A Feb. 22 lawsuit against the Diocese of Knoxville, Tennessee, and its bishop, alleges that a former parish organist was raped and sexually harassed by a diocesan employee and seminarian, and that a diocesan investigation into his allegation was impeded by the bishop.
Bishop Rick Stika told The Pillar last year that he removed a diocesan investigator looking into the rape allegation, and that he “knew in [his] heart” the seminarian was innocent.
The suit also charges that Stika has claimed the seminarian, Wojciech Sobczuk, was himself sexually assaulted by the lawsuit’s plaintiff. The suit characterizes that claim as an “egregious” defamation of a rape victim.
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