Married Priest Defrocked

A pastor of a Roman Catholic Church was dismissed after it was learned that he married his secretary, a diocese spokesman said.

The Rev. Timothy Pasek, pastor of St. Adalbert Roman Catholic Church in Queens for the last 10 years, was suspended last month and dismissed on July 13, said Frank DeRosa, a spokesman for the Diocese of Brooklyn, which includes Queens.

"After he married, he continued to perform his priest functions, including celebrating Mass and presiding over a funeral Mass," DeRosa said. "We're just in shock and terribly disappointed."

Roman Catholic clergy are forbidden to marry and take a vow of celibacy.

Pasek married Darlene Smith on April 24, and the couple moved to Arizona in July with Smith's 14-year-old son, DeRosa said.

He said Pasek already had been relieved of his pastoral duties on Easter Sunday because "he had a potential serious health problem," rumored to be a tumor. But after word of the marriage, Pasek was dismissed from his Conventual Franciscans order, DeRosa said.

Smith's grown daughter, Kelly, who works in the church's rectory, said her mother and Pasek are living together in Arizona but denied that they are married.

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