Snitches get stitches?
Four days before Father Joseph Reed was placed on administrative leave, Bishop Stika made a Facebook post with the message "Snitches get stitches."
Dear Friends,
Last month, Bishop Richard Stika, the previous bishop of the Diocese of Knoxville, made a Facebook post with the message, “Snitches get stitches.” Four days later, Father Joseph Reed, Pastor of St. John Neumann church and school in Farragut, was placed on administrative leave for a complaint of “boundary violations.”
Are these two things related? Was the Facebook post a message for or about Fr. Reed? If it was, how did Bp. Stika find out about Fr. Reed’s looming troubles?
On December 9, 2024, Bp. Stika made a Facebook post with the nominal text “Christmas tree is up on the main floor!” However, the Christmas tree is not at the center of the photograph. Prominently featured in the photo is a large television on which the closed caption reads, “Snitches get stitches.” Over the years, Bp. Stika has posted many photos of his Christmas trees to his Facebook page. In all these other photos, the tree is centered, not off to the side. The “snitches” post isn’t public; it’s only visible to Bp. Stika’s Facebook friends.
The question of connection between Fr. Reed’s leave and Bp. Stika’s post arises because of the timing, and because Fr. Reed reported Bp. Stika to hierarchs of the Catholic Church.
Bp. Stika has said that he resigned as Bishop of the Diocese of Knoxville for health reasons. However, as reported extensively by The Pillar, the Vatican asked Bp. Stika to resign in response to scandal, including his failure to properly investigate an accusation of rape made against a diocesan seminarian named Wojciech Sobczuk. Bp. Stika used his authority to derail the diocesan investigation. At the time of the alleged rape, Sobczuk was living with Bp. Stika.
Fr. Reed was a whistleblower through all this. As vocational director for the Diocese, he recommended against allowing Sobczuk to continue as a seminarian. With about ten other priests, Fr. Reed signed a letter reporting Bp. Stika to the Apostolic Nuncio, Cardinal Christophe Pierre. Fr. Reed also reported Bp. Stika to Cardinal Robert Prevost, Prefect for the Dicastery for Bishops.
(Both Pierre and Prevost were archbishops when these things happened; both have since been made Cardinals of the Catholic Church.)
How do I know that Fr. Reed reported Bp. Stika to the Nuncio and the Dicastery?
In May of 2023, I wrote to Cardinal Prevost with my own complaint about Bp. Stika, and I received a response from his secretary, Mgr. Cassola:
When I received this letter on May 30, I showed it to Fr. Reed as my pastor. Three days later, Fr. Reed asked me if he could redact my name and share the response with the other priests of the Diocese who had signed the letter to the Nuncio. (This is how I learned that Fr. Reed was a signatory.) In the same conversation, Fr. Reed told me he would send his own letter to the Dicastery. On June 27, 2023, the Vatican announced its acceptance of Bp. Stika’s resignation.
Is Fr. Reed now getting his “stitches” for “snitching”?
Shortly after the Diocese announced Fr. Reed’s administrative leave, families of St. John Neumann Catholic School received an email from the school indicating that the complaint against Fr. Reed was not grave:
“We have knowledge that while the terms of the complaint are vague, it does not involve sexual misconduct or abuse of any sort… we are confident that the matter is harmless.”
Nevertheless, the complaint against Fr. Reed was referred to Tennessee’s Department of Children’s Services (DCS). However, the Diocese never disclosed the DCS referral to St. John Neumann (SJN) families despite its commitment to full transparency.
(Was the complaint grave or not? If it was, then SJN families should have been informed about the DCS referral. If it wasn’t grave, then the complaint shouldn’t have been referred to DCS at all.)
Because of the DCS referral, news reports in Knoxville and around the country have insinuated that Fr. Reed committed child abuse.
Fr. Reed has never been accused of impropriety before. He was ordained in 2007. He has been the pastor of St. John Neumann church and school since 2018. Before that, he served as chaplain for Sacred Heart Cathedral School. He also frequently serves at Knoxville Catholic High School.
Another priest of the Diocese of Knoxville, Father Miguel Velez, was given administrative leave at the same time as Fr. Reed for an unrelated complaint. I don’t know anything about the complaint against Fr. Velez, nor do I know whether he was involved in the effort to report Bp. Stika. However, if I were investigating his case, I would be asking about such things.
Retaliation for reporting abuse is explicitly forbidden by an apostolic letter of Pope Francis, entitled Vos Estis Lux Mundi.
The words I have written are entirely my own. I have not heard from Fr. Reed directly or indirectly since December 12, 2024. Nothing I have written shall be construed to imply bad faith on the part of the person(s) who made the original complaint against Fr. Reed. Yesterday morning, I provided the Diocese of Knoxville with a copy of this article. The Diocese acknowledged receipt but had no comment.
Our Lady, Undoer of Knots, pray for us!
Jennifer Hay
Jennifer.Hay@KnoxvilleNobility.com
865.804.9721
Acknowledgements:
This letter was edited by Taylor Williams (nee Breeden). The “snitches” Facebook post was sent by a concerned Catholic through Susan Vance. Another friend independently verified the post and collected Bp. Stika’s photographs of Christmas trees.
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Thank you for reporting on all this. Fr. Reed was an instructor of mine in the seminary and we’ve kept in touch, just occasionally, since then. I had no idea any of this was going on until a couple weeks ago.