A Colombia-born Catholic priest who sexually abused his own children and a child parishioner could lose his U.S. citizenship under a Trump administration case.
Fernando Cristancho secretly began abusing a minor churchgoer who was 11 years old in 2001, the year before Cristancho applied for U.S. citizenship despite his criminal conduct making him ineligible, the Department of Justice (DOJ) said in a June 5 complaint seeking denaturalization. The complaint follows the Trump administration’s commitment to dramatically increase denaturalization cases, which have historically been rare.
The convict pleaded guilty to one count of coercion and enticement in October 2021 in exchange for the dismissal of other charges and was sentenced to 22 years in prison. His specific crime makes him eligible for deportation if he is denaturalized.
Cristancho first entered the U.S. in 1996 on an R-1 visa for religious workers and started as an assistant priest in Alexandria, Virginia, before the Archdiocese of Baltimore in Maryland granted him priestly faculties and let him serve at Baltimore County and Harford County churches, authorities found. Cristancho’s victim first met him at eight years old as he befriended the victim’s grandmother.
The priest gradually groomed the child for inappropriate activity at 11 years old in 2001 and took the abuse further with sexual acts on a camping trip in 2002, for which he would not be charged until 2021, according to authorities. His efforts to “persuade, induce, entice, and coerce” the child into sexual acts continued until at least fall 2023, the DOJ said. Cristancho falsely answered “no” on his citizenship paperwork to the question, “Have you EVER committed a crime or offense for which you were NOT arrested?” according to the department.
“Following the camping trip, Defendant arranged for Minor Victim to assist him around Defendant’s home and with Defendant’s infant triplets,” the DOJ said. “Defendant had fathered the triplets via artificial insemination, in violation of Catholic church policies.”
Cristancho was removed from priestly duties in 2002 after he refused reassignment to another parish, the Archdiocese of Baltimore said in a 2008 statement. The archdiocese learned after revoking his duties that he had fathered the triplets with a woman in Colombia and sexually abused two of them, according to the statement and a Washington Examiner report.
The victim told the Archdiocese of Baltimore about being abused by Cristancho in 2016, but it was not reported to law enforcement at the time. An interaction with a Maryland Walgreens employee in 2017 led to Cristancho’s federal prosecution, the DOJ said.
Catholic priest Fernando Cristancho gets his mug shot taken for child sexual abuse charges in Maryland. (Image courtesy of the Harford County Sheriff’s Office)
While helping him print photos, the employee “noticed images of naked minor children in the Defendant’s photo gallery” that prompted her to contact law enforcement, according to the complaint. An investigation led to child pornography charges for Cristancho in 2018 and a superseding indictment in 2021 for his abuse of the underage parishioner.
The abuses “so adversely reflect on Defendant’s moral character that no evidence of good moral character would permit Defendant to
satisfy his burden of establishing good moral character as required for naturalization,” the denaturalization complaint says.
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Republished with permission from Daily Caller News Foundation
