(File Photo of a Gavel)

Noah Haswell, Beaver County Radio News

(Ambridge, PA) The former dean of the Trinity Episcopal Cathedral in Pittsburgh has pled guilty to stealing baseball cards from a Walmart as of Friday, but he is still in trouble over several dozen artifacts that have gone missing.   

Reverend Aidan Smith had been a popular and energetic leader at the downtown cathedral, until his arrest in February for stealing hundreds of dollars worth of baseball cards from the Walmart store in Economy Borough. 

He resigned in March after the cathedral said it discovered he had taken and was in the process of selling dozens of cathedral-owned artifacts, putting several chalices, communion plates and silver crosses up for sale on eBay.  

Cathedral officials went to his home in Ambridge, where communication director Andrew Muhl says they recovered 91 missing artifacts.  

Smith pleaded guilty to one count of retail theft, downgraded from a felony to a summary offense, and has paid a $201 fine regarding the baseball cards. 

The alleged theft of artifacts is an ongoing matter and is the focus of an internal disciplinary board investigation.   

Smith is banned from the cathedral that he used to work at in Pittsburgh but he is still an Episcopal priest.

He could be removed from the priesthood, and charges could be referred to law enforcement for criminal prosecution if he is found to have taken and sold the artifacts.