Priest Here under Inquiry Surrenders in Colorado, by Tim Townsend, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, May 24, 2012

Priest Here under Inquiry Surrenders in Colorado

By Tim Townsend
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
May 24, 2012

http://www.stltoday.com/lifestyles/faith-and-values/priest-here-under-inquiry-surrenders-in-colorado/article_f16e48f0-441b-5f3e-9451-5947171f1e84.html

The Rev. Charles Manning, a priest of the St. Louis Archdiocese, was arrested Tuesday May 22, 2012 in Colorado Springs, Col. and charged with sexual assault on a minor by a person in a position of trust, and contributing to the delinquency of a minor.

The Rev. Charles Manning, a priest of the St. Louis Archdiocese, was arrested Tuesday May 22, 2012 in Colorado Springs, Col. and charged with sexual assault on a minor by a person in a position of trust, and contributing to the delinquency of a minor.

The Rev. Charles Manning, 77, a Catholic priest of the Archdiocese of St. Louis, turned himself in to Colorado Springs police Tuesday after a warrant had been issued for his arrest.

Police said had been investigating Manning since October.

He was charged with sexual assault on a minor by a person in a position of trust, and contributing to the delinquency of a minor, according to police.

Angie Shelton, the archdiocese's community relations specialist, said in a statement that Manning had been granted permission to move to Colorado Springs in June 2007.

Colorado Springs Bishop Michael Sheridan, a former auxiliary bishop of St. Louis, removed Manning as pastor of St. Gabriel the Archangel parish in Colorado Springs in January after the accusations against him were found to be credible.

The Archdiocese of St. Louis then brought Manning back to St. Louis where he'd been living in a "monitored environment while the investigation progressed," according to the statement. The archdiocese returned Manning to Colorado when police issued the warrant this week.

Manning served Immacolata Parish in Richmond Heights as a transitional deacon from June 1996 until January 1997 when he was ordained. Sheridan was pastor of Immacolata at that time. He served there from 1993 until then-Archbishop Justin Rigali made him an auxiliary bishop in Sept. 1997.

After he was ordained, Manning served St. Alban Roe in Wildwood as associate pastor until January 2001. He was then named pastor of St. Lawrence the Martyr in Bridgeton where he served until July 2004 when he was transferred to St. John Lateran in Imperial.

Manning was pastor at St. John until June 2007, when then-Archbishop Raymond Burke agreed to a request from Sheridan to send Manning from St. Louis to the diocese of Colorado Springs, where Sheridan had been bishop since 2003.

Manning had been pastor at St. Gabriel since June 2007.

ttownsend@post-dispatch.com