This Cardinal Cannot Be Sued Judge Rules He Has No Jurisdiction in Civil Case Accusing Archbishop of Mexico City of Conspiring to Protect Priest Accused of Child Molesting, California Catholic Daily, October 18, 2007

This Cardinal Cannot Be Sued
Judge Rules He Has No Jurisdiction in Civil Case Accusing Archbishop of Mexico City of Conspiring to Protect Priest Accused of Child Molesting

California Catholic Daily
October 18, 2007

http://www.calcatholic.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?id=dd7acd0a-8db4-4d8d-ba35-6f10ec3aadb1

Cardinal Norberto Rivera of Mexico City will not be tried in a Los Angeles court on civil charges of conspiring with Los Angeles church officials to protect a priest who allegedly molested a Mexican youth. On Oct. 16, Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Elihu Berle said he lacked jurisdiction in the case.

The lawsuit, filed by Joaquin Mendez, 26, says that in the late 1980s, Rivera, then bishop of Tehuacan, Mexico, conspired with Cardinal Roger Mahony to protect Father Nicolas Aguilar, a priest Rivera sent to the Los Angeles archdiocese. Mahony received Aguilar into the archdiocese after receiving a Jan. 27, 1987 letter in which Rivera wrote that the priest was suffering from "family problems and ill health." Rivera claims he sent Mahony a subsequent letter on March 23, 1987 giving "a brief report on the priest's homosexual problems." Mahony has said he received the first but not the second letter.

Jeff Anderson, Mendez's attorney, told the October 2006 Los Angeles Mission that "homosexual problems" is code for "a history of sexual abuse."

Rivera's attorney, Steve Selsberg, says the evidence shows that Rivera did not know Aguilar had been allegedly molesting children when he sent him to Los Angeles.

Mahony assigned Aguilar consecutively to two parishes in Los Angeles. According to Mendez's lawsuit, Monsignor Thomas Curry, then archdiocesan vicar general, on Jan. 9, 1988 informed Aguilar of accusations of molestation made against him and relieved him of priestly duties. The same day, Aguilar fled to Tijuana. On Jan. 11, informed by the principal of Our Lady of Guadalupe school of the allegations against Aguilar, Los Angeles police contacted Curry, who said Aguilar had said he was going to return to Mexico "at the first of the week," according to police reports.

Los Angeles police say Aguilar is suspected of having molested 19 boys while serving in Los Angeles.

After returning to Mexico, Aguilar served in Mexico City, where, in 1994, he allegedly raped Mendez, then 13 years old. When Rivera became archbishop of Mexico City in 1995, Aguilar returned to Tehuacan. His whereabouts are currently unknown.

Rivera was deposed in the Los Angeles lawsuit last August.

Mendez's attorney, Mike Finnegan, told Reuters that he might consider an appeal of Berle's ruling in U.S courts, or try to have the case heard in Mexico.

Cardinal Mahony, who was named in the original suit, might also not be off the hook. Though Mendez was included in the massive settlement the Los Angeles archdiocese reached with sexual molestation victims last June, Finnegan told the Los Angeles Times that Mendez's case against Mahony was not yet settled.

Church authorities in Mexico insist it is not true that Cardinal Rivera sent Father Aguilar to Los Angeles. They say Aguilar went to Los Angeles on his own initiative -- after being severely reprimanded by Rivera. Mahony, they say, accepted Aguilar despite warnings from Rivera about "Aguilar's homosexual deviations."