FL- Tampa priest caught giving hugs while falsifying community service hours

For immediate release: August 1, 2013

Statement by Barbara Dorris, Outreach Director, 314-862-7688 [email protected]

We hope every single person who saw, suspected or suffered sexual misdeeds by this priest, Charles Leigh, will come forward.

And we hope law enforcement authorities are very careful about which clergy they work with. Often, sexually troubled ministers gravitate towards positions like this in which they have access to and power over vulnerable individuals.

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Showing 4 comments

  • Catherine Stearns
    commented 2013-08-02 11:08:31 -0500
    This is why I love Erin’s law! She seeks to educate children. We should educate our own children. I didn’t, because I didn’t want her to fear the world, and didn’t know how to say it in the right way. And I thought it was a few odd people here and there, but now I know from reading the papers that it’s a HUGE problem in our country in general. Parents and children must be educated to know how to recognize grooming and abuse, predators, and how to talk about it, what to do about. Honestly, I still don’t know what to do when I see someone who I think is possibly grooming a child because technically they aren’t breaking the law. Right? Oh, and I so agree with Gloria Sullivan, adults who are obsessed with kids and want to be like a peer or counselor to the children, watch out for them!
  • Gloria Sullivan
    commented 2013-08-01 13:03:26 -0500
    You are so right! Clever and smart. THEY ARE!!!! The minute Fr. Paul Shanley from Boston retired to the gay community in San Diego , Ca. he registered with the San Diego PD. be be a playground supervisor They were so grateful and happy to have such a respected person to watch the children……until he got caught trying to abduct an 8 yr. old boy for his “Boy Man Club”. that he had bought ( AN OLD MOTEL) in Palm Springs, with his buddies from Hillcrest, Ca.,
    Always verify who this is who WANTS so much to watch your children.Even the police were taken in. No more! I was there when it happened. It was in all the papers. It made me know that all the things I had heard from the religious in our family ( that I wouldn’t believe at the time) was true! This was 2001. We immediately left the rcc. after over 60 yrs. THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIN.
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    FL- Tampa priest caught giving hugs in lieu of community service hours

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