Month: March 2018

Mexico City, Mexico, Mar 15, 2018 / 02:58 pm (ACI Prensa).- The Archdiocese of Mexico reaffirmed its commitment to fighting sexual abuse and expressed its support for the 62-year jail sentence for a priest found guilty of abuse.

The archdiocesan communications office issued a statement March 13 on the sentence imposed on the priest Carlos Lopez Valdés, who was found guilty of molesting Jesús Romero Colín several times between 1994 and 1998.

Lopez Valdés, who is now 72, served at San Agustín de las Cuevas parish in Tlapan, south of Mexico City. Romero was his altar boy, and was abused between the ages of 7 and 11.

Romero filed a complaint against the priest in 2007 and the Archdiocese of Mexico then opened an ecclesiastical trial, which found the priest guilty and dismissed him from the clerical state.

Lopez Valdés was arrested Aug. 27, 2016, in Jiutepec. Morelos State, and sent to the Reclusorio Oriente (prison) in Mexico City.

Romero has also accused former Mexican cardinal Norberto Rivera Carrera of protecting the priest and concealing the abuse. The now-retired Cardinal Rivera was accused last year by two former priests of failing to report several cases of abuse. The Mexico of Archdiocese at the time denied any failure to act on the part of the cardinal.

Romero sent a letter to Pope Francis in 2013. The Holy Father replied expressing his “pain” and “shame” for what had happened and asked for “forgiveness in the name of the Church.”

In their March 13 statement, the archdiocese expressed its “complete readiness to cooperate with the authorities to procure justice in society.”

“We express our solidarity with the victim and his family. We deeply regret what happened. This terrible behavior causes us pain and shame and confirms us in our commitment to do everything necessary to address the root cause of these situations,” they continued.

“We will not be satisfied until this evil is extirpated. As Pope Francis has recently said, this is one of the priorities of the Church in our time.”

The archdiocese also reiterated that “our standard is ‘zero tolerance’ in face of these situations,” and acknowledged “the need to report, recognize the evil and ask forgiveness.”

This article was originally published by our sister agency, ACI Prensa. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.

[…]

Lima, Peru, Mar 15, 2018 / 11:07 am (ACI Prensa).- The Peruvian Bishops’ Conference called on the people of the country to act with Christian solidarity toward Venezuelan migrants fleeing hardship in their homeland.

In a statement issued March 9, the Peruvian bishops meeting in a plenary assembly expressed their “fraternity with the Venezuelan people” and recalled that “in decades past thousands of our compatriots had to emigrate to Venezuela.”

“Current circumstances require us to act with Christian solidarity toward our brothers from that country, who for various reasons have been forced to leave their homeland and are with us today. May Peru be a second home for them where they feel very welcome and safe,” the bishops stated.

Venezuela is in the midst of an acute political and economic crisis under President Nicolas Maduro, resulting in severe shortages of food and medicine, which is increasing emigration.

The Peruvian department that oversees immigration has estimated that there are currently 115,000 Venezuelans in the country, of which 31,000 have a temporary work permit which allows them to work and study for one year.

Peru is increasing the number of permits it issues to accommodate for the surge in newcomers.

In a statement released March 8, the immigration department head, Eduardo Sevilla, said that some 900 Venezuelans are arriving in Peru every day.

“But not all stay in the country,” he said. “Many of them have tourist visas and can stay for up to six months.”

Other countries, including Colombia, have also seen an increase in Venezuelan immigrants in recent months.

This article was originally published by our sister agency, ACI Prensa. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.

[…]