An exclusive, from The Pillar:
Bishop Richard Stika of Knoxville, Tennessee, sidelined an investigator appointed to scrutinize allegations of sexual assault and misconduct committed by a diocesan seminarian. The bishop told The Pillar he intervened because he did not believe the investigator appointed by a diocesan review board was competent for the task, and that he is convinced of the seminarian’s innocence.
“I have been fighting in the diocese rumors about [the seminarian]…I’ve been constantly fighting these battles because I know he is innocent,” Stika said of the seminarian. “And if there’s anything, maybe I’m like a dog with a bone. I really believe somebody has to stand up for people when you think they’re innocent.”
The bishop’s admission came weeks after he was accused of impeding an investigation into serial sexual misconduct by the seminarian, a charge at the center of several reports submitted to the Vatican’s Congregation for Bishops by Knoxville priests and lay Catholics.
The Vatican has not yet announced a formal investigation into those reports. But Stika said that he believes that any thorough review of the matter will exonerate him, adding that he has “nothing to hide.”
In a May 10 interview, Stika also told The Pillar that he continued to classify the student as a diocesan seminarian after he was dismissed from seminary studies, because changing that classification could have negatively affected the seminarian’s immigration status.
The bishop also addressed allegations that he threatened a Knoxville priest with canonical penalties amid disagreement over the seminarian. The bishop said his mention of penalties had come in part because the priest “spread rumors” about the seminarian among the diocesan presbyterate, but that other factors had also contributed to the decision.
There’s much more. Read it all.
7 comments:
This reeks of process breakdown and will result in a loss of credibility. Compounding things are the optics of an irregular living arrangement.
You had asked some months back if a photo of you enjoying time at the beach was scandalous. I felt it was not as why can't you enjoy the beach the same as everyone else? This, to me, is scandalous, if not just plain odd. Certainly, it will fuel gossip.
Sounds like the bishop is desperate for seminarians and has to import them instead of growing vocations at home. Based on this article, it is hard to come to any conclusions.
When I was young, I was the black sheep of the family, a life of dissipation, ran my mouth only to be clever, no matter how offensive some would find the speech, and despite some folks trying to give me a break, I always let them down in spectacular ways. I did not grow up until I had a wife and kids depending upon me.
This did not reflect badly on those who tried to help.
I will be the first to say that ACCORDING TO PRESS REPORTS, this looks very bad, but, they also could make those look bad who tried to help me.
Put another way, this seems far more concerned with appearances, including investigations and recommendations, rather than truth. We ALL know such reviews generally are going to follow corporate liability models of axe anyone who even might be a possible liability risk, with actual truth taking a back seat. It just MIGHT be the bishop is telling the truth. There ARE a few of those out there, you know?
The red flags for me:
—Seminarian kicked out of the seminary—send him home and tell him to find another vocation
—bishop is his friend! Non professional and he lived with the bishop, bad form
—bishop seems to break confidentially of a priest having issues himself—not good
— talks ill of first investigator mocking his age and religion
Bottom line, extremely poor judgment by this bishop
Having no idea of the alleged offensive behavior in the seminary, keeping in mind this apparently a foreign student in a modern hyper sensitive US culture and hyper sensitive modern church prone to overreaction, again, the bishop MIGHT actually be standing up for someone he is convinced was wronged.
The press coverage certainly is lacking in critical details, such as how the investigation was handled, who said what and when, and skipped nearly entire as to whether there is hard feelings/antagonism between SOME in the diocese who resent his way of doing things, and are these some of the same folk now making such a stink.
Far too soon to draw conclusions at all, and we shall see if the bishop's confidence in his case is warranted or not.
Father McDonald,
Of course you have real hands on experience in these matters and I do not. Being kicked out of a seminary may not mean a lot - there were homosexual infested seminaries who kicked out orthodox men as being “too rigid” while keeping truly, risky gay types. The Bishop does seem to say some questionable things, but so does our current Pope
Post a Comment