John M. Smith (bishop)

On November 20, 1987, Smith was appointed Titular Bishop of Tres Tabernae and Auxiliary Bishop of Newark by Pope John Paul II. He received his episcopal consecration on January 25, 1988 from Archbishop Theodore McCarrick, with Archbishop Peter Gerety and Bishop Walter Curtis serving as co-consecrators.[3][4]

Smith was later named the third Bishop of Pensacola-Tallahassee, Florida, on June 25, 1991. He was formally installed on July 31 of that year.[5]

On November 21, 1995, Smith was appointed Coadjutor Bishop of Trenton in his native New Jersey. He succeeded John C. Reiss as the ninth Bishop of Trenton upon the latter's resignation on June 30, 1997.[6]

In 2002, Smith removed a priest accused of molesting a young boy from an administrative position in the diocese. The diocese had reported the allegation to the Monmouth County prosecutor's office when it was first made in 1990, but prosecutors had decided not to file criminal charges because of insufficient evidence. Smith relieved the priest of his duties following a review of personnel files to ensure the public's confidence in the clergy.

On June 4, 2010, David M. O'Connell, the former President of the Catholic University of America, was named Coadjutor Bishop of the diocese,[7] and on December 1, 2010, Pope Benedict accepted Smith's resignation.[2]

Smith died in Morris Hall Meadows, Lawrenceville on January 22, 2019, following a long illness.[8]

In November 2020, a Vatican investigation into the case of defrocked former cardinal Theodore McCarrick identified Smith as one of three bishops who "provided inaccurate and incomplete information to the Holy See regarding McCarrick’s sexual conduct with young adults" when McCarrick was a candidate for the post of Archbishop of Washington in 2000.[9][10]