GUAM
KUAM News
June 22, 2018
By Krystal Paco
He’s not your typical man on the run…he’s a priest. Father Adrian Cristobal was given a deadline to report back to Guam last Friday in light of clergy sexual abuse allegations against him. Though he’s been sanctioned by the Archdiocese of Agana and forbidden from acting as a priest in public, is this a strong enough message?
Apparently he’s in no hurry home. “It’s no different from any criminal mind. People don’t generally want to face the music for the crimes they have committed,” said advocate, former priest, and canonist Patrick J. Wall, referring to Father Cristobal. Wall is no stranger to the scenario, having been part of investigations involving priests who abandoned their posts, some as a result of clergy sexual abuse allegations.
“We had a abbot in England who was actually charged with child sexual abuse and he just failed to report to his hearing. And so he was on the run for almost six years. INTERPOL finally found him in Kosovo,” he explained. And so then he was just recently convicted this past year for child sexual abuse., so it does happen.”
Since April, Father Adrian has been named in three clergy sexual abuse lawsuits in the District Court of Guam. The former Barrigada altar boys are only identified by their initials to protect their privacy. L.J.C., J.C.C., and J.E. all allege they were sexually molested by the priest in the 1990s. J.C.C., however, alleges the abuse spanned over a 15-year period – and only came to an end in 2013.
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