For 12 years, Sylvia Chavez tried to warn leaders of the Catholic Church in the United States and Mexico about the priest she alleges sexually abused her as a child in California.

She met with church officials in San Francisco to describe the assaults, enlisted American lawyers to search for the priest in Mexico and wrote letters to two successive archbishops of Yucatan, pleading with them to keep the Rev. Teodoro Baquedano Pech away from children. At one point, she even received written assurance from the Yucatan Archdiocese that "we have taken all precautions . . . to restrict Father Baquedano's access to children and vulnerable adults."

Yet Baquedano remains in the ministry, in a case that underscores the challenges that U.S. victims of clergy abuse face when their alleged abusers move overseas. A photo taken on Easter shows the priest, 70, officiating at a baptism in one of several rural hamlets outside Yucatan's state capital, Merida, where he conducts services.

"When I saw that picture on my computer screen, I wanted to pick up the monitor and throw it," said Chavez, a 54-year-old preschool teacher who still lives in San Francisco and struggles with what she says happened to her between ages 11 and 16.

Although Baquedano has denied abusing Chavez, the Archdiocese of San Francisco settled a lawsuit in 2006, paying her $300,000 without admitting culpability. Nevertheless, Chavez said, she "cannot rest" as long as Baquedano remains a priest with access to children. "It's not over at all," she said. "He's a criminal who uses his collar as a weapon. If he hurt me, he's still capable of hurting others."

In recent weeks, the Catholic Church has faced a barrage of allegations that it allowed clergy members accused of molesting children in the United States to continue working as priests overseas. In some cases, the priests have remained in the ministry despite concerted efforts by U.S. victims and U.S. church officials to hold them accountable.

In heavily Catholic Mexico, the presence of such priests is attracting increasing media scrutiny, including a recent magazine article that named Baquedano and 24 other current and former priests accused of abuse in the United States who later moved to Mexico. But although media outlets in Yucatan have followed up on Baquedano's case, the articles about him haven't generated much of a public outcry, according to Jesus Delgado Centeno, director of a network of online publications in the southeastern Mexican state.

Reached by phone in his church living quarters, Baquedano said repeatedly, "I don't want to answer any questions. Please call the