BLOOMFIELD HILLS, MI — The Michigan Supreme Court won’t intervene in a dispute between a Roman Catholic nun and a member of a Detroit-area church, perhaps leaving it to a higher authority.

A member of St. Hugo of the Hills Church in Bloomfield Hills sued a nun in 2014. He said she had defamed him by telling a priest that he had jabbed a finger in her chest. There was a confrontation when the man learned he wouldn’t be a lector at Mass.

In December, the Michigan appeals court said that the nun suggested the man had committed a misdemeanor. But the court said it didn’t rise to defamation.

The Supreme Court rejected the man’s appeal Friday. Chief Justice Stephen Markman believes the nun probably wasn’t speaking literally about a poke in the chest.