11:25 AM EST on Monday, February 23, 2004

By 6NEWS / Associated Press

A priest removed from a Charlotte ministry over allegations he sexually abused minors in New Jersey denied he has done anything wrong and said he didn't even know he'd been accused.

6NEWS talked to one parishioner at the church where Rev. Gregory Littleton, 42, resigned from Friday, and the man says the news has him in shock.

“You could have bowled me over with a feather,” he says. “It’s impossible. I don’t think anyone would believe it … on top of being my priest, he’s my friend, my family. I love him.”

Littleton resigned Friday from Our Lady of the Assumption Catholic Church after officials in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Charlotte found the accusations "credible," acting diocese spokesman David Hains said.

Littleton told The Charlotte Observer he denies the allegations and has never abused a child. He said he wasn't aware of any allegations against him until he was told of them Friday morning by Charlotte diocese officials. He said he is seeking legal counsel to help figure out his next step.

The alleged incidents occurred in the 1990s, but no one connected with the case would give any additional details.

Hains said Littleton has not been accused of anything since he arrived in the Charlotte diocese from the Metuchen, N.J., diocese in 1997. He served two small parishes in western North Carolina, part of the Charlotte diocese, before coming to Our Lady of the Assumption.

Hains said Charlotte officials were made aware of the allegations last week in a call from Bishop Paul Bootkoski of Metuchen. But Ronald Rak, general secretary of the Metuchen diocese, said his office notified the Charlotte diocese of the case involving Littleton on Oct. 2, 2002.

Littleton, a New Jersey native who joined the priesthood in 19990, was not charged in his home state. "No one would come forward to testify," Rak said.

The Charlotte diocese serves 140,000 Catholics in western North Carolina. The Raleigh diocese serves more than 172,000 Catholics in the eastern half of the state.

U.S. Catholic bishops are due to release a national report next Friday with a detailed accounting of sexual abuse cases against priests. Charlotte and Raleigh, like other dioceses, are to release reports on their own areas.