The Diocese of Knoxville (Latin: Dioecesis Knoxvillensis) is a diocese of the Catholic Church in eastern Tennessee in the United States. It was founded on May 27, 1988, from the eastern counties of what was then the Diocese of Nashville. The diocese is a suffragan diocese in the ecclesiastical province of the metropolitan Archdiocese of Louisville. The Mother Church is the Cathedral of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus in Knoxville. The diocese is one of the fastest growing dioceses in the United States, along with the neighbor diocese of Nashville.[2]
As of 2020[update], there were an estimated 70,000 Catholics within the diocese, which covers approximately 14,000 square miles (36,000km2).[3] The diocese makes up about 2.8% percent of East Tennessee's total population.
History
1808 to 1988
In 1808, Pope Pius VII erected the Diocese of Bardstown, a huge diocese in the American South and Midwest. The new state of Tennessee was part of this diocese. The Diocese of Nashville was erected on July 28, 1837, taking all of Tennessee from the Diocese of Bardstown. The Knoxville area would remain part of the Diocese of Nashville for the next 166 years.[4]
With the construction of railroads in Tennessee in the 1840s, Irish Catholic immigrants started moving into the Knoxville area. Sts. Peter and Paul, the first parish in Chattanooga, was erected in 1851.[5] Bishop Richard Niles of Nashville erected Immaculate Conception Parish in 1855, the first parish in Knoxville.[6]
Public masses were suspended throughout the diocese in March 2020, in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. In May 2020, Stika ordered the resumption of masses with protocols to reduce spread of the virus, including directives prohibiting 4the reception of communion on the tongue.[16]
In April 2021, an official from the Congregation for Bishops in Rome stated that it had received ten accusations against Stika under Vos estis lux mundi, a motu proprio or document issued by Pope Francis. The accusations alleged administrative misconduct, claiming that Stika impeded or restricted an investigation into accusations of sexual misconduct against Wojciech Sobczuk, a Polish seminarian. The official stated it was likely that the Congregation would authorize Archbishop Joseph Kurtz of Louisville to investigate the accusations.[17]
In May 2021, a group of diocesan priests and employees alleged that Stika had taken funds from diocesan education and employee benefit funds, including loan money from the 2020 Paycheck Protection Program, to help pay for the $36 million cathedral. One anonymous priest said "we are nearly bankrupt... there's just not going to be cash there."[18]
Also in May 2021, eleven diocesan priests, roughly 20 percent of the presbyterate, wrote to the apostolic nuncio for the United States, Archbishop Christophe Pierre. They requested that the Vatican provide the diocese with "merciful relief" from Stika's leadership.[19]
Stika's retirement was accepted by Pope Francis in June 2023. Stika said that he had sought early retirement due to health issues and denied claims that the Vatican forced him out.[20] Francis appointed Archbishop Shelton Fabre of Louisville as apostolic administrator for the diocese.[21] In 2024, James Mark Beckman of Nashville became the fourth bishop of Knoxville.[22]
After Hurricane Helene caused massive destruction in Eastern Tennessee in October 2024, Beckman said that the diocesan Catholic Charities branch was working to help survivors.[23]
Sexual abuse cases
In April 2010, Bishop Stika revoked the ministerial privileges of William Casey, assigned to St. Dominic Catholic Church in Kingsport. Warren Tucker had accused Casey of raping him during the 1970s, starting when he was an 11-year-old altar boy. When confronted with these accusations, Casey admitted his crimes to Stika and other diocesan officials.[24] Casey was convicted of first-degree sexual misconduct and aggravated rape in July 2011 and sentenced to 30 years in prison.[25][26] The Vatican laicized Casey in 2013.[27]
In January 2020, the diocese settled a lawsuit from Michael Boyd, who claimed that Monsignor Francis Mankeland and Bishop O'Connell sexually abused him as a child. Boyd claimed that Mankeland abused him multiple times over two and a half years during the 1990s when he was a fourth grader. Boyd said that O'Connell abused him twice. The Vatican had forced O'Connell to resign as bishop of the Diocese of Palm Beach in 2002 due to his admissions of sexual abuse years earlier in Missouri. After Boyd reported his allegations to the diocese in 2018, its investigation determined that they were not credible. The diocese said in 2020 that it agreed to settle due to the financial burden of continuing the lawsuit.[28][29][30][31]
In February 2021, a male organist at Sacred Heart Cathedral sued the diocese, alleging that he had been raped at his home in February 2019 by Wojciech Sobczuk, a Polish seminarian. The Jesuit Order had dismissed Sobczuk in 2018 after receiving accusations of sexual misconduct at SS. Cyril and Methodius Seminary in Orchard Lake, Michigan. That same year, Stika invited Sobczuk to study in Knoxville for the priesthood and live at the bishop's rectory.
Shortly following the alleged rape of the organist, Stika sent Sobczuk to St. Meinrad Seminary in St. Meinrad, Indiana. However, St. Meinrad dismissed Sobczuk in February 2021 after receiving multiple new allegations of sexual misconduct.[32] Sobczuk returned to Knoxville to live in the episcopal residence. Diocese officials appointed an outside investigator for the rape case. However, Stika later dismissed him, seemingly for asking questions from diocesan and seminary officials. Stika then hired his own investigator, who only interviewed Sobczuk before closing the investigation.[32][33]
In July 2022, the diocese successfully sought to de-anonymize the Sobczuk victim in court proceedings, going against prior diocesan policy to respect victim privacy. The diocese also attempted to place internal church documents under clergy-penitent privilege and the pontifical secret, going against prior instructions by the Vatican.[34]
Coat of arms
Coat of arms of Diocese of Knoxville
Notes
The coat of arms was designed and adopted when the diocese was erected by Deacon Paul Sullivan.
Adopted
1988
Escutcheon
The arms of the diocese contains a large gold (or) cross with three small red (gules) crosses. The background of the arms is divided into quarters. They contain red and blue (azure) wavy lines, mountains, a dogwood blossom, a river and a railroad trestle.
Symbolism
The gold cross comes from the coat of arms of Pope John Paul II. The three red crosses represent the three Catholic dioceses in Tennessee. The mountains, the dogwood blossom and the river represent the scenery of East Tennessee. The trestle honors the Irish Catholic railroad workers in Tennessee history
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