A Catholic priest from Mexico has been accused of sexually assaulting a child during long-ago visits to Chicago, local church officials said this weekend.

The Rev. Ernest Tovar-Trejo, a priest of the Diocese of Tampico, Mexico, has visited Chicago for “short periods in past years,” Chicago’s archbishop, Cardinal Blase Cupich, wrote in a letter dated Saturday to St. José Sánchez Del Rio Parish in Chicago’s Humboldt Park neighborhood.

Cupich added that Tovar-Trejo also has celebrated mass at Maternity of the Blessed Virgin Mary Church without obtaining “proper permission.” The church is part of St. José Sánchez Del Rio Parish.

Tovar-Trejo allegedly abused the child while visiting Chicago “many years ago,” according to Cupich’s letter, which didn’t indicate a specific date or location of t

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