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Word is spreading throughout the diocese of Knoxville and people are fed up. I've been approached by a number of people, some who are complete strangers to me, to express their frustration with Stika and his handling of this sexual abuse scandal, as well as unresolved financial questions concerning the Paycheck Protection Funds received by the diocese (Stika received over $5 million in PPP loans, took a year to distribute the money, and is now drastically increasing the assessments on the parishes with schools that received the funds in order to pay the debt on the new cathedral). I generally advise people to do the following:

1. Pray for your pastors and let them know you support them; they're under a terrible burden with Stika as their bishop;

2. Designate your gifts to the parish if possible, and/or shift your giving to charities that the diocese cannot assess or claim the money;

3. Write to the Apostolic Nuncio and the Archbishop of Louisville, expressing your concerns over Stika; send the letters by certified mail so that there's a record of delivery. The letters may not do any good, but they certainly won't do any harm. The Church keeps all documentation, and the Stika File will grow . Eventually they will tire of opening and reading the letters. And

4. SPREAD the word! Share the Pillar articles on social media - email them to your friends and fellow parishioners. Corruption exists in the shadows, and the best disinfectant to the disease affecting the Church is the bright light of truth!

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It is interesting to consider such a lawsuit in terms of St. Paul's teaching about lawsuits. How strange it is that we look to a secular judge for justice! Who would believe that the greatest gift to the American Church in the last 20 years has been the people who hate her the most digging up decades of dirt. Who would imagine that even a good bishop would have done so much for the Church? There is too much inclination to say that the past is in the past.

The most frustrating aspect is seeing Bishop Stika's comments. If we imagine that the accusations were false (though how could so many accusations be false?) a bishop who loves his people should not act like this. How much they despise us, this coterie of careerists!

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This situation is so disappointing. When I read this article and am reminded of everything employees and priests have been put through … and I have to conclude no one with any authority to do anything about it even cares. When the priests write the nuncio and he never even favors them with a reply, which is common courtesy, one can only conclude that what the institutional church SAYS it simply public relations.

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Gotta say…I’m questioning the Bishop’s integrity.

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Good thing Catholics don’t believe in reincarnation or I’d swear that Stika is the reincarnation of Bishop Frank Little, (God have Mercy on him) former Melbourne Archbishop who’s mess Cardinal Pell had to clean up in the mid 1990s (frankly we’re still cleaning up that mess). There’s a lot more there in Knoxville than what even the Pillar have managed to uncover and it will not be pretty when it does. The sooner the better and with less asinine posturing.

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