Suit alleges U.S., Mexican cardinals covered up sexual abuse

(News Terupdate) - A Mexican resident who says he was sexually abused by a priest as a child is suing the Roman Catholic Cardinal of Los Angeles and Mexico's top-ranking Catholic cleric, alleging they aided and abetted the abuse by moving the priest between dioceses as allegations piled up against him.

The suit does not name the alleged victim, identifying him only as a Mexican citizen. It alleges that Los Angeles Cardinal Roger Mahony and Mexico City Cardinal Norberto Rivera knew the priest -- identified in the suit as Nicholas Aguilar Rivera -- was abusive but authorized him to move back and forth between Mexico and the U.S. and to continue serving in parishes.

The priest, a Mexican, faces dozens of accusations of sex abuse and was defrocked by the Vatican last year, according to various media reports and to the law firm that filed the suit. The church has not commented on Aguilar's status, but it has not countered reports that he was defrocked.

The suit, filed Tuesday in Los Angeles' federal court, says that the anonymous plaintiff was sexually abused by Aguilar when he was about 13 years old.

The suit alleges that Rivera -- then bishop of Tehuacan, Mexico -- transferred Aguilar to the Los Angeles Archdiocese in 1987 after Rivera suspected him of abuse. The lawsuit contends that Rivera sent Mahony a letter documenting what he called Aguilar's "homosexual problems."

The suit alleges that the Los Angeles Archdiocese learned of abuse allegations against Aguilar in one local parish, then transferred him to another parish, where additional allegations soon surfaced.

When the archdiocese confronted Aguilar about the allegations in early 1988, the priest said he planned to return to Mexico, the lawsuit says, and the archdiocese declined to alert the authorities. "These actions aided, assisted and facilitated Fr. Aguilar's ability to flee the United States of America," the suit alleges.

According to the suit, Mahony wrote to Rivera -- still bishop of Tehuacan -- in March 1988 when the priest was back in Mexico to say that "It is almost impossible to determine precisely the number of young altar boys that (Aguilar) has sexually molested, but the number is large... This priest must be arrested and returned to Los Angeles to suffer the consequences of his immoral actions."

Rivera's reply letter, according to the suit, said that, "You will understand that I'm not in a position to find him, much less force him to return and appear in court."

In April 1988, the Los Angeles Police Department charged Aguilar with 19 felony counts of sexual abuse against children, but Mexico has declined to extradite or prosecute him, according to Mike Finnegan, one of the lawyers for the unnamed plaintiff.

A spokesman for the Los Angeles Archdiocese called the lawsuit's claims "preposterous and without foundation."

"None of the documents concerning Nicholas Aguilar-Rivera are new," said the spokesman, Tod M. Tamberg, in a statement Wednesday. "They show that Cardinal Mahony urged Aguilar-Rivera's return to the U.S. to face justice."

Aguilar has been convicted of abuse by a Mexican court but has never served prison time, according to the plaintiff's law firm, Jeff Anderson & Associates, based in St. Paul, Minnesota.

Aguilar's current whereabouts are unclear.

Rivera was named archbishop of Mexico City, Mexico's top-ranking Catholic post, in 1995 and has since been named cardinal. The suit says that Aguilar occasionally served under Rivera in Mexico City.

The Minnesota law firm has represented previous Mexican victims of sex abuse against the Archdiocese of Los Angeles in which the church wound up settling out of court. But this is the first in which the firm is also trying to sue the Catholic Church in Mexico.

The plaintiff's lawyers are relying on an obscure federal law that they say grants U.S. courts jurisdiction in foreign civil cases that violate treaties to which the United States is party.

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Belgium considers ban on Islamic face coverings

(News Terupdate) - The latest round in the battle of the burqa kicks off Thursday in Belgium, which could become the first country in Europe to ban face coverings worn by observant Muslim women.

Lawmakers are considering a ban in all public places on niqabs, veils that cover the face, as well as burqas, which cover the face and everything else from head to toe.

They're motivated both by security and morality, they say.

"We think all people in public places must show their face," says Denis Ducarme. And, he says, "We must defend our values in the question of the freedom and the dignity of the woman."

His liberal Reformist Movement drafted the legislation, and claims broad cross-party support.

Ducarme denies that Islam requires women to wear burqas or niqabs.

"The majority of Muslims in Belgium and Europe don't accept the burqa, don't accept the niqab. It's only 10 percent who are radical," he says, blaming trends from Pakistan and Afghanistan for encouraging facial covering.

And he rejects the suggestion that the proposed ban smacks of intolerance, saying it is the burqa -- and the Islamist movement -- that are truly intolerant and dangerous.

He estimates that 300 to 400 women in the country wear the niqab or the burqa.

Belgium is home to about 281,000 Muslims, the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life estimates. That would make the country about 3 percent Muslim.

Abdullah Bastin, a Muslim political leader in Belgium, warns that the legislation could have an effect exactly opposite from what it intends. Today only a few women wear the burqa, he says, but if the law is enacted, thousands will wear it as an angry reaction.

He dismisses the idea that the law is designed to protect women's rights. This isn't protecting their dignity, it's colonialism, he argues.

One town in Belgium banned the burqa six years ago.

Jan Creemers, the mayor of the tiny picture-postcard city of Maaseik, says it was no problem to enforce the ban: "I had always the support of the Moroccan community here in Maaseik."

Some fines were handed out, he says. None were paid, but no one wears a veil in Maaseik today, he says.

The bill before the Chamber of Deputies on Thursday would impose a fine of 15-25 euros ($20-33) or imprisonment of one to seven days.

Amnesty International warned Wednesday that the bill would break international law.

"A general ban on the wearing of full face veils would violate the rights to freedom of expression and religion of those women who choose to express their identity or beliefs in this way," said Claudio Cordone, Amnesty International's interim secretary general.

"Women must not be compelled to wear a headscarf or veil, either by the state or by individuals; and it is wrong for them to be prohibited by law from wearing it," Cordone said in a written statement.

If the Chamber of Deputies approves the law, it will go to the upper house of the legislature for a vote.

Belgium is not the only country considering banning the burqa. France said Tuesday that it would shortly be putting a similar draft law before Parliament.

"Face-covering veils must be totally forbidden in the whole public space because women's dignity is not divisible," said Luc Chatel, a spokesman for the French government. "The second principle, of course, everything must be done so that no one feels stigmatized because of one's faith and religion. The president of the republic and the prime minister have asked the members of government to work hard on this point."

He said the government will seek to avoid a partisan approach to the legislation, and will consult with all political groups "and of course, moral and religious authorities."

A panel of French lawmakers recommended a ban in January.

France denied citizenship to a man a week later because he made his wife wear a veil, and denied a woman citizenship in 2008 because she wore a burqa. The country's constitution fiercely guards the secularity of the state.

Switzerland passed a ban on building minarets, the tall towers next to mosques, in a nationwide referendum in November.

At the moment, Belgium has only "moderate" government restrictions on religion, a major Pew Forum study found last year. But Europe as a region is more restrictive than the Americas or sub-Saharan Africa, according to the study.

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Pope says church will take action on sex abuse scandal

Rome, Italy (News Terupdate) - Pope Benedict XVI was "greatly moved" by a meeting with victims of abuse by Catholic clergy, he said Wednesday, in his first public comments on the scandal in more than a month.

He said he gave the victims "assurances of the church's action" after the meeting in Valletta, Malta, on Sunday.

The Catholic Church has been shaken in the past year by hundreds of allegations of abuse by Catholic clergy in Ireland, the Netherlands, Austria and the pope's native Germany.

The Vatican said Sunday that Benedict told the victims he feels shame for what they suffered within the church and will make sure their abusers are brought to justice.

One of the victims, Joseph Magro, said the meeting was very emotional, and left even the pope "with tears in his eyes."

The pontiff met with eight men in Valletta, Malta, who said they were abused by Catholic priests when they were children, the Vatican said. The group prayed together, and then the pope spoke individually with each of the men.

The eight men are among a group of 10 on the Mediterranean island who have come forward saying Catholic priests abused them at a local orphanage during the 1980s and 1990s.

Magro said Sunday's encounter with the pontiff had a strong impact. "I made peace with the church," Magro said immediately after the meeting.

The 20-minute encounter, held in the chapel of the papal embassy in Malta, was only Benedict's third meeting with victims of sexual abuse -- and the first amid the recent chorus of criticism of the church's response to the crisis and of Benedict's own history of handling sexual abuse cases.

The pontiff met five victims of sexual abuse in Washington, during his April 2008 trip to the United States, and with five other victims in July 2008 in Australia.

While the victims who took part in the meeting were generally hopeful about its significance, the largest organization for victims of priestly sex abuse in the United States was more skeptical.

"We are sure these brave men deserve anything that can help their healing, and we hope they feel better," said Barbara Dorris of the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests.

"However, the pope's professions of 'sorrow' don't keep one child-molesting cleric away from kids, expose one corrupt bishop or make one child more secure," Dorris said. "That is where the pope's focus should be."

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Pope expresses 'shame and sorrow' to abuse victims

Valletta, Malta (News Terupdate) - Pope Benedict XVI told a group of sexual abuse victims Sunday that he feels "shame" for what they suffered within the church and will make sure their abusers are brought "to justice," the Vatican announced.

One of the victims, Joseph Margo, said the meeting was "very emotional" -- and left even the pope "with tears in his eyes."

On a trip to Malta, the pontiff met with eight men who said they were abused by Catholic priests when they were children, the Vatican said. The group prayed together, and then the pope spoke individually with each of the men.

"He was deeply moved by their stories and expressed his shame and sorrow over what victims and their families have suffered," the Vatican said in a statement.

"He prayed with them and assured them that the church is doing, and will continue to do, all in its power to investigate allegations, to bring to justice those responsible for abuse and to implement effective measures designed to safeguard young people in the future."

The pope also "prayed that all the victims of abuse would experience healing and reconciliation, enabling them to move forward with renewed hope," the Vatican said.

The eight men are among a group of 10 on the Mediterranean island who have come forward saying Catholic priests abused them at a local orphanage during the 1980s and 1990s.

Joseph Margo said Sunday's encounter with the pontiff had a strong impact. "I made peace with the Church," Magro said immediately after the meeting.

The 20-minute encounter, held in the chapel of the papal embassy in Malta, was only Benedict's third meeting with victims of sexual abuse -- and the first amid the recent chorus of criticism of the church's response to the crisis and of Benedict's own history of handling sexual abuse cases.

The pontiff met with five victims of sexual abuse in Washington during his April 2008 trip to the United States, and with five other victims in July 2008 in Australia.

The Maltese crisis has rocked this tiny island nation of some 400,000, which is 94 percent Catholic, in part because one victim has linked the abuse he suffered at the orphanage to a horrific crime he committed in 1991, murdering a homosexual man. Gaetano Scerri -- who recently completed a 20-year prison sentence -- told a newspaper that "the abuse, the rapes and the beatings" made him "a pitiless person, full of rage." Scerri did not take part in Sunday's meeting.

Benedict made no public reference to the sexual abuse scandal during his brief two-day trip to Malta, aside from a brief remark aboard the papal plane from Rome that the church is "wounded by our sins." A papal spokesperson later characterized the remark as a "discreet reference" to the sexual abuse crisis.

Tens of thousands of people attended an open-air Mass in the capital of Valletta, but the pope did not address the issue in his homily.

The private meeting with victims was "intense" but "serene," according to the Rev. Federico Lombardi, Vatican spokesman.

While the victims who took part in the meeting were generally hopeful about its significance, the largest organization for victims of priestly sex abuse in the United States was more skeptical.

"We are sure these brave men deserve anything that can help their healing and we hope they feel better," said Barbara Dorris of the Survivors' Network of those Abused by Priests.

"However, the pope's professions of 'sorrow' don't keep one child-molesting cleric away from kids, expose one corrupt bishop or make one child more secure," Dorris said. "That is where the pope's focus should be."

After the encounters in 2008, the initial reaction from the victims was largely positive. Over time, however, some have argued that whatever momentum they generated has been squandered by the church's failure to adopt sweeping policy changes to weed out predator priests and to hold bishops accountable who failed to stop the abuse.

Recently, two of the victims who met Benedict XVI in Washington in 2008 announced plans to stage a large gathering of victims in St. Peter's Square in Rome in late October, calling it a "Day of Reform" to demand the Vatican adopt tough new policies on abuse.

The Malta stop was the first of five international trips the pope has planned this year.

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