De Omnibus Dubitandum Est.

Stika presents a microcosm of the sewage we're still mired in ... From Knox News Sentinel : Though he hasn’t been employed by the Catholic Diocese of Knoxville for nearly a year, former 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. That lawsuit was filed by a former diocesan employee who alleges  a former diocesan seminarian raped him  and details how the diocese, led by Stika, interfered with the investigation and worked to discredit him. Knox News independently verified the interference, which led to the firing of an independent investigator. As complaints about Stika's leadership and handling of allegations of sexual abuse and misconduct piled up in the diocese,  the bishop offered his resignation  and it was accepted by Pope Francis in June 2023. But Stika has continued to try to assert control over some of...

You may recall this post about Bishop Rick Stika of Knoxville. It re-visited some of the bizarreness of his episcopacy, but, most importantly, it revealed the details of a homosexual predatory seminarian who was protected and promoted by Stika. Now, Christine Niles of Church Militant has released this outstanding, professional and detailed investigation of the situation in Knoxville. The first part focuses on Stika's bizarre relationship with a seminarian parachuted into the diocese from Poland. As previously noted , this is really important because it is not an isolated incident, it is a template for how abusers are recruited, protected and promoted within the Catholic Church. We must join together, learn how to recognise this and demand that it stops. In my last post on this I said: I have heard of cases like this myself, where a man in seminary moves around dioceses following instances of sexual misconduct, until he finds a place that will overlook his inclinations out of comp...

  Bishop Rick Stika is well known to savvy internet Catholics for all the wrong reasons. He sometimes says pretty Catholic stuff...Other times he says some bizarre stuff! But that's not all he is known for. Stika is known for being unwell. He is 65 and suffers from type 1 diabetes and uses an insulin pump. He underwent cardiac bypass surgery in 2004 and suffered a major heart attack in 2009, during a visit to South Florida. He had an angioplasty in 2018. He is also blind in his right eye. Stika has quite a reputation for getting into Twitter battles . It often seemed this happen after he had indulged in a few beverages of the alcoholic variety, as his on-line emissions were often inconsistent & poorly spelt. There are quite a few examples of this . Stika built a financially calamitous cathedral in his diocese. The budget for the build was $25M and he spent $42M. This is way beyond the needs and the finances of his diocese, which will be paying this off for t...