MEXICO
National Catholic Reporter
Aug 14, 2017
by David Agren, Catholic News Service
MEXICO CITY — The Archdiocese of Mexico City said it reported six cases of priests accused of sexually abusing minors to prosecutors between 2010 and 2017, following a change in Mexico’s Religious Associations Law requiring such crimes to be brought to the authorities’ attention.
“Cardinal Norberto Rivera left it clear that, starting with the implementation of (the law in 2010) — which requires religious leaders and their representatives to inform the corresponding authority about the probable committing of crimes — he had knowledge of the probable commission of six acts, presumably criminal, after being told by his vicars,” the archdiocesan publication Desde la Fe said in an Aug. 10 article. “He instructed (the vicars) to report them immediately to the corresponding authorities.”
The article followed news that Cardinal Norberto Rivera Carrera was interviewed by an investigator from the federal attorney general’s office over criminal complaints of covering up 15 cases of abuse. Rivera’s lawyer, Armando Martinez Gomez, said the complaints were filed by a pair of former priests.
Fr. Hugo Valdemar Romero, spokesman for the Archdiocese of Mexico City, said the accusations were brought to “create a scandal of such a level that the pope would accept (the cardinal’s) resignation” more quickly. Rivera turned 75 June 6 and, in accordance with canon law, submitted his resignation to Pope Francis.
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