NEW YORK
The Citizen
By The Citizen staff report
Thursday, May 18, 2006 2:49 PM EDT
A Catholic priest who once served at St. Alphonsus Church in Auburn has been charged with inappropriately touching a 12-year-old girl.
The Rev. John Steger, 80, who has served since 1968 as pastor of St. Jude the Apostle Church in Gates, a Rochester suburb, has been charged by police with four misdemeanors for the alleged abuse.
Steger has been a priest with the Diocese of Rochester since 1951.
He had also previously been assigned to St. Theodore Church in Gates and St. Joseph Church in Wayland.
The Diocese of Rochester said in a news release Wednesday that Steger has been placed on administrative leave and will not be allowed to engage in public ministry.