A Tennessee judge has rejected a request by the Knoxville diocese for a
protective order curbing the release of sensitive internal documents, in
a lawsuit against Bishop Richard Stika.
A former church musician has charged that the bishop failed to respond
when he (the musician) was raped by a seminarian, and then defamed him
by saying that the rape charge was a fraud.
Lawyers for the diocese had
sought a protective order for diocesan records related to the case.
The judge ruled that the diocese had not presented a compelling case to keep the documents private.