Brother Anton Smario
Diocese of Fairbanks
(Lay Member of the Franciscan Friars)
Ordained: 1960’s
Assignment History:
- Saint Boniface Church (San Francisco, CA)
- Copper Valley School (Glennallen, AK)
- St. Michael’s Parish (St. Michaels, AK)
- St. Bernard’s Parish (Stebbins, AK)
Summary of Sexual Abuse Allegations Against Brother Anton Smario
Brother Anton Smario was a lay member of the Franciscan Friars of the Province of Saint Barbara. Smario was included on the Franciscan Friars Province of Saint Barbara’s List of Non-Friars Linked to Santa Barbara Province. According to this list, Smario was mistakenly identified as a Franciscan Friar in legal filings but was accused of molesting several girls when he was a “lay member” of the Franciscans serving as a missionary on St. Michael Island in Alaska during the 1960s-’70s. Though not ordained, Smario stayed in the rectories and performed nearly the same duties as priests.
In 2005, four Alaska native women alleged in a lawsuit that Anton Smario sexually abused them as young girls in Stebbins and St. Michael parishes. The lawsuit states that Brother Smario offered children food and juice to coax them to stay after class: “He then would unzip his pants, and completely expose his genitals to these children, and masturbate to ejaculation as he walked around the classroom. He would ask the girls to touch his penis and would rub his erect penis on their backs, necks, and arms. Sometimes, he would wipe or rub his semen on the girls after he ejaculated.”
Smario denied any sexual misconduct, although he admitted that he had been naked in front of the girls who came to his catechism classes. Anton Smario’s name was included in a list of perpetrators published in April 2013 by the Diocese of Fairbanks.
Horowitz Law is a law firm representing victims of sexual abuse in the Diocese of Fairbanks. Our lawyers are now offering free legal consultations to discuss a potential lawsuit and your other options as a survivor of sexual abuse by priests and other employees of the Fairbanks Diocese. Your chance to pursue legal action will soon be over. Most victims of abuse will never be able to recover damages if they miss the temporary window to file a lawsuit, so please contact us to discuss your case today. Call us at 888-283-9922 or send an e-mail to [email protected].