Mexico City, Mexico, Aug 22, 2012 / 15:06 pm

The Archdiocese of Mexico City has strongly denied claims by a former candidate for mayor of the capital that it interfered in the July 1 elections to prevent her from winning.

In an interview on Aug. 20 with the archdiocese's News Service, spokesman Fr. Hugo Valdemar responded to statements made by Miranda de Wallaces, a pro-abortion candidate from the PAN party.

Wallaces told a local newspaper on Aug. 17, "There were people who were working against my candidacy," referring to the spokesman and Cardinal Norberto Rivera.

"They told people not to vote for me," she said, "and somebody from the PAN went to see Cardinal Rivera to get Fr. Valedmar to say they should not vote for me."

In his response, Fr. Valdemar argued that only "an irresponsible person acting in bad faith could make such a serious accusation without saying who that 'somebody' is that went to see the cardinal for the reasons she claims."  

"Ms. Wallace has the obligation to reveal the name of that person," he said, adding that Wallace will clearly "not do so because this is offensive gossip that she takes to be true."

Fr. Valdemar said that he did make several statements regarding the "scandalous" support of the former candidate for abortion and homosexual unions, but that it was "totally false" that he advised people not to vote for her.  

"What I said was that if she continued to hold this pro-abortion stance, as the Church we would be obliged to take a strong and clear position."

"In reality I was never concerned about the candidacy of Ms. Wallace. It was very clear that her campaign would be a failure and she would be relegated to an embarrassing third place, which is what happened," the priest said.

"Why launch a campaign against her then? That assumption is ridiculous, and if I had said not to vote for her, then I don't understand why Ms. Wallace and the PAN did not file a lawsuit against me with elections officials," Fr. Valdemar added.

Telling the former candidate she needs to be more "mature," Fr. Valdemar said that each person "should assume responsibility and not go about blaming others."

Miguel Angel Mancera of the PRD party – which legalized abortion and homosexual unions in Mexico City – was the winner of the July 1 elections for mayor of the Mexican capital.