A former Marian High School spiritual director and vice principal is facing charges in Lehigh County.

Monsignor John Stephen Mraz, 66, formerly of 415 S. Sixth St., Emmaus and now residing at Holy Family Villa for Priests in Bethlehem, has been charged with sexual abuse of children and criminal use of communication facility, both felonies of the third degree; and obscene and other sexual materials and performances, a misdemeanor of the first degree.On Tuesday the Lehigh County District Attorney's office announced that during the week of July 25, Mraz requested a parishioner to perform maintenance updates and to upgrade his HP laptop. In doing so, the parishioner discovered files in the computer's recycle bin depicting images of nude males.The parishioner returned the laptop to the monsignor and he said Mraz asked him to update another laptop. In the process of upgrading the second laptop, the parishioner discovered a file with a name suggesting it contained obscene images of underage males.These discoveries made the parishioner uncomfortable and he informed the Diocese of Allentown about what he had found on Mraz's laptops.The diocese relayed the information to Lehigh County District Attorney James B. Martin.Martin assigned Detective Andrew Millen, a child abuse investigator for the district attorney, and Detective Paul Iannace, of the digital crime task force and the Officer David M. Petzold Digital Forensic Laboratory of Lehigh County, located on the campus of DeSales University, to investigate.The district attorney's office said a search warrant was executed at Mraz's residence in Emmaus. Digital devices were seized for digital forensic analysis."As a result of the analysis, it is alleged that the user of the devices actively searched the Internet looking for images and videos of underage males engaged in sex acts."It is alleged that numerous image files of child pornography were on the devices as well."The investigation determined that Mraz was the user who searched for and downloaded the files of child pornography and did so for his own sexual gratification."At a press conference Tuesday, District Attorney Jim Martin commended and thanked the Diocese of Allentown and Bishop John O. Barres for their cooperation and prompt reporting of the incident.The Diocese of Allentown said Mraz has been removed from public ministry and cannot present himself as a priest.Mraz was ordained in 1975. He was a professor at the former Reading Central Catholic High School, Allentown Central Catholic High School and Vice Principal and Director of Spiritual Activities at Marian High School in Tamaqua.He was chaplain at the Newman Center at Lehigh University and Assistant Superintendent in the Diocesan Office of Education.He was pastor of the former St. Bertha Parish in Tuscarora, at Assumption

B.V.M, Northampton and since 2008 at St. Ann Parish in Emmaus."Because this matter is now in the hands of the judicial system, the diocese will withhold further comment," the Diocese said.Marian High School did not return calls seeking comment.