New Report says Catholic Diocese of Knoxville silenced victims of sexual abuse during their settlements, Abuse Survivors Coalition Reacts

For Immediate Release: May 28, 2026

An article by Tyler Whetstone, published yesterday in the Knoxville News Sentinel, reported that the Catholic Diocese of Knoxville required non-disparagement agreements in at least two clergy sexual abuse settlements. The piece also said that in one of those cases, the late Bishop Richard Stika covered up that agreement. Current Knoxville Bishop Mark Beckman has so far declined to say if he will release these two survivors, and any others similarly affected, from these unacceptable restrictions.

The Abuse Survivors Coalition (ASC) is appalled by what we see as a blatant attempt by the Diocese of Knoxville to silence victims of clergy sexual abuse. We believe that this tactic is in direct contradiction to the spirit of the 2002 Dallas Charter, and we urge Bishop Beckman to take immediate action to remedy this travesty.

The Knoxville News piece says that in 2019, the Knoxville Diocese settled a lawsuit brought by former altar boy Michael Boyd out of court. However, as part of that agreement, the Diocese required that Michael sign a non-disparagement clause, attempting to silence him. Knoxville News was aware of at least one other non-disparagement clause forced on a survivor. That one was included in a 2013 settlement, where a parish employee said she was sexually harassed by the priest who was her work supervisor.

To make matters worse, Bishop Stika did not report the non-disparagement agreement in Michael’s case to the third-party firm that audits every diocese on how well they follow Church policy in sexual abuse cases. The firm found that the diocese was following the policy, but had the agency known about the non-disparagement agreement, Knoxville News was told that the Diocese would have been found noncompliant.

While the Diocese attempted to silence Michael, he refused to be intimidated. Michael told Knoxville News that he was talking about his case because he is tired of suffering insilence, and wants to help victims who have gone through similar abuse.

The ASC applauds Michael for daring to speak out despite this intimidating restriction. It seems to us that the Diocese has other legal remedies at their disposal should Michael ever say anything that is “disparaging” that does not reflect the truth of what he experienced.

The Dallas Charter included a ban on settlement agreements that prevented victims from sharing their experiences. The Charter specifically mentioned non-disclosure agreements, while the agreements covered in the Knoxville News piece were non-disparagement agreements. Non-disparagement agreements can be viewed as less restrictive than non-disclosure agreements, under which nothing can ever be said about a case. However, the ASC believes that non-disparagement agreements are equally problematic. An agreement that prohibits "disparaging remarks," without ever defining what would or would not be disparaging, can have an equally chilling effect on a victim.

Mitchell Garabedian, the attorney whose work helped expose the Catholic Church sexual abuse scandal in Boston that led to the Dallas Charter, told Knoxville News, “It’s the same as a confidentiality agreement. This is proof that the Catholic Church is continuing its old ways of pedophilia and cover-up.”

The ASC would agree with this assessment. Susan Vance, an outspoken Tennessee advocate and a member of the ASC Operations Team, begs any other victims who have been similarly silenced to contact her or Knoxville News. “Please," Susan begs, "don’t continue to suffer alone and in silence!”

We call on Bishop Beckman to take swift action to remedy this disturbing situation. We believe that the spirit of the Charter should be honored. Openness and transparency were promised, and using legal loopholes to avoid that promise certainly do not inspire trust among those abused in the Diocese of Knoxville.

CONTACT: Susan Vance, ASC Operations Team (Susan8324@gmail.com, 865-748-3518), David Brown, ASC Tennessee Contact (david@davidbrownPI.com, 901-569-4500)

(The Abuse Survivor’s Coalition is a survivor led, peer run organization dedicated to supporting individuals affected by abuse and advocating for accountability within institutions where abuse has occurred. ASC is informed by decades of collective experience in survivor support, advocacy, and public education. The organization focuses on facilitating peer support, sharing information about available survivor resources, and engaging in advocacy efforts centered on survivor led principles. Survivors remain the central priority of ASC’s work. Our website is: www.ascoalition.org)