(LifeSiteNews) — A Tennessee newspaper is reporting that a Catholic priest believes the former Diocese of Knoxville bishop is intimidating priests regarding abuse allegations.
“Bishop Richard Stika continues to make his presence felt, contacting whistleblowers directly with threats of a lawsuit, including one who is a key witness in the sexual assault lawsuit against the church,” the Knoxville News Sentinel alleged earlier this week.
Stika served as the head of the Knoxville diocese from 2009 until 2023. The diocese is part of the larger Archdiocese of Louisville, which was overseen by Archbishop Joseph Kurtz from 2007 until 2022. Kurtz, now 77, was the president of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops from 2013 until 2016.
While Stika criticized pro-abortion politicians as well as pro-LGBT clergy during his tenure, he was also in the news for unsavory behaviors, including his decision to ban the reception of the Eucharist on the tongue while kneeling and his refusal to grant diocesan employees religious exemptions to the abortion-tainted COVID shot.
In September 2021, 11 priests of the Knoxville diocese wrote to U.S. Apostolic Nuncio Christophe Pierre noting that allegations of coverup were reflective of a larger pattern of problematic leadership. The letter painted a picture of priests suffering because of Stika’s mismanagement. A lawsuit filed in 2022 by a former parish organist that is still active accuses Stika of concealing “sexual misconduct and sexual abuse” that the man endured while a seminarian.
READ: Bishop Stika of Knoxville resigns after years of controversy, alleged cover-up of sex abuse
Stika resigned his post in disgrace on June 27, 2023, citing health reasons. He had received an Apostolic Visitation a little more than six months earlier.
According to the Knoxville News Sentinel, Sitka sent a text message in March to three priests, including Father Brent Shelton, a whistleblowing priest who left the diocese last April after he was moved from his parish. The message, which the News Sentinel says it has seen, reportedly reads as follows: “I will never understand how anyone could be so hateful to destroy the ministry of any cleric and in (name of priest the News Sentinel is not identifying)’s case to bring a former seminarian to the point of suicide. It is all documented, my attorneys are ready, and the information will be shared with my successor.”
Shelton, who has previously spoken out publicly on sexual advances he received when he was a 19-year-old seminarian, told the newspaper that the text effectively amounts to witness tampering.
“If bishops keep getting away with threatening and retaliating against whistleblowers, I’m afraid children and vulnerable adults will never be safe in the Church,” he said. “The diocese needs to move forward, but we cannot do that if priests must live under the shadow of threats like these from the man we looked up to as our spiritual father for over a decade.”
Stika, likewise, replied to the outlet but denied the characterization that he was trying to intimidate anyone.
“Did not threaten at all. Just informed them about a possible lawsuit but I have decided not to include them in a lawsuit,” Stika said via text. “I have developed some additional heart issues over the last months and decided it is not worth it. I have moved on. I am retired. Plus, I have not found you to present anything that is balanced.”
The News Sentinel clarified that the lawyer of the former seminarian who filed the lawsuit against Stika is planning to present the text messages in court.