Fr. Charles Townsend
Named publicly as accused by the diocese on its list 4/2/2019. Accused of misconduct/grooming, including supplying a 19-year-old male with alcohol in 2017. He was placed on leave in 2018. Pleaded no contest to criminal charges in 3/2019. Per the NE Attorney General’s Report released in 11/2021, Townsend favored a small group of altar servers at his parish. He would have teenage boys at the rectory late into the evening, allow them to drive his car, and he took a few of them on a long trip. In early 2017 church officials gave Townsend a canonical warning, concerned that his behavior would cause scandal.
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