MEXICO CITY (MEXICO)
El Norte [Monterrey, Nuevo León, Mexico]
June 30, 2014
By Emily Corona
[Via vLex]
MEXICO.- The overlapping of cases of child abuse is an institutional mechanism of both the Church and civil authorities, said former priest Alberto Athié.
According to the former priest, the Church is more concerned with maintaining an image of holy authority than with granting justice to the victims.
The case of the father of San Luis Potosí, Alberto Córdova, in addition to being recent, is emblematic because it makes visible the scheme repeated by the ecclesial authorities in situations of sexual abuse.
“Father Córdova had been exercising the ministry for 30 years and holding important positions in the Archdiocese, (…) and at the same time the Archdiocese was receiving permanent complaints from the mothers, victims and from all the places through which the priest was happening,” Athié said in an interview with EL NORTE.
Meanwhile, the authority was receiving information on cases of abuse, opening legal proceedings and notifying the Holy See in Rome; but this happened with the greatest secrecy, under secrecy for those familiar with the case whose legal process took place in the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in the Vatican.
“This allowed the priests or bishops to remain in their positions until it was determined if they were responsible and that made them continue abusing boys and girls in the places where they were,” he said.
“They knew about the abuse but did absolutely nothing until they couldn’t stop it and had to speak up.”