Remember the Survivors.com

Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests - Tennessee

Federal lawsuit for the Diocese of Knoxville, Antony Punnackal, and the Carmelites of Mary Immaculate

This is NOT the civil suit filed in Sevier County in March 2o22.  This is a new Federal lawsuit (11-10-2022) with expanded allegations against Bishop Stika, the Diocese of Knoxville, Fr. Antony Punnackal, and the Carmelites of Mary Immaculate whose headquarters are in India.  

A lawsuit filed in the US District Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee alleges horrific treatment of an asylum-seeking Honduran woman at the hands of her parish priest in Gatlinburg, Tennessee, and the subsequent intimidation and retaliation against this woman.  


Click here to read the complaint. 


Click here for Exhibit 1.


Click here for Exhibit 2.  


Bishop Stika will not ever let an adult case go before the Review Board again.  You are showing your guilt, Bishop. Revising policy when it does not give you what you want is a very common tool of the guilty.  Click here to see May 2022 revision of Diocesan Review Board by-laws. 

What does the Catholic Church say about treatment of immigrants, migrants, refuges, and people on the move? 

Creating a world where immigrants, migrants, refugees and people on the move are treated with dignity, respect, welcome and belonging.

– Migration and Refugee Services Vision Statement

Is this how the Diocese of Knoxville treated this twice-widowed woman of three children when she reported assault by a priest.  Read the lawsuit.  It will shock you.  It was a minister from another faith who helped her report the molestation.  She was treated abysmally by Bishop Stika and the Diocese of Knoxville.   

Pastor of St. Mary's in Gatlinburg indicted, arrested for sexual assault March 2022

Lawsuit:  Doe v. Diocese of Knoxville and A.V. Punnackal

Link to press release from SNAP of Tennessee - April 22, 2022.  Click here.  

January 7th article in the Mountain Press. 

April 22 - Article in the Knoxville News Sentinel written by Liam Adams of the Nashville Tennessean