December 07, 2005

U.S. group demands Mexican president take action against priests accused of abuse

MEXICO
Union-Tribune

By E. Eduardo Castillo
ASSOCIATED PRESS

1:32 p.m. December 6, 2005

MEXICO CITY – A U.S. group representing people allegedly sexually abused by Catholic priests demanded Tuesday that President Vicente Fox do more to bring accused Mexican clergy to justice.

Leaders of the Chicago-based Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, known as SNAP, are visiting Mexico this week to pressure the government.

The group wrote to Fox a year ago, urging him to step up efforts to prosecute accused priests, among them the Rev. Nicolas Aguilar, who has been charged in California with 19 felony counts of committing lewd acts on a child.

Aguilar worked in Los Angeles in 1987 and later served as a priest in Mexico. He disappeared after similar accusations arose against him in this country. The group, which held a news conference Tuesday, said Fox never responded to its letter.

Posted by kshaw at December 7, 2005 08:12 AM