Fr. James Smyka

Order: OFM Conv
Ordained: 1973
Status: Sued

Diocese: Diocese of Buffalo NY

First named publicly as accused by the Diocese of Buffalo on its updated list 11/5/18. Chaplain at St. Joseph’s Hospital and living at a parish in Syracuse 11/14-10/18. Taught at St. Francis High School in Hamburg for 11 years early in his career, then worked in Johnstown PA, Chicopee MA and Bridgeport CT. Accused in a lawsuit filed in 8/19 of sexually abusing a 7-year-old boy, along with Revs. Aurelian Brzezniak and Patrick Mendola, at St. Francis High School in the Buffalo diocese in 1977. The accuser claimed the abuse occurred in front of a group of priests in a shower room, and that it continued until he was age 8.


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