Fr. George C. Berthold

Diocese of Charlotte

Ordained: 1963

Died: 2020

Assigned as Follows:

St. Anselm College (Manchester, NH)
St. John’s Seminary (Brighton, MA)
Belmont Abbey College (Charlotte, NC)

Summary of Sexual Abuse Allegations against Father George C. Berthold:

Fr. George Berthold was ordained a priest in 1963, and served in multiple parishes in the Diocese of Charlotte. He then began studies at the Institut Catholique de Paris in theology, defending a doctoral thesis there in 1975. Upon his return to the U.S., he began started teaching at several area colleges, including nineteen years at St. Anselm College in Manchester, NH.

His name appears on the Archdiocese of Boston’s list of credibly accused clergy related to an allegation of child sexual abuse in 1972 in Massachusetts. The allegation was made known to the Boston Archdiocese in 1996, according to published reports, and Berthold was dismissed as dean of St. John’s Seminary in Brighton, Massachusetts.

According to media reports, in 1997, Berthold took a teaching position at Belmont Abbey College in Belmont, North Carolina, but when the Boston abuse allegation was made public in the late 1990s, he was fired from the college and his priestly faculties in the Diocese of Charlotte were removed.

According to the Diocese of Charlotte, Berthold’s petition for laicization is now pending before the Vatican. The Charlotte Diocese says it has no allegations of sexual abuse involving Berthold. His name appears on the Diocese of Charlotte’s list of credibly accused priests as a result of the Massachusetts allegation.

Fr. Berthold died in 2020.

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Fr. George C. Berthold – Diocese of Charlotte