The charges brought today include first- and second-degree criminal sexual conduct involving boys 14 and younger. None of the priests is still active and all live in other states ­ which is the main reason why prosecutors are able to charge them, said Wayne County Prosecutor Mike Duggan.

The charged priests are: Robert Burkholder, 83, who lives on O'ahu; Jason E. Sigler, 64, of New Mexico; Harry Benjamin, 60, of Vienna, Va.; and Edward Oleszewski, 67, of Key Largo, Fla.

"The magnitude of this is astonishing," Duggan said. "If they have one skill, it's manipulation."

Duggan used an exception in the old statute of limitations law that allows charges to be brought if the suspect left the state before the six-year statute of limitations ran out.

The reach of the statute took on new importance after the Detroit Archdiocese in May released internal records about abuse allegations made against priests over the last 15 years.

Church officials then gave Duggan's office files containing allegations against 37 priests. Of those, 10 are dead, 15 would have been charged if it were not for the statute of limitations and one of the 15 still is active in the priesthood, Duggan said today.

Duggan said his office checked white pages listings, property tax records and other resources to verify that the charged priests had left the state.

At least 300 priests have been suspended or resigned since the abuse crisis erupted in January with the case of a former Boston priest who was shuffled between parishes despite evidence he molested children.

Prosecutors nationwide have been reviewing diocesan personnel records to see if criminal charges should be brought against priests accused of sexually abusing minors. But civil authorities have so far found only a few that fall within the statute of limitations.

American bishops agreed at a meeting in June to remove all errant priests from public ministry and to turn more information over to civil authorities.

Duggan said today that Burkholder admitted in a 1993 letter to the archdiocese that he had molested 23 boys, going as far back as the 1940s.

"Father Burkholder's means of seduction was to tell these young boys, many of whom were altar boys, that their bodies were gifts from God and therefore were to be shared" with the priest, Duggan said.

Burkholder is charged with two counts of second-degree criminal sexual conduct involving a 13-year-old boy from St. Roberts Parish in Redford Township. That alleged misconduct took place in 1986 when the two were in Hawai'i, where Burkholder has lived since 1981. The archdiocese said Burkholder retired in 1985.

Assistant prosecutor Doug Baker says they are able to charge Burkholder in Michigan because at the time of the alleged misconduct he had a position of authority over the boy that he obtained in Wayne County ­ when the boy's parents gave him permission to take their son on the trip.

Msgr. Walter Hurley, an archdiocese spokesman, said the archdiocese first became aware of the allegations against Burkholder in the 1960s. Burkholder was banned from wearing the collar and presenting himself as a priest in 1993.

Burkholder, who lives in Makaha, said he admitted to the misconduct in the 1940s and 1950s and went through a six-month program in New York offered by the diocese. But he said he wasn't aware of the accusations from the 1980s. He said it was "nonsense" to bring up the decades-old cases.