 Ordained Priest: August 26, 1972
Served as Rector: June 1978 – May 1986
Anthony Sablan Apuron, was born on November 1, 1945, and was ordained a Capuchin Franciscan priest at the age of 27. Appointed on December 8, 1983 as Auxiliary Bishop by Pope John Paul II to assist Archbishop Felixberto Flores, he was subsequently installed as Archbishop of Agana on May 11, 1986, succeeding Archbishop Felixberto Flores. He is the first native Capuchin Archbishop, and the third Metropolitan Capuchin Archbishop to date, in the world.
As Metropolitan Archbishop and the President of the CEPAC (Conferentia Episcopalis Pacifici), he traveled a great deal in the Pacific region reaching out to the different faith communities spread over the vast area of the Pacific.
The tenth child of Ana Santos Sablan and Manuel Taijito Apuron, Anthony Sablan Apuron attended both Catholic and public elementary schools on Guam, graduating from Father Duenas Memorial High School at the age of eighteen. The following month marked his entrance into the Capuchin Franciscan Order. Years of extensive studies in theology, scripture and liturgy filled his seminary years. After his priestly ordination on August 26, 1972, he continued further studies and in 1974, received a Master of Arts degree in Liturgical Studies from Notre Dame University, South Bend, Indiana.
The years following his return to Guam found the young priest dedicated to full pastoral service to his own people. His assignments included rectorship in the seminary at Father Duenas School and membership in the Diocesan Liturgical Commission where he assisted in the translation of the Sacramentary and Lectionary. He wrote extensively for the media and preached his homilies in his well-loved Chamorro language.
 His time was spent in service to everyone who needed him, both the young and the old. He trained altar boys for service in liturgy, taught classes at the Father Duenas High School, and was at one time the Rector of the Dulce Nombre de Maria Cathedral in Agana and the Chaplain for the Guam Legislature from 1978 to 1986.
Generous and dedicated, he knew no boundaries in his service to the Church. In August of 1975, he went to Saipan as the associate pastor at Mt. Carmel Parish and served simultaneously in the two other parishes of San Jose and San Vicente. This responsibility he discharged with dedication for the entire year he was there.
His name was included in the International Register of Profiles published in Cambridge, England in 1981. In 1984, he received public recognition of his dedicated work for the faith community when he was among the few who were chosen as the Outstanding Young People of Guam.
All through the thirteen years of his episcopate, Archbishop Anthony Sablan Apuron has always championed the cause of the underprivileged and the oppressed within any progressing society. He stands unflinching against issues on social injustice, abortion, casino, gambling and capital punishment. Active and forceful, the young Archbishop speaks out for the Church in different forums to different groups of people in different countries, to clarify the Church stand on crucial issues and to defend her teachings of faith. |
