{"id":140417,"date":"2026-03-17T07:35:10","date_gmt":"2026-03-17T07:35:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/140417\/"},"modified":"2026-03-17T07:35:10","modified_gmt":"2026-03-17T07:35:10","slug":"episcopal-priest-accused-of-stealing-baseball-cards-resigns-as-pittsburgh-cathedral-dean","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/140417\/","title":{"rendered":"Episcopal priest accused of stealing baseball cards resigns as Pittsburgh cathedral dean"},"content":{"rendered":"

PITTSBURGH (RNS) \u2014 A priest who oversaw the Trinity Episcopal Cathedral, a historic congregation in downtown Pittsburgh, has resigned following allegations that he stole over $1,000 worth of baseball cards at a Walmart. He had been on administrative leave since January amid claims he sold cathedral artifacts online, according to a letter<\/a> published Saturday (March 14) from Pittsburgh Bishop Ketlen Solak.<\/p>\n

The Rev. Aidan Smith, 42, who had served as dean of the cathedral since 2020, was arrested on Feb. 27 by police in Economy, Pennsylvania \u2014 a borough 30 minutes north of Pittsburgh \u2014 after allegedly leaving a Walmart store with 27 packs of baseball cards concealed under his clothing. Surveillance footage reportedly captured Smith stealing cards from the same Walmart store on each of the previous four days. In total, police said Walmart valued the stolen cards at $1,099.99, according to The Associated Press<\/a>.<\/a><\/p>\n

Court records show Smith was charged with retail theft and receiving stolen property and posted $50,000 bail after an overnight detention. Smith did not respond to RNS\u2019 requests for comment.<\/p>\n

In her Saturday letter, addressed to the Trinity Cathedral community and posted on the Episcopal Diocese of Pittsburgh\u2019s website, Solak said the diocese received questions in late December and early January suggesting Smith had not safeguarded church property.<\/p>\n

\u201cI believe it is now pastorally appropriate to make you aware that for a number of weeks, we have been looking into whether Aidan improperly sold artifacts belonging to the cathedral through online platforms,\u201d Solak wrote.<\/p>\n

On Monday, The Living Church<\/a> reported that an eBay seller sold over a dozen pieces of church silver and other church artifacts \u2014 including a 1912 program for a Trinity Cathedral memorial for victims of the Titanic, and a 1908 invitation from England\u2019s King Edward VII to the second bishop of Pittsburgh \u2014 that may belong to the cathedral and the Diocese of Pittsburgh. One person who belongs to a community of church archivists, who was not named in the story, told The Living Church they \u201cunwittingly purchased some of these items in order to give them back altruistically to the diocese,\u201d and discovered the return address listed Smith\u2019s wife\u2019s name, and was Smith\u2019s home address, according to publicly available records. The buyer reported the finding to Solak and diocesan staff, and filed a complaint about the account on eBay.<\/p>\n

Smith was placed on administrative leave in late January, and on Feb. 15, the diocese initiated Title IV proceedings \u2014 the Episcopal Church\u2019s process for investigating alleged clergy misconduct. Solak said though Smith resigned his position, he remains a member of the clergy and that the Title IV case will now also involve the allegations of retail theft. A diocesan spokesperson told RNS that \u201cthe police are not involved in the allegations that gave rise to the Title IV matter.\u201d Solak invited the cathedral community to pray for Smith, his family and those impacted by the situation.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Solak, the Rev. Mary Jayne Ledgerwood, the cathedral\u2019s canon for administration, and members of its executive committee will oversee cathedral operations in the wake of Smith\u2019s departure. In three to four months, Solak wrote, \u201cwe will begin a process of discerning the best path forward.\u201d<\/p>\n

Smith was unanimously chosen<\/a> as dean of the cathedral in June 2020, and was the cathedral\u2019s first permanent dean in nearly 17 years. Before that, he led the cathedral as provost starting in May 2019. He graduated with his Master of Divinity from Trinity Anglican Seminary in nearby Ambridge, Pennsylvania, in 2014.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI understand this news may be deeply upsetting, and I am committed to walking through this time of healing and transition with you,\u201d Solak wrote. \u201cWhile the season of Lent calls us to a time of reflective introspection, this holy season reminds us to put our trust in God who is our Shepherd in the midst of life.\u201d<\/p>\n

This story has been updated to include additional information about church artifacts.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PITTSBURGH (RNS) \u2014 A priest who oversaw the Trinity Episcopal Cathedral, a historic congregation in downtown Pittsburgh, has…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":140418,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[62649,62734,63819,73,64366,75,74,13995,61440,64367,23258],"class_list":["post-140417","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pittsburgh","tag-aidan-smith","tag-baseball-cards","tag-episcopal-priest","tag-pittsburgh","tag-pittsburgh-cathedral","tag-pittsburgh-headlines","tag-pittsburgh-news","tag-retail-theft","tag-title-iv","tag-title-iv-investigation","tag-walmart"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/140417","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=140417"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/140417\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/140418"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=140417"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=140417"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=140417"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}