (AP Photo/David Goldman)

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An altar server holds a crucifix during a Mass in the island's main cathedral, Dulce Nombre de Maria Cathedral-Basilica, in Hagatna, Guam, Sunday, May 12, 2019. Nearly four centuries after the arrival of the first Jesuit missionaries, Catholicism is deeply engrained in the culture of Guam's indigenous people, known as Chamorros. (AP Photo/David Goldman)

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A parishioner reaches for holy water upon entering a Mass held in Chamorro at Our Lady of Purification Catholic Church in Maina, Guam, Friday, May 10, 2019. Though English is been taught in schools as the official language, many residents still sprinkle bits of Spanish and Chamarro into their everyday speech. (AP Photo/David Goldman)

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Children, dressed in white for First Communion, wait for a Mass to begin in the island's main cathedral, Dulce Nombre de Maria Cathedral-Basilica, in Hagatna, Guam, Sunday, May 12, 2019. More than 85% of Guam's 165,000 residents identify as Catholic. By comparison, it's 36% in one of the most Catholic cities on the mainland, Boston. (AP Photo/David Goldman)

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A tattoo of a rosary and his wife's name decorates the chest of Walter Denton in Agat, Guam, Saturday, May 11, 2019. Denton is one of over 200 former altar boys, students and Boy Scouts who are now suing Guam's Catholic archdiocese over decades of sexual abuse they say they suffered at the hands of more than two dozen clergy, teachers and scoutmasters. "He didn't ruin my faith. I still believe in God," Denton said of his abuser. "People ask me, 'Walter, how are you doing?' And I say I'm blessed. God has blessed me." (AP Photo/David Goldman)

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Tablets of the Ten Commandments stand outside Immaculate Heart of Mary Catholic Church as a parishioner leaves a Mother's Day Mass, in Toto, Guam, Sunday, May 12, 2019. The island became a Spanish colony until its surrender to the United States in 1898. (AP Photo/David Goldman)

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A statue of Pope John Paul II stands inside the island's main cathedral, Dulce Nombre de Maria Cathedral-Basilica, during a Mass in Hagatna, Guam, Tuesday, May 7, 2019. While the U.S. Catholic Church has been roiled by the child sexual abuse scandal for nearly two decades, the island's faithful are still reckoning with new revelations from survivors long shamed into silence by men who claimed divine authority to cloak their sins. (AP Photo/David Goldman)

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People kneel in prayer during a Mass at Dulce Nombre de Maria Cathedral-Basilica in Hagatna, Guam, Tuesday, May 7, 2019. The recounted cases of clergy abuse here go back as far as the memories of the oldest living survivors, gray-haired men still grappling with the emotional scars of childhood traumas they repressed for decades. (AP Photo/David Goldman)

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Tim Oftana takes part in the reciting of 2,000 Hail Mary prayers at a makeshift altar set up in the storage room of the bakery he owns in Dededo, Guam, Saturday, May 11, 2019. Surrounded by bags of flour, corn and buckets of fruit filling, Oftana and a handful of faithful took about ten hours to recite the prayers. (AP Photo/David Goldman)

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Students gather for a group photo before a Mass to celebrate their Catholic school graduation in Hagatna, Guam, Tuesday, May 7, 2019. Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan is credited with discovering Guam for Spain in 1521, though an indigenous people called the Chamorros were living there at least 2,000 years before the birth of Jesus. (AP Photo/David Goldman)

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A sign for a street named after Archbishop Felixberto Camacho Flores, Guam's first bishop to have been born on the island, stands outside the main cathedral, Dulce Nombre de Maria Cathedral-Basilica, in Hagatna, Guam, Monday, May 6, 2019. According to a recently filed lawsuit, Flores allegedly exposed himself in 1966 to an 11-year-old schoolboy inside a cathedral. Streets on Guam are often named for bishops and priests, including some now accused of sexually abusing children. Flores is now dead. (AP Photo/David Goldman)

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A shrine sits in the home of David Sablan, president of Concerned Catholics of Guam, whose son, Maynard, was killed in a shooting at his school in 1984, in Santa Rita, Guam, Wednesday May 8, 2019. More than 85% of Guam's 165,000 residents identify as Catholic. By comparison, it's 36% in one of the most Catholic cities on the mainland, Boston. (AP Photo/David Goldman)

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A fitness boot camp gathers near a statue of Archbishop Felixberto Camacho Flores, Guam's first bishop to have been born on the island, in Hagatna, Guam, Wednesday May 8, 2019. According to a recently filed lawsuit, Flores allegedly exposed himself in 1966 to an 11-year-old schoolboy inside a cathedral. Streets on Guam are often named for bishops and priests, including some now accused of sexually abusing children. Flores is now dead. (AP Photo/David Goldman)

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A mural of Pope Francis decorates a building along a busy shopping street in Tamuning, Guam, Saturday, May 11, 2019. Nearly four centuries after the arrival of the first Jesuit missionaries, Catholicism is deeply engrained in the culture of Guam's indigenous people, known as Chamorros. (AP Photo/David Goldman)