Vatican prepares to put Guam archbishop on trial

The Papal appointee given authority to take charge of a Guam archdiocese rocked by allegations of sexual abuse against its Archbishop has said the Vatican is preparing to put the prelate on trial.

Archbishop Savio Hon Tai Fai, who Pope Francis appointed in June to step-in over the Archbishop of Agana, Anthony Apuron, told reporters that "they just formed all the conditions for the trial."

"I'm going to receive some news, some updates later," said Archbishop Hon, who has been serving as the Archdiocese's apostolic administrator while also remaining the second-in-command of the Vatican’s Congregation for the Evangelisation of Peoples.

Archbishop Hon, a native of Hong Kong, spoke to journalists on Tuesday following Francis' appointment on Monday of Detroit Auxiliary Bishop Michael Byrnes as the new coadjutor Archbishop of the Agana Archdiocese, the island's only Catholic diocese.

Francis has sought to act firmly against clergy sexual abuse, and such a trial would be the Vatican's first of a prelate accused of abuse.

A similar trial had been organised in 2015 for a Polish archbishop who had been accused of abuse, but the prelate died before the beginning of the proceedings.