KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (ChurchMilitant.com) – Bishop Richard Stika of Knoxville, Tennessee, green-lit tens of thousands of dollars in payment for the education and living expenses of a former seminarian accused of rape.
After viewing a letter to St. Louis University in Missouri, Knox News reported that the bishop authorized his diocese to pay $48,258 for Wojciech Sobczuk’s 2021–2022 school year costs.
“Bishop Richard Stika’s actions when ex-seminarian Wojciech Sobczuk was expelled from St. Meinrad Seminary are shocking. Immediate placement at St. Louis University at the people’s expense. This is an outrage,” tweeted Susan Vance, head of Tennessee’s Survivor Network of those Abused by Priests.
According to Knox News, “The letter, dated April 12, 2021, is on Office of Bishop letterhead and signed by Stika.”
In 2021, Sobczuk was kicked out of St. Meinrad Seminary in Indiana over complaints of sexual harassment. The rector explained the dismissal in a March 1, 2021, letter to Stika:
One student said the Knoxville seminarian, who is Polish, invited him to his dorm room, told him his American accent was “sexy,” and tried to hold his hand, prompting the student to immediately leave. Another student said he was undressing to go to bed when he noticed the Knoxville seminarian gazing at him from his room across a courtyard in the dormitory.
A third student described the Knoxville seminarian’s aggressive attempts to touch him during a visit to the Knoxville diocese, and his suggestion that the two sleep in the same bed. The student also said the seminarian asked him about his penis in messages sent through Snapchat.
Stika told priests in 2021 that the former seminarian had been dismissed from St. Meinrad because of “boundary” issues.
“He just wanted to be a priest, and he came to this country … to be a priest, and his name has been defamed by priests in this diocese, by seminarians, by Susan Vance, who wins the war again,” claimed Stika.
Report: Pope Francis plans to ask embattled Knoxville, Tenn., bishop to resign
PAT SAYS
The fact that this article / video comes from Church Militant is neither here nor there.
The question is: IS THE STORY TRUE?
This situation is replicated all over the RCC world including in Europe and the UK and Ireland.
Amy’s protection of Rory, Ryan Mc Aleer etc comes to mind.
Is Amy another Stika?
BISHOP PAT BUCKLEY 