Victims of paedophile priests seeking justice Radio Netherlands Worldwide

Victims of paedophile priests seeking justice
by Marta Durán de Huerta in Mexico*
09-03-2007

Journalist Sanjuana Martínez has broken a taboo with revelations about sexual abuse in the Mexican Catholic Church. Her book Purple Cloak is about Nicolas Aguilar Rivera, a priest known to be responsible for 90 cases of child sexual abuse.

It's also about the people who against their better judgement have always protected him.

Cardinal Norberto Rivera Carrera of Mexico City paid little attention to the flood of allegations by the victims of Father Nicolas Aguilar Rivera. He simply sent the priest to the United States. There Aguilar went on to abuse another 26 children.

Their families filed suits in US courts and in contrast to the usual practice in Mexico, this time the files did not get lost, the victims were taken seriously and they were not threatened. Justice was allowed to take its course.

Father Aguilar returned to Mexico, where he received protection from both church and government. But in the US, the case is continuing, and not just against Aguilar, but also against cardinals Norberto Rivera and Roger Mahony, who covered up his crimes.

Mexico has been a secular state since the revolution at the beginning of the last century, but the Catholic Church still exerts a strong influence on politics and daily life.

Priests are often able to go unpunished.

Pope fails to act

In her book, Sanjuana Martínez describes the triple tragedy of the victims of religious paedophiles. Apart from the physical and emotional suffering they were subjected to, they were derided by members of the church, humiliated by the police and not taken seriously by the public prosecutor, who made no attempt to bring the perpetrators to justice.

The Aguilar case is symptomatic.

For many years there have been floods of rape allegations against priests. An infamous case was that of the founder of the Legionarios de Cristo or Legion of Christ, priest Marcial Maciel Degollado, against whom a complaint was even lodged with Pope John Paul II.

Nothing happened.

In 2004, journalist Carlos Fazio published In the name of the Father, Sexual predators in the Church. The book was the product of extensive research, but yet again nothing happened.

Seeking justice across the border

One of Aguilar's victims, now an adult, persevered and filed a suit against the priest to a US court. The victim believes it is a disgrace to the country that Mexicans have to cross the Rio Grande not only to find work, but also to seek justice.

Victims of sexual abuse by priests have organised themselves into the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests, SNAP. The network gives psychological support and tries to have perpetrators brought to trial.

Jeff Anderson, SNAP's attorney, has filed more than 1200 suits relating to allegations of rape by priests. He has already won dozens of cases, forcing the church to pay large sums in compensation. The biggest problem is that there are not just a few cases, but hundreds of priests who have abused their position as God's representative on earth.

Death threats

Purple Cloak contains a list of 514 paedophile priests and a summary of their crimes. Nicolas Aguilar Rivera has gone into hiding in Puebla, but according to journalist Sanjuana Martínez, speaking in the city at the launch of her book, the region's public prosecutor "denies any knowledge of the criminal's whereabouts".

The writer says that she constantly receives death threats and is the target of a continuing smear campaign.
The Committee to Protect Journalists in New York has taken up her case.*

Translated and Edited by RNW Internet Desk (mb)