Canon Mortimer Stanley, who is now based in Ireland, travelled back to Bury Magistrates court to hear the charges.
The Crown Prosecution Service gave permission for Greater Manchester Police to charge Canon Stanley after a number of complaints from former pupils of a Rochdale school.
The 82 year old is accused of 17 charges of indecent assault on a girl under 14 between 1977 and 1988.
The allegations, which were first investigated last year, involve ten victims.
Last year, speaking about the accusations the Catholic Diocese of Salford said: "The Diocese is co-operating fully with the police and the statutory agencies in these investigations in line with the robust safeguarding policies put in place by the church in this country in recent years."