St. Paul Lawyer Vows to Fight Abuse in Mexico, WCCO, October 17, 2006

St. Paul Lawyer Vows to Fight Abuse in Mexico

WCCO
October 17, 2006

http://wcco.com/local/local_story_290071208.html

(AP) St. Paul A lawyer who's been banned from entering Mexico for five years has vowed to keep up his efforts to fight for victims there of sexual abuse by the Roman Catholic clergy.

"In that culture, there is a reverence toward the Catholic Church that makes it a taboo to even speak of a priest abusing, much less a bishop covering up that abuse," attorney Jeffrey Anderson told reporters Monday. "We're here to break that taboo."

Anderson, his colleague Mike Finnegan and a leader of an abuse survivors group were detained in Mexico City last month after announcing a lawsuit filed in Los Angeles alleging that Archbishop Roger Mahony of Los Angeles and Mexican Cardinal Norberto Rivera conspired to protect a priest who had molested a Mexican youth.

Jeffrey Anderson, his colleague Mike Finnegan and a leader of an abuse survivors group were detained in Mexico City last month after announcing a lawsuit filed in Los Angeles alleging that Archbishop Roger Mahony of Los Angeles and Mexican Cardinal Norberto Rivera conspired to protect a priest who had molested a Mexican youth.
Photo by The CBS

Last week, Mexican immigration authorities banned Anderson, Finnegan and David Clohessy, national director of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, saying they violated terms of their tourist entry visas.

Mexico's National Immigration Institute said Thursday that the three Americans had acted as legal advisers, even though their visas did not give them "the proper authorization to carry out professional or lucrative activities."

Anderson denied those allegations Monday.

"We violated no law or rule," he said. "We were there to tell the truth, which is that Cardinal Rivera has been complicit in concealing crimes against children."

Anderson filed the lawsuit on behalf of a 25-year-old man who claims he was abused as a teenager in 1994 by the Rev. Nicolas Aguilar, and that Mahony and Rivera conspired to protect the priest. Spokesmen for Rivera and Mahony have denied that.

Aguilar's whereabouts are unknown, though the plaintiffs have alleged he is still celebrating Mass in Mexico. He's charged in California with 19 felony counts of committing lewd acts on a child.

Anderson called Aguilar a "known pedophile" who was "allowed to roam the landscape of Mexico and the U.S. for more than 20 years."

The attorney also said he'll use diplomatic and legal channels to fight the travel ban. And he said he has hired a Peruvian-trained lawyer, Ivonne Manay, to advocate for Spanish-speaking sexual abuse victims.

"No matter what, we will not be silenced or intimidated in exposing the truth about pedophilia in the Roman Catholic Church in Mexico, Central or South America," Anderson said.