Mexican priest suspended over abuse claims

IOL
May 28, 2014

http://www.iol.co.za/news/world/mexican-priest-suspended-over-abuse-claims-1.1695066#.U4XINvldWSo

Mexico City -

A Mexican priest whose picture was plastered on a billboard asking any child sex abuse victims to report him was suspended by the Roman Catholic church over paedophilia accusations.

After suspending him on the Vatican's orders, the archdiocese in the northern state of San Luis Potosi filed a child sex abuse complaint with prosecutors against the priest, Eduardo Cordova Bautista, said the Catholic Lawyers Association of Mexico.

Armando Martinez, president of the association who led the investigation, told AFP that Cordova was suspended after the church received claims that he abused a child in 2012. He refused to disclose the child's age and sex.

Mexican media have published pictures of a billboard signed by a pro-victims group showing the priest's face and the plea: “Were you a victim? Report him!”

Mexico, Latin America's second biggest Catholic country after Brazil, was hit by a major priest paedophilia scandal in 1997 after ex-members of the ultra-conservative Legionaries of Christ congregation accused its Mexican founder Marcial Maciel of sexually abusing young seminarians. - Sapa-AFP