Priest Defrocked Amid Sex Assault Claims
Pastor Dale Morgan
Priest Defrocked Amid Sex Assault Claims*
Friday April 13, 2007 6:31 AM
By MARYCLAIRE DALE
Associated Press Writer
PHILADELPHIA (AP) - The Vatican has defrocked a priest accused of
sexually assaulting and whipping boys participating in Passion plays,
the Philadelphia archdiocese said Thursday.
The Rev. Thomas J. Smith was accused of putting pins in his mouth and
pricking the boys until they bled, according to a 2005 grand jury
report. He also was accused of whipping boys participating in dramatic
representations of the trial, suffering and death of Jesus Christ until
they had welts.
The diocese said in a statement that the allegations in the grand jury
report had been found to be credible and called the behavior ``depraved
and sadistic'' in determining Smith should be defrocked.
Smith's alleged actions took place in various parishes from 1973 through
December 2004, when he left active ministry amid an archdiocesan
investigation involving at least one minor.
The same 2005 grand jury report accused former Cardinal Anthony
Bevilacqua and other church leaders of covering up decades of abuse by
at least 63 priests - a charge the archdiocese has denied.
Smith appeared before the grand jury but did not answer the allegations
made against him, the report said.
Smith also served as a Boy Scouts chaplain, as chaplain of Archbishop
Prendergast High School in Drexel Hill and as an associate director of
youth sports, the archdiocese said.
Smith last lived at St. Francis of Assisi in Springfield. His current
location could not be determined.