By Ioan Grillo
Casper Star-Tribune
September 25, 2006
http://www.casperstartribune.net/articles/2006/09/25/ap/international/d8kbl5vg0.txt
Mexico City - Cardinal Norberto Rivera on Sunday urged a Mexican priest charged with raping and molesting children to turn himself in but denied accusations that he helped protect the fugitive.
Rivera said the Rev. Nicolas Aguilar, who has been formally charged in California with 19 felony counts of committing lewd acts on a child, was damaging the church by evading arrest.
"I ask that Father Nicolas Aguilar, wherever he may be, respond to the corresponding authorities for the terrible crimes he is accused of, for the good of his conscience and to avoid further damage to the church," Rivera said in a statement after Mass in the capital's cathedral. "If anyone has been a victim of this priest, they should denounce it."
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A lawsuit filed in Los Angeles Superior Court alleges that Rivera conspired with Los Angeles Cardinal Roger Mahony to protect Aguilar.
In the suit, 25-year-old Joaquin Aguilar Mendez says he was raped by Aguilar in Mexico in 1994 after the priest had committed the other alleged abuses in Los Angeles. The legal action was backed by the Chicago-based Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests.
The lawsuit accuses Rivera and Mahony of negligence, intentional infliction of emotional distress, civil conspiracy and sexual battery, and charges Aguilar with sexual battery.
On Sunday, Rivera said the alleged crimes took place before he became Archbishop of Mexico City in July 1995.
"In no moment have I covered up for Nicolas Aguilar or for anybody else," said Rivera, Mexico's most prominent cardinal. "When I was named Archbishop in July 1995, (Aguilar) fled Mexico City, as I was clear that I would not allow him to be a priest in this diocese."
Last week, Mendez said Aguilar was continuing to conduct Mass in the Mexican state of Puebla, which borders Mexico City. Church officials in Puebla have not publicly responded to that accusation.
Rivera said the suit against him is an attempt at extortion and violates Mexican sovereignty. Similar suits have cost U.S. Catholic dioceses an estimated $1.5 billion, alarming church leaders worldwide.
The suit "is deeply immoral and without scruples. It exploits an alleged victim of sexual abuse who has already suffered too much," Rivera said. "It is not seeking justice but the dishonest commercialization of justice."
Church officials in Los Angeles also have denounced the legal action, saying it is baseless.
The lawsuit alleges Rivera helped cover up the abuse of 50 boys when Aguilar was parish priest in Puebla in 1987. Rivera was bishop of Tehuacan in Puebla at the time.
Rivera later helped transfer Aguilar to the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, according to the suit. As many as 60 alleged victims from both Mexico and the U.S. have come forward with accusations against Aguilar, the suit said.
Rivera was considered a candidate to replace Pope John Paul II after his death last year. Mahony heads the United States' largest archdiocese.
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