KNOXVILLE (TN)
Knoxville News Sentinel [Knoxville TN]
May 26, 2023
By Tyler Whetstone
Diocese denies Stika on sex abuse panel
Around lunchtime on a Friday in March 2021, the chair of the Knoxville diocese’s sexual abuse review board shared a complaint alleging that a seminarian had sexually assaulted a church employee.
The email from Carleton “Butch” Bryant, then serving as head of the board, was addressed to “fellow board members” and requested an urgent meeting to discuss the complaint. Many responded right away to say when they could meet, according to a copy of the emails obtained by Knox News.
Thirty minutes after Bryant sent his note, another recipient responded: Bishop Richard Stika.
Stika’s involvement goes against what the diocese has maintained since last fall. Spokesperson Jim Wogan said Stika was not a member of the review board and that his name had been mistakenly included on a list of members posted on the diocese’s website.
Including the diocese’s top leader on an investigative board flies in the face of the Catholic Church’s norms.
That Friday, Stika responded curtly, referencing an online dossier posted by Susan Vance, the leader of the Tennessee chapter of Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, detailing the sexual assault accusations against the former seminarian. Stika said he thought another member of the review board – a priest who had criticized him – should be excluded from the meeting.
Later that year, in a conversation with a group of priests captured on an audio recording obtained by Knox News, Stika said he was “supposed to call the meetings,” not the chair of the review board.
David Clohessy, former executive director of Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, derided the diocese’s original statement saying the bishop was mistakenly listed as a member of the sexual abuse review board.
“It’s an enormous stretch, if not absurd and laughable, to claim that he wasn’t a member given all of these bits of evidence,” he said. “Shame on every board member whose silence is contributing to this deceit.”
A former review board member said Stika did not participate in all the board’s meetings, but he had more interest in the case of the former seminarian than typical. Knox News is not naming the former review board member to protect them from retribution.
“The bishop certainly inserted himself more than ever in that particular case than ever before,” they said.
When asked recently about the bishop’s comments and the diocese’s insistence that Stika was not a member of the review board, Wogan said again the bishop is not a member of the board.
Wogan did not respond to follow-up questions from Knox News: Why would the bishop tell a group of priests he is supposed to call the meetings and why did the bishop receive (and respond to) the emailed invitation to a board meeting?
In an email last fall, Wogan told Knox News bishops are not prevented from meeting with the review board. “It makes sense that, because the board is advisory, the bishop would need to have some interaction with it,” he said. “It’s my understanding that this has happened only rarely for Bishop Stika.”
He pointed Knox News to church guidance on review boards, particularly language that addresses how bishops should interact with their respective review boards: “Meetings between the review board and the bishop/ eparch should be determined by what the bishop/ eparch will find helpful and his personal style.”
Separately, church accountability experts are concerned that the diocese’s lawyer is listed as a member of the review board, meaning the same person is simultaneously defending the diocese and conducting what’s supposed to be an independent investigation into allegations.
Advocates for victims of sexual abuse have said the presence of Stika and the diocesan lawyer on the board could prevent victims from reporting abuse.
Stika scrapped investigation
The board met in late March and decided the rape allegations should be investigated. Shortly after, an independent investigator began looking into the matter, Stika removed him from the investigation.
The former review board member that Knox News is not naming said Stika fired the investigator because he was asking too many questions.
A month after receiving the letter detailing the former seminarian’s behavior, Stika told Saint Louis University the diocese would pay $48,258 for the man’s 2021-22 school exthe penses, according to a copy of the letter viewed by Knox News. The Catholic school offers courses in theology but is not a seminary.
Tyler Whetstone is a Knox News investigative reporter focused on accountability journalism. Email tyler.whetstone@knoxnews.com. Twitter @tyler_ whetstone.