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 News Around the Republic of Mexico | September 2007 
Priest Arrested in Southern Mexico on Sex Abuse Charges
 Associated Press
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 |  | Very painful for the church.
- Dario Ortiz |  | |
Acapulco, Mexico – A Roman Catholic priest was arrested and will face trial on charges of raping a 9-year-old girl in 2004 and sexually abusing as many as a dozen others, authorities said.
Hermilo Solis Jaimes, 51, was detained Thursday morning as he prepared to open a church in the town of Xochistlahuaca, in southern Guerrero state, for an early Mass, state prison director Angel Garcia said.
Garcia said Solis Jaimes continued to serve as a parish priest in Xochistlahuaca even after complaints began to surface about alleged offenses in 2004.
“After the complaint was filed, he obtained a court injunction” against his arrest, Garcia said. “But when that injunction lapsed, police arrested him.”
Dario Ortiz, a spokesman for Mexico's Council of Bishops, called the situation “very painful for the church” and said Solis Jaimes would be permanently “expelled from the ministry” if the church finds evidence of his guilt.
“We always condemn such acts,” Ortiz said, “and above all when they are aimed at the youngest among us.”
Solis Jaimes was awaiting trial in a prison in the coastal city of Acapulco. |
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