It's beginning...

California: 2 Archdioceses Sued
By REBECCA CATHCART
Published: April 20, 2010

Lawyers for a Mexican man who says he was abused as a boy by his priest in Mexico filed a civil complaint Tuesday against archdioceses here and in Mexico. The complaint was filed under the Alien Tort Claims Act, meant to prosecute human rights abuses committed outside the United States. The complaint accuses Cardinals Roger Mahoney of Los Angeles and Norberto Rivera of Tehuacan, Mexico, of transferring the priest, the Rev. Nicolás Aguilar-Rivera, a Mexican citizen, between dioceses despite his history of sexual abuse. Tod Tamberg, a spokesman for the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles, said Cardinal Mahoney was not warned of the priest’s history before the transfer. A 20-year-old warrant for the arrest of the priest on 19 counts of child rape is pending in Los Angeles. He was defrocked in 2009.