A victims' group
said Tuesday that newly released documents support its
claim that Mexico's most prominent cardinal knew a Mexican
priest was suspected of molesting children but
transferred him to the United States anyway.
The group,
Survivors' Network of Those Abused by Priests, or SNAP, made
public written correspondence between Mexico City cardinal
Norberto Rivera and Los Angeles cardinal Roger Mahony.
It also released a 1986 Mexican police report in which
witnesses alleged the suspect spent the night with
young boys while working as a priest in the central state of
Puebla.
The documents
were part of Rivera's defense in a lawsuit filed against
him in Los Angeles superior court that alleges he and Mahony
conspired to protect the suspect, the Reverend Nicolas
Aguilar. SNAP represents the victim named in the
lawsuit, Joaquin Aguilar Mendez, who is no relation to
the accused priest.
''The documents
were an eye-opener for us,'' said Eric Barragan, director
of SNAP in Mexico and Latin America.
Carlos Villa
Roiz, a spokesman for the Mexico City archdiocese, did not
return calls from the Associated Press seeking comment.
Rivera's representative, Bernardo Fernandez, has said
the Los Angeles court has no legal right to try a
Mexican cardinal for events that occurred in Mexico.
In the lawsuit
filed against Rivera, Joaquin Aguilar Mendez says Aguilar
raped him in Mexico City in 1994. Aguilar Mendez was 12
years old at the time of the alleged crime.
Earlier, in 1988,
Aguilar spent nine months working in Los Angeles, where
he was later charged with 19 felony counts of committing
lewd acts on a child. After returning to Mexico,
Aguilar continued working as a priest for years
despite attempts to extradite him to the United States.
The suit charges
Rivera and Mahony with negligence, intentional
infliction of emotional distress, civil conspiracy, and
sexual battery. Aguilar is accused of sexual battery.
At a news
conference on Tuesday, Aguilar Mendez said Rivera was
responsible for the rape because he had covered up the
priest's previous crimes.
''If Rivera had
done something, nothing bad would have happened to me,''
Aguilar Mendez said Tuesday.
The newly
released documents include a letter of recommendation Rivera
sent Mahony in January 1987, just five months after the
police report was filed in Puebla.
In the letter,
Rivera said Aguilar wanted to be transferred to Los
Angeles because of ''personal and health reasons.'' The
cardinal, then a bishop in Puebla, added that there
was no reason why Aguilar should not be granted the
transfer.
Also among the
documents was a missing letter Rivera wrote Mahony in 1987
referring to Aguilar's ''problems of homosexuality.'' Mahony
has said he did not receive the letter before
approving Aguilar's transfer and requested it in later
correspondence, although Rivera has maintained it was
sent in 1987.
According to
Barragan, Mahony did not receive a copy of the letter until
2004.
''We know the
mail in Mexico is bad, but the idea that it would take a
letter 17 years to arrive is absurd,'' Aguilar Mendez said.
(AP)