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There was a time when weddings were celebrated in the Parish of Nuestra Señora del Carmen de Santo Ángel regardless of the disparity of cults between the contracting parties. It also didn't matter if they were baptized or not. Don Fernando allegedly ignored the dictates of the Catholic Church and the Aliens Law because he did not care if the boyfriend or girlfriend were immigrants without a residence permit in the country. In fact, this priest issued alleged notifications of canonical marriages between Nigerians -who usually profess Islam- and gypsies -whose most widespread cult is Evangelism-.

The purpose of such liaisons, without celebrating a religious ceremony or throwing rice at the newlyweds, was that the parish priest Don Fernando supposedly prepared marriage notifications that he delivered to the interested parties so that they could present them in the Civil Registry of Murcia. So they got the family book and Nigerian citizens applied for a residence permit for marrying a Spanish woman. "It was immediately noticed that Africans were coming through the church because the town is small and with little immigration," a former brother of Santo Ángel recounts from anonymity: a Murcian district of 6,300 inhabitants.

"The blacks and gypsies that were seen in the town came from outside, in the end everything is known and a lot of money was handled there: 2,000, 3,000 and 4,000 euros per wedding." This brother, at the time, a friend of Don Fernando, does not speak in vain, since the matter was reported to the National Police and the religious will be tried this Wednesday at the Provincial Court.

In the defendant's dock, he will face a request from the Prosecutor's Office for 5 years in prison and a 22-month fine, with a daily fee of 6 euros, for the crime of falsifying an official document. You will also have to answer for a continuous crime against the rights of foreign citizens, for which you are asked for a 12-month fine, at a rate of 6 euros a day. The oral hearing of Father Fernando will cause an earthquake in the Diocese: a right-wing, conservative and clerical priest will be tried for a matter of clandestine immigration.

EL ESPAÑOL located this Monday the prosecuted priest who the Bishopric has not separated from the flock: he is still active, in the Church of Nuestra Señora de Gracia. In practice, Don Fernando, far from being retired from pastoral life while waiting for his accusation to be resolved, works as curate, together with the episcopal vicar, in the most important church in Cartagena because all the processions of the city leave from there. Holy Week, which has been declared of International Tourist Interest.

- Don Fernando: How do you face the trial where the prosecutor asks you for 5 years in jail for officiating supposedly false marriages to legalize immigrants?

- I'm very calm. I will not make any statement.

Father Fernando at the Fiesta de las Balsicas.La Voz de Mazarrón

The páter drives an Audi

Don Fernando arrived in 2001 at the Church of Nuestra Señora del Carmen de Santo Ángel after passing through the Port of Mazarrón. In the district, no one forgets him because he was a different priest: he used a state-of-the-art mobile; he was driving an Audi A-3; Sometimes he dressed in a casual 'look', with shorts with the United States flag, he was seen in the bars, and since the rectory was in disrepair, he rented a small apartment near the central Plaza del Charco to live with his mother. . Another fact that the neighbors do not forget was their habit of opening accounts in businesses.

"When he came he said: 'it's for the church, put that in my account'", as confirmed by the owner of a tobacconist. On some occasions, he asked for a few packs of blond tobacco on credit, and on others, material for the catechism of children and confirmation courses. Sometimes, the father would also send a 'relapse' parishioner to ask for more on account. The fact is that the pick began to gain weight: "At first he paid every month, but then he owed me 400 euros in tobacco and bookstore material."

History repeats itself in a bookstore next to the tobacconist's: "The general comment by the people is that he left several 'picks' in business." In the case of this bookstore, the debt grew based on photocopies: "It was five cents per copy and he owed me 60 euros, I got paid because I found out he was changing parishes and I went to claim the money."

Another merchant on Avenida Juan Carlos I sums up the profile of the religious man: "To be a priest he was a bit folkloric, he liked to go out to eat and have a good dinner." He also used to be seen at the Casino, at coffee time, to have a drink accompanied by a glass of punch. Don Fernando was not slowed down by his sugar problems or being overweight.

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Payments of up to 7,000 euros

She had such a social life that she supposedly met Osaratin (Algeria, 1975) and Godfrey (Sierra Leone, 1975). And there began this plot of illegal regularization of immigrants with the Church involved. The Prosecutor's Office maintains in its provisional qualification document that these two foreign citizens "acted as intermediaries" to contact men and women, based in Murcia and Alicante, willing to simulate a marriage of convenience with 'undocumented', in exchange for receiving a sum of money for delivering his ID -among other documents-.

In each link that helped Nigerian citizens to apply for a residence permit in Spain, they moved from 300 to 7,000 euros. When Osaratin and Godfrey had the documentation, they sent it to the parish priest to prepare the canonical marriage notifications, stamping his signature and the seal of the parish, as stated by the Prosecutor's Office, "ignoring compliance with the necessary requirements for the celebration of the marriages, since it did not require the necessary dispensation to save the disparity of worship, in the case of the celebration of weddings between baptized and non-baptized (...)".

Ana María, a Caritas volunteer in Santo Ángel. Badía

A key detail that put the priest on the target of the Immigration and Border Brigade was the processing of these links, according to a police source: "In a series of marriages in the Civil Registry, only the marriage notification appeared canonical, but it was not accompanied by the corresponding marriage file". The alarms went off in the National Police when they detected a common pattern in this incidence: "All the cases came from the same church and from marriages between Nigerians and Spaniards."

Non-existent addresses

When the researchers pulled the string, they found that some addresses of the spouses did not exist. The address of one of the fiancées, based at 250 Juan Carlos I Avenue in Santo Ángel, is worth as a sample button, despite the fact that the street map of the district does not reach that number. Another striking matter: one of the girlfriends had a criminal record.

More strange things: the couple met in Santo Ángel and then the family card was requested in Malaga, census registrations in Santa Cruz de Tenerife, it was verified that there was no real coexistence in the marriage because one of the parties resided in Granada ...

"Some brides were gypsies who came from Andalusia," says the former brother and friend of the priest. In the outskirts of the Church of Nuestra Señora del Carmen, the parishioners are divided on the eve of the trial. "The parish priest liked the 'money' a lot: he charged 700 to 800 euros per wedding," says a neighbor, while Ana María, a Cáritas volunteer, denies the eldest: "Everything is a lie!"

This woman ends her defense argument with a piece of information: "Don Fernando founded Cáritas in 2010 to help those affected by the real estate crisis, he liked money, but it went in one way and out the other. I don't know can say nothing bad about him because he transmitted the faith in each homily. I pray for him for the trial because they are crucifying a priest!"

The parish priest remained in Santo Ángel until September 2012 when the Diocese transferred him to Moratalla, however, it was already too late because the Immigration and Border Brigade had opened an investigation to clarify the legality of the notifications of canonical marriages signed by Mr.Fernando.

Parish of Nuestra Señora del Carmen in the Murcian district of Santo Ángel. Badía

Heads up to 'ZP' from the pulpit

During the journey of Páter Fernando in this town in the Northwest Region he did not fail to make himself noticed among the residents, but this time, on account of his comments of the right when the pulpit was raised and when he wrote on social networks.

"He was very critical of the PSOE," recalls a politician active in the Moratalla City Council Corporation. "He was a priest who was not dedicated only to religious affairs, he was of good living and did not stitch without a thread: in social networks he was very political and gave his opinion on municipal issues." He was also an inveterate soccer fan because when the team he loved, FC Barcelona, ​​prevailed over its eternal rival, Real Madrid, good old Don Fernando did not hesitate to make fun of the Merengue fans.

"He was peculiar in his way of running the church, with Cáritas he was always very involved, but he did not accept donations from the Commonwealth of Social Services because public money had to be justified", this councilor slips. In the town they still remember how he criticized the mayoress of Moratalla, Candi Marín, a member of the United Left, by land, sea and air, because she was not in the habit of attending liturgies. Not everyone thinks the same. Other local politicians highlight this priest's "open" character and his "involvement" with the community.

As in previous destinations, in the church of Moratalla, Don Fernando had his mother as a travel companion, the woman he has been caring for for years and who gave him everything during his childhood in Bullas where he grew up in the womb from a family known for running a butcher shop. He later trained at the Pontifical University of Salamanca and was ordained a priest.

"He is a right-wing priest, conservative and who in his omilías went against the president, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero", illustrates a religious from the Diocese of Cartagena who knows the parish priest who will be tried. "He is a very clerical man: the priest is the one in charge." And so the Prosecutor's Office believes, which places him as the one who ordered alleged marriages of convenience to help clandestine immigration. The letter numbers the links at 16, but makes a subsection implying that there were more, in view of the fact that Don Fernando was in the parish of Santo Ángel from 2001 to 2012:

"In the course of the investigations, the existence of other canonical marriage notifications, made, signed, and sealed, by the defendant Fernando N., was verified, although the people participating in the preparation of the same, both Spanish who had provided their data, as foreign citizens, mainly natives of Nigeria, who used these notifications to regularize their situation in the country, were not located by the investigators of the police report because their whereabouts were unknown".

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