Father Smith was born in the District of Columbia as the sixth of eight children. He attended local Catholic schools from his elementary years through high school. After graduating from Mackin High School, he attended Mount Saint Mary's College in Emmitsburg, Maryland, majoring in Theology and first discerning his calling to priestly ministry.

Fr. Smith was blessed with the opportunity to continue his education at the North American College in Rome, Italy, where he earned both a B.A. in Sacred Theology and a License in Sacred Theology. In 1990 he was ordained to the priesthood at St. Matthews Cathedral in Washington DC. Following his ordination, Fr. Smith was assigned as Associate Pastor to Our Lady of Sorrows church in Takoma Park, Maryland. Only fifteen months later he was asked to assume full pastoral responsibility for a small rural parish in Southern Maryland, St. Peter Claver.

In 1996, during his tenure in Southern Maryland, Fr. Smith was chosen to be one of two priests featured in a nationally televised documentary on the life of Catholic Priests, Answering God's Call: An Experience of the Priesthood. The ABC documentary aired in 1997, one month prior to Fr. Smith’s reassignment to the parish of St. Teresa of Avila in the Anacostia section of Washington DC.