Pope in Mexico Asked to Admit Church at Fault in Sex Abuse Cases

MEXICO
Latin American Herald Tribune

LEON, Mexico – Mexicans who denounced the sexual abuses committed by Marcial Maciel (1920-2008), founder of the Legion of Christ, asked Pope Benedict XVI on Saturday to acknowledge the church’s responsibility in covering up his case and to announce that “never again” will pederasty be tolerated.

“We don’t plan to boycott the visit, absolutely. What we do want is to ask him from Mexico: Where are you going, Benedict XVI? Do you want to find your charisma once more and the mission of Peter, or is strengthening your papacy and your position as head of state what you want?” former priest Alberto Athie said at a press conference.

He spoke those words in presenting a new book of which he is co-author, “The Voluntad de No Saber” (The Will Not To Know), a 2012 publication of Grijalbo, which offers 212 documents from the secret archives of the Vatican that refer to the sexual abuse of minors and other inappropriate conduct connected with Maciel beginning in 1944.

According to the ex-priest, with Benedict XVI at the head of the church, “he and he alone can chart a new course to resolve this tremendous problem…the holocaust of thousands of boys and girls who were abused in many parts of the world.”

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