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 News Around the Republic of Mexico | October 2007 
Mexican Church Spokesman Says Added Security is for Cathedral, Not Cardinal
 E. Eduardo Castillo - Associated Press
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 |  | Rivera received death threats by telephone and email during last year's presidential election and during his vocal opposition of Mexico City's push to legalize abortion earlier this year, but has not received any since.
- Hugo Valdemar |  | |
Mexico City Mexico's top Roman Catholic cardinal, who has complained of death threats, wants more security for Mexico City's famous cathedral not for himself, his spokesman said Wednesday.
Hugo Valdemar, a spokesman for Cardinal Norberto Rivera, said that death threats the cardinal claimed to have received were not recent, and that his requests for extra government security were meant to safeguard the cathedral, not himself.
Rivera, who is accused in a U.S. lawsuit of protecting an alleged pedophile priest, told the Televisa network on Monday that he'd been threatened and needed additional protection.
The following day, he asked the Mexico City prosecutor's office to investigate a confrontation at the cathedral on Sunday, when a group of protesters kicked and spit at Rivera's car as he left Mass.
Today they hit me, and tomorrow they shoot at me, Rivera told Televisa after the skirmish.
The cardinal, while shaken by the incident, doesn't believe that personal protection is necessary, Valdemar said Wednesday. Rivera would rather add to the six or seven police officers who normally guard the towering cathedral, he said.
Critics say that Rivera has been too outspoken on controversial issues including abortion and too closely aligned with Mexico's governing National Action Party, despite a constitutional ban on church involvement in politics.
Rivera received death threats by telephone and email during last year's presidential election and during his vocal opposition of Mexico City's push to legalize abortion earlier this year, but has not received any since, Valdemar said.
A U.S. lawsuit accuses the cardinal of protecting a priest who allegedly molested young boys in the U.S. and Mexico. Rivera says he was unaware of child molestation allegations against the accused priest, Nicolas Aguilar. |
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