Mexican cardinal questioned in abuse case
Allegations Norberto Rivera helped protect accused child rapist
Published: Thursday, August 09, 2007

MEXICO CITY -- Mexico's top clergyman, Cardinal Norberto Rivera, was questioned by U.S. lawyers yesterday in a child sex-abuse case that is a new blow to the Roman Catholic Church in its second-largest stronghold.

The lawyers met with Rivera at the capital's archdiocese building to ask about charges in a U.S. civil case that he colluded with Los Angeles Cardinal Roger Mahony to protect a Mexican priest wanted for multiple child rapes.

Abuse scandals have rocked the Catholic Church around the world recently and the Los Angeles diocese this year agreed to pay a $660-million US settlement.

In Mexico, sexual-abuse cases against the church have rarely come to trial but last year the cardinal was accused of covering up abuse in a civil suit lodged in Los Angeles.

"Justice cannot be had in Mexico; that's why we have to take this to foreign courts,'' said Eric Barragan, spokesman for SNAP, a U.S.-based group for victims of sex abuse by priests.

The lawyers allege that former altar boy Joaquin Aguilar Mendez was raped at age 13 in Mexico in 1994 by a priest named Nicolas Aguilar, who the church shunted between Mexico and the United States to avoid abuse charges.

The church is one of Mexico's most important institutions but has lost influence as lawmakers in the capital legalized abortion and gay civil unions.

Evangelical churches also are gaining ground in Mexico while legislators are studying liberalizing laws against euthanasia and prostitution, despite objections from the church.

Rivera, once seen as an outside candidate to succeed Pope John Paul II, says the Los Angeles court does not have jurisdiction over him because the alleged incidents in the civil suit took place in Mexico.

Rivera, whose Mexico City diocese is one of the world's largest, is accused of sending the priest to Los Angeles briefly, knowing that he was a pedophile who later allegedly raped the altar boy in Mexico's Puebla state.

The priest is believed to be on the run in Mexico and is wanted on multiple charges of sexually abusing boys in California. He has not been excommunicated.

The two cardinals have contradicted each other's versions of events. Mahony says the Mexican church did not warn him of Aguilar's record when the priest arrived in Los Angeles.

© The Vancouver Province 2007