The Abuse Survivors Coalition Applauds Knoxville Catholic Bishop

For Immediate Release: June 4, 2026

According to an article published in the Knoxville Sentinel on June 2nd, Bishop Mark Beckman recently issued a statement saying that he "does not intend to seek or enforce nondisclosure or nondisparagement agreements in response to sexual abuse allegations. The Church should never stand as a barrier between a survivor and their ability to heal." The Bishop’s predecessor, Bishop Richard Stika, had included nondisparagement clauses in at least two settlements, and covered up that restriction in at least one case. After the 2002 Boston Globe series on the sexual abuse of children by priests in the Archdiocese of Boston, the US Conference of Catholic Bishops guaranteed that victims would no longer be silenced by the terms of a settlement.

The Abuse Survivors Coalition (ASC) applauds Bishop Beckman's statement. Susan Vance, a Tennessee contact for ASC, as well as a member of the ASC Operations team, posted a response to the reported statement on YouTube. In her statement, Susan asked if the two other Tennessee bishops would follow suit.

Bishop Beckman is on the right track, and the ASC hopes that he continues to encourage victims to feel free to share what happened to them with whoever they want. Toward that end, the ASC also hopes that Bishop Beckman will follow up on his statement by actively assuring Michael Boyd and the other survivor mentioned in the news article in writing that they are free to speak about what happened to them. In addition, the ASC urges the Bishop to examine the Diocesan records thoroughly to see if there are any other survivors bound by nondisclosure or nondisparagement clauses, and send them written confirmations that they do not need to keep silent as well.

If you signed an NDA or a nondisparagement clause as a part of your settlement, whether in the Diocese of Knoxville or elsewhere, you do not have to wait passively for your bishop to reach out to you. You can write to him and demand that he let you know in writing whether or not you can stand up and speak up. If you need assistance in this process, the ASC is here for you.

The spirit of the Dallas Charter should be honored. Openness and transparency were promised, and survivors deserve to be told that they are free to stand up and speak up.

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)