U.S. judge dismisses suit against Mexican cardinal in abuse case

Published: 2007-10-22

LOS ANGELES (CNS) -- A federal judge Oct. 16 dismissed a lawsuit against Mexico City Cardinal Norberto Rivera Carrera that accused him of conspiring to transfer a priest accused of sexual abuse from Mexico to the United States. Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Elihu M. Berle said there was not enough evidence to hold Cardinal Rivera accountable in a U.S. court in Joaquin Aguilar Mendez's complaint that, as bishop of Tehuacan in the state of Puebla, Cardinal Rivera transferred a priest accused of molesting minors. The suit alleged that the priest was transferred out of Mexico to protect him from prosecution despite church officials knowing of the accusations that he molested boys. He then went on to abuse more youths in the United States, it charged. Aguilar Mendez, 26, says Father Nicolas Aguilar Rivera (no relation to either the accuser or Cardinal Rivera) sexually assaulted him when he was 13, when the priest was assigned to a Los Angeles parish. The lawsuit also originally included Cardinal Roger M. Mahony of Los Angeles, who was accused of shielding the priest, but the cardinal said he was never told about the Mexican abuse accusations.

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