Mexico- Complicit Cardinal named to new Vatican council, SNAP responds

For immediate release: March 10, 2014

Statement by David Clohessy of St. Louis, national director of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (314 566 9790 cell, 314 645 5915 home)

Mexico City’s corrupt Cardinal Norberto Rivera Carrera is one of 15 individuals named to Pope Francis' new “Council for the Economy.” We are disappointed in this choice.

http://www.catholicculture.org/news/headlines/index.cfm?storyid=20722

For decades now, pedophile priests and complicit bishops have been – and still are – the biggest crisis the church has faced in modern times. And in this on-going scandal, Rivera Carrera's record - in Mexico – is terrible.

As long as the Vatican continues to promote bishops who covered up clergy child sexual abuse, Catholics can expect more kids to be hurt and more sex crimes to be committed. 

In 2013, we named Rivera Carrera as one of the dirty dozen for a papal choice. Our view of him has not changed.

http://www.snapnetwork.org/snap_s_dirty_dozen_list_the_papabile_who_would_be_the_worst_choice_for_children

In 2007, Rivera Carrera worked to prevent a prolific predator priest from facing justice. He was accused of concealing the dreadful child sex crimes of Fr. Nicholas Aguilar Rivera. The Cardinal did virtually nothing while Fr. Aguilar Rivera traveled between his native Mexico and the Los Angeles archdiocese, molesting kids in both places. Aguilar Rivera’s current whereabouts are unknown and is on Mexico’s most wanted criminal list.

http://www.bishop-accountability.org/mexico/docs/aguilar/

Rivera Carrera has blamed the media for “attacks on the church,” alleging “over-reporting” of church sex cases.

http://www.natcath.org/crisis/071902g.htm

He also made the ridiculous claim that there are no “documented” cases of abuse against minors in Mexico.

It is disturbing that a cardinal who has been charged with covering up the crimes of a child molester, who is completely out of touch with the realities of child sex crimes, and who has not stepped up to the plate to help victims and protect kids is on a another Vatican council.

(SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, is the world’s oldest and largest support group for clergy abuse victims. We’ve been around for 25 years and have more than 15,000 members. Despite the word “priest” in our title, we have members who were molested by religious figures of all denominations, including nuns, rabbis, bishops, and Protestant ministers. Our website is SNAPnetwork.org)

Contact - David Clohessy (314-566-9790 cell, [email protected]), Barbara Dorris (314-862-7688 home, 314-503-0003 cell, [email protected])