Letter given to Bishop Richard Stika following press conference 04-09-2010
April 9, 2010
Dear Bishop Stika,
Please help the survivors of clergy sexual abuse and the people in the pews throughout the diocese of Knoxville to know you are a man of the Gospel and not a slave to your lawyers.
Here are the issues that need to be addressed immediately.
I. The Dangerous 11
1. Please fill in the blanks on the attached sheet. There are more than 11, but the ministry of these Dangerous 11 have covered the entire area that encompasses the diocese of Knoxville.
2. After identifying these pedophile priests from your records and cross-referencing with Nashville and Memphis, please go to each parish in the diocese and tell the people who they are.
3. Apologize to all 60,000 Catholics in the diocese for your predecessors’ failure to tell them the truth.
II. Father Steve LaPrad – Please address the following issues.
1. As the only credible allegation reported in 2002 to the John Jay Report, what disciplinary action has occurred in his regard?
2. Where is he now?
3. Has he been defrocked? Is he still a member of the catholic clergy?
4. Did the diocese of Knoxville allow him to go to another diocese and go back to ministry? If so, were the people of that diocese told? If so, is this not the same pattern of deceit that is being exposed worldwide in regards to abusive clergy?
III. Father Walter Emala – pedophile priest who served at Holy Ghost Church.
1. Will you ask Monsignor Xavier Mankel, pastor of Holy Ghost Church, to join you in the pulpit when you officially apologize on behalf of the church for not telling the people about Walter Emala?
2. Will you ask anyone who has information about Emala’s abuse to come forward to the authorities first and then to the church?
3. Because Monsignor Mankel has held positions of authority in the diocese for decades, will you ask him and the other recently honored monsignors as well as the other priests to clear up the deceit and complicity that has allowed these abuses to go untold and held in secrecy and silence for decades?
Survivors of clergy sexual abuse and good Catholics in the pews deserve your immediate attention to these issues.
Sincerely,
Susan Vance