The Limited Times

Now you can see non-English news...

Church of Mexico recognizes more than 200 investigations of sexual abuse

2020-01-15T21:08:16.626Z


The secretary of the Conference of the Mexican Episcopate asked the authorities to eliminate or expand the prescription of sexual crimes to combat abuses in the Catholic Church and give…


  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in a new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in a new window)
  • Click here to share on LinkedIn (Opens in a new window)
  • Click to email a friend (Opens in a new window)

Reveal sexual abuse of the Legionaries of Christ 4:22

(CNN Spanish) - In order to combat sexual abuse of minors in the Church, the Mexican Episcopate Conference (CEM) called on Tuesday to raise or increase the prescription of sexual crimes in Mexico, which is currently 10 years in federal legislation.

The president of CEM, Monsignor Rogelio Cabrera, asked the competent authorities that there is no prescription of the crime (that is, there is no deadline for investigating sexual crimes), he says, it is unfair to the victims.

The CEM reported that in the last ten years they have investigated 426 priests. 271 of them reported for sexual abuse plus another 155 proceedings for other offenses, which were not specified. Of the more than 400 cases, 173 processes are still ongoing, 253 have been completed and 217 priests have been resigned from the clerical order, said Monsignor Alfonso Miranda Guardiola, general secretary of the CEM.

“Currently it is 10 years and now nothing can be done. We believe that this is unfair since evil endures throughout the life of the one who has been a victim, ”said Monsignor Cabrera in a press conference on Tuesday.

  • Mexican guilty of sexual abuse of minors will remain in the Legionaries of Christ
  • Watch in this video: Son of Maciel on religious report: "It's a half pardon, it's not a faithful forgiveness"

The prescriptions of the crimes are different as far as the Mexican laws and the canon of the Church. In the first, the prescription is 10 years, while in the Church it is established that crimes prescribe 20 years after the victim turns 18. In addition, according to the president of the CEM, this ecclesial prescription is to be repealed, so that in practice crimes never prescribe for the Catholic Church.

Alfonso Miranda Guardiola, general secretary of the CEM, said cases of sexual abuse against minors have been notified to local prosecutors.

The call comes amid a scandal of sexual abuse of minors, allegations of cover-ups, and a crisis of legitimacy of the Church in several countries. Recently, the order of the Legionaries of Christ recognized at least 175 sexual abuses by priests, dozens of them by the late priest and founder of the order, Marcial Maciel.

On this case, Monsignor Guardiola said that he notified the Legionaries that he "resigns the priest" and that he "return to Mexico to face the authority."

In 2019, initiatives were presented in the Mexican Senate to make child sexual violence imprescriptible, which they studied.

In March of last year, the Mexican Church created a multidisciplinary team to “root out” sexual abuse of minors starring members of the Catholic Church in that country.

  • They present the team that wants to end pedophilia in the Catholic Church of Mexico

'Zero tolerance'

Monsignor Cabrera said that he must change the way in which complaints of sexual abuse by members of the Church are handled, because in the past “great mistakes” have been made that have not allowed progress in investigations expeditiously.

"The processes have to be immediate, clear and expeditious," said the president of the CEM. "The big mistakes that have been made is because of the delay in facing these problems, some decades away, where it is sometimes difficult to follow the common thread and discover the culprit and those who covered up the crime."

The Church said it is committed to “collaborate in every possible way” with the civil authorities, to carry out the investigations. One of these ways is with the elimination of the pontifical secret in cases of sexual abuse, a directive given by Pope Francis himself in December last year.

  • Pope Francis eliminates the papal secret in cases that affect sexual abuse

“This the Holy See has told us expressly. We have an obligation and that is because of the new rule that there is no longer papal secret, that no one can claim the secret as a cause for not showing criminal problems, ”said Cabrera.

"The victims are first and not the perpetrator," added the bishop. “We must offer all human and spiritual and legal support. There should be no tolerance in cases of abuse. ”

The Mexican bishops also encouraged the victims and parents and guardians of minors who have been violated to denounce, because for years there has been silence "for all the suffering it implies for the victim."

Regarding the reparations, the Mexican Church said that they will accompany the victims in their rehabilitation (medical, psychological and spiritual care), will take measures of “satisfaction” (verify the facts, public recognition of the truth and the sanctions against the perpetrators) and The commitment of non-repetition.

"Judicial, institutional and legal reforms, changes in the security forces, promotion and respect for human rights are required to avoid repetition of violations," said the president of the Conference of the Mexican Episcopate.

Sexual abuse by priests

Source: cnnespanol

All news articles on 2020-01-15

You may like

News/Politics 2024-02-22T03:31:40.020Z

Trends 24h

News/Politics 2024-03-27T16:45:54.081Z

Latest

© Communities 2019 - Privacy

The information on this site is from external sources that are not under our control.
The inclusion of any links does not necessarily imply a recommendation or endorse the views expressed within them.