Youngsville Police Investigating Retired Priest

By Tina Macias
KATC
April 16, 2015

Retired.jpg Retired priest Gerard Smit. (Source: Facebook)

A retired priest is being investigated over decades-old allegations of sexual abuse during his time in Lafayette Parish, according to the Youngsville Police Department.

Roy Lee Touchet, 65, of New Jersey is accusing Gerard Smit, 91, of Newark, Delaware, of abusing him in the 1960s when Touchet was an alter boy. The Youngsville Police Department is in the beginning stages of the investigation, said Chief Rickey Boudreaux.

Smit worked for St. Anne in Youngsville and St. Joseph in Milton in the early 1960s. He's listed as a former assistant pastor of St. Anne on the St. Joseph website.

In 2006, he was among several priests named by the Diocese of Wilmington as a priest with "substantiated allegations of sexual abuse, molestation and rape of minors" on the Diocese of Wilmington website. It's noted that his allegations came while working in another diocese.

Smit served in Wilmington from 1987-1996, but spent the majority of his career in South Louisiana, working for the Diocese of Lafayette and a new Diocese that was carved out of the Diocese of Lafayette in 1980 -- the Diocese of Lake Charles.

An alleged victim contacted the Diocese of Delaware in 1996 and told them Smit sexually abused him and other victims in the 1960s while Smit worked for St. Anne in Youngsville, according to personnel files released to bishopaccountabilty.org. Smit was released from his duties with the Diocese of Delaware and came to a settlement with the victim.

Handwritten notes in Smit's file refer to an "incident" that surfaced in 1987. Smit told the Diocese of Delaware official "this matter was about a little girl sitting on his lap... 'That's what started it.'" Smit added that when he left the Diocese of Lake Charles the bishop, "told him to get as far away as he could and don't come back," according to personnel files on bishopaccountability.org.

BishopAccountability.org is a non-profit organization that maintains a database of accused priests and source documents.

Smit was ordained in 1950 and worked for churches in Iota, Egan, Youngsville, Milton, Cankton, Lake Arthur, Iowa, Lacassine and Cankton from 1957 to 1986, according to a list of assignments on bishopaccountability.org.

The Diocese of Lake Charles lists Smit as a retired priest living in Newark, Delaware.

We reached out to the dioceses Lake Charles and Lafayette, but they have not yet responded with comment.