Journalist “hired” to attack the Church in Mexico challenged to back up claims

Mexico City, Mexico, Aug 15, 2007 / 07:50 am

The Cardinal of Mexico City, Norberto Rivera, has been asked to provide information about a sexual abuse case in Los Angeles. The court deposition has become the occasion for his critics to accuse the cardinal of drumming up non-existent support.

The director of Communications for the Archdiocese of Mexico City, Father Hugo Valdemar Romero, has forcefully challenged a journalist from the Masonic influenced, anti-Catholic newspaper, La Jornada, to back up his claims that question the legitimacy of the support for Cardinal Norberto Rivera by lay organizations.

Columnist Leon Zaragoza, accused of being paid by La Jornada to write articles critical of Cardinal Rivera, recently wrote that the massive support for the cardinal, who has been questioned in connection with a sex abuse lawsuit, was orchestrated by the Church.

Father Romero challenged Leon to prove his claim and he lamented “the calumnious story by Gabriel Leon, who unashamedly launches continual attacks against the Catholic Church, apparently as instructed by the editorial policy of La Jornada.”

“All over the Cathedral it’s known that Sunday after Sunday, Mr. Gabriel Leon comes to cover what’s newsworthy during the cardinal’s Mass after the homily, that is, when there are only five or ten minutes left in the ceremony.  Nevertheless, despite the fact that he does not personally witness what happens in the church, he has the nerve to invent or improvise his stories with the first thing that occurs to him, always with a view towards hurting the Church,” the priest explained.

Father Valdemar also criticized Leon for demanding “exclusive interviews and statements every Sunday, with no respect for his fellow journalists, who have the same right as La Jornada to information, without favoring or slighting any particular media outlet.”

He went on to say that if Leon “bothered to analyze the photos in his archives he would realize that the large number of faithful that publicly expressed their support for the cardinal this past Sunday attend Mass there frequently, and thus another calumny could be discarded: that they were bussed in to the Cathedral.”

“We profoundly lament the lack of objectivity in Mr. Gabriel Leon’s columns, in which the reader can detect more hatred for the Church than a desire to report the truth,” Father Valdemar stated.