John M. Smith (bishop)

Styles of John Mortimer Fourette Smith
Reference style	His Excellency The Most Reverend
Spoken style	Your Excellency
Religious style	Bishop

John Mortimer Fourette Smith (born June 23, 1935) is an American prelate of the Roman Catholic Church. He served as the ninth Bishop of Trenton, having previously served as Bishop of Pensacola-Tallahassee from 1991 to 1995. He is currently the Bishop Emeritus of Trenton, having been succeeded upon his retirement for age reasons by his Coadjutor Bishop, former Catholic University of America President David M. O'Connell, on Wednesday, December 1, 2010.

Early life

John Smith was born in Orange, New Jersey, to Mortimer and Ethel (née Charnock) Smith. The oldest of three children, he has two brothers, Andrew (who later became a Benedictine monk) and Gregory. He attended Saint Benedict's Preparatory School in Newark and John Carroll University in Cleveland, Ohio. In 1955, he entered Immaculate Conception Seminary, a branch of Seton Hall University, from where he obtained a Bachelor's degree in classical languages in 1957.^[1]

Priesthood

Smith was ordained to the priesthood by Archbishop Thomas Boland on May 27, 1961. He then served as Assistant Chancellor, Defender of the Bond of the Metropolitan Tribunal, and director of the Cursillo movement for the Archdiocese of Newark.

Smith earned a Bachelor's degree in Sacred Theology (1961) and a doctorate in canon law (1966) from the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C. He was also a visiting professor of pastoral theology at his alma mater of the Immaculate Conception Seminary, an elected representative on the Archdiocesan Council of Priests, and dean of central Bergen County. Smith was raised to the rank of Papal Chamberlain by Pope Paul VI in 1971, and assigned to the team ministry of St. Joseph Church in Oradell in 1973.

In 1982, he became a member of the faculty of the Pontifical North American College in Rome, where Smith served as director of the Institute for Continuing Theological Education and program director of the U.S. Bishops' Consultation IV. Upon his return to the United States in 1986, he was named pastor of St. Mary's Church in Dumont and later vicar general and moderator of the curia.

Episcopal career

On November 20, 1987, Smith was appointed Auxiliary Bishop of Newark and Titular Bishop of Tres Tabernae 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.

See also

References

External links

• "Biography of Bishop John M. Smith". Diocese of Trenton. Archived from the original on 2010-07-13. Retrieved 2010-07-11.
• Stewart, Barbara (June 22, 1997). "New Bishop of Trenton Frets Over the Poor and His Priests - NYTimes.com". New York Times. Retrieved 2010-07-11.
• Roman Catholic Diocese of Trenton Official Site

Episcopal succession