DOVER (NH)
Foster's Daily Democrat
By TARA LYNCH
Democrat Staff Writer
DOVER — Ever since he was a child, Catholic priest Paul L. Gregoire has called St. Charles Borromeo home.
It was within the walls of St. Charles that he was inspired to devote his life to the church, where he said his first Mass as an ordained priest and where he faced false accusations of sexual abuse that almost cost him his career.
The false accusation that Gregoire inappropriately touched a girl while serving at the Society of St. Sulpice in Seattle in the 1970s came to a head at the beginning of the advent season in 2002. According to the accuser, Gregoire had inappropriately touched her during a hug at a party. The Vatican ultimately determined that the accusations were not credible, but not before Gregoire was suspended and removed from his priestly duties for nine months. Amid the media frenzy, Gregoire spent his time in the relative solitude of his Manchester apartment, praying, writing letters to church officials and making appeals to Rome for his reinstatement.
"That was a very difficult period for me, but it didn't hurt my faith at all," said Gregoire. "This is an imperfect world — society is imperfect, the church is imperfect. I just used my faith and the certainty of my innocence to get my through."