The Diocese of Knoxville ( la, Dioecesis Knoxvillensis) is a

Latin Church , native_name_lang = la , image = San Giovanni in Laterano - Rome.jpg , imagewidth = 250px , alt = Façade of the Archbasilica of St. John in Lateran , caption = Archbasilica of Saint Joh ...

ecclesiastical territory or

diocese In Ecclesiastical polity, church governance, a diocese or bishopric is the ecclesiastical district under the jurisdiction of a bishop. History In the later organization of the Roman Empire, the increasingly subdivided Roman province, pro ...

of the

Catholic Church The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

Tennessee Tennessee ( , ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a landlocked state in the Southeastern region of the United States. Tennessee is the 36th-largest by area and the 15th-most populous of the 50 states. It is bordered by Kentucky to th ...

. It was founded on May 27, 1988 from the eastern counties of the Diocese of Nashville. This diocese covers most of

East Tennessee East Tennessee is one of the three Grand Divisions of Tennessee defined in state law. Geographically and socioculturally distinct, it comprises approximately the eastern third of the U.S. state of Tennessee. East Tennessee consists of 33 count ...

; in addition to the

see city See or SEE may refer to: * Sight - seeing Arts, entertainment, and media * Music: ** ''See'' (album), studio album by rock band The Rascals *** "See", song by The Rascals, on the album ''See'' ** "See" (Tycho song), song by Tycho * Television * ...

Knoxville Knoxville is a city in and the county seat of Knox County in the U.S. state of Tennessee. As of the 2020 United States census, Knoxville's population was 190,740, making it the largest city in the East Tennessee Grand Division and the state's ...

, it includes

Chattanooga Chattanooga ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Hamilton County, Tennessee, United States. Located along the Tennessee River bordering Georgia, it also extends into Marion County on its western end. With a population of 181,099 in 2020, ...

and Johnson City. The

Mother Church Mother church or matrice is a term depicting the Christian Church as a mother in her functions of nourishing and protecting the believer. It may also refer to the primary church of a Christian denomination or diocese, i.e. a cathedral or a metro ...

is the Cathedral of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, located on Northshore Drive in Knoxville. The two oldest churches are

Saints Peter and Paul Basilica Saints Peter and Paul Basilica is a historic Roman Catholic church at 214 E. 8th Street in Chattanooga, Tennessee, United States, that is listed on the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP). It is one of the oldest continuing parishes in ...

Parish of Chattanooga and Church of the Immaculate Conception Parish of Knoxville, both founded in 1852. , there were an estimated 70,000 Catholics within the diocese, which covers approximately . The percentage of Catholic adherents within the diocese's borders constitutes the lowest among American dioceses. The Diocese of Knoxville is a

suffragan diocese A suffragan diocese is one of the dioceses other than the metropolitan archdiocese that constitute an ecclesiastical province. It exists in some Christian denominations, in particular the Catholic Church, the Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria ...

in the

ecclesiastical province An ecclesiastical province is one of the basic forms of jurisdiction Jurisdiction (from Latin 'law' + 'declaration') is the legal term for the legal authority granted to a legal entity to enact justice. In federations like the United State ...

of the metropolitan

Archdiocese of Louisville The Archdiocese of Louisville is a Latin Church ecclesiastical territory or archdiocese of the Catholic Church that consists of twenty-four counties in the central American state of Kentucky, covering . As of 2018, the archdiocese contains appro ...

Demographics

With a population of 70,000 Catholics, the diocese makes up about 2.8% percent of East Tennessee's total population. The diocese is currently home to 50

parishes A parish is a territorial entity in many Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest, often termed a parish priest, who might be assisted by one or m ...

and one mission. These parishes are served by 65

diocesan priest In Christianity, the term secular clergy refers to deacons and priests who are not monastics or otherwise members of religious life. A secular priest (sometimes known as a diocesan priest) is a priest who commits themselves to a certain geogr ...

s, 15 religious priests, 8 extern priests, 77

deacons A deacon is a member of the diaconate, an office in Christian churches that is generally associated with service of some kind, but which varies among theological and denominational traditions. Major Christian churches, such as the Catholic Churc ...

, 9

brothers A brother is a man or boy who shares one or more parents with another; a male sibling. The female counterpart is a sister. Although the term typically refers to a familial relationship, it is sometimes used endearingly to refer to non-familia ...

, and 45

sisters A sister is a woman or a girl who shares one or more parents with another individual; a female sibling. The male counterpart is a brother. Although the term typically refers to a familial relationship, it is sometimes used endearingly to refer to ...

. Eleven Religious Institutes are represented in the diocese. Perpetual adoration of the Most Blessed Sacrament is available at many of the parishes and Masses are celebrated in a wide array of languages. This is chosen so that the spiritual needs of all parishioners are met. These languages include English, Spanish, Vietnamese, Korean, American Sign Language, Polish, and Latin. With the influx of large numbers of Hispanic Catholics looking for work, the diocese faces many new challenges. If the estimates are correct and there are about 50,000 new Hispanic immigrants in the area, their number nearly doubles the area's current official Catholic population. The clergy and laity of the diocese are working to welcome these new neighbors.

History

While the Catholic Church has been a part of life in East Tennessee for over 166 years, the Diocese of Knoxville was founded in 1988. Before the creation, the area was part of the Diocese of Nashville. Because of his role in the creation of the Diocese, Nashville's Bishop

James Daniel Niedergeses James Daniel Niedergeses (February 2, 1917 – November 16, 2007) was an American prelate of the Roman Catholic Church. He served as the ninth bishop of the Diocese of Nashville in Tennessee from 1975 to 1992. Biography James Niedergeses b ...

, was known as the "Grandfather of the Diocese of Knoxville"

Father Patrick Ryan

Father Patrick Ryan served as pastor of Sts. Peter and Paul Parish in Chattanooga from 1872 to 1878. He died from yellow fever on Sept. 28, 1878 at the age of 33. Father Ryan is described by an eyewitness as "going from house to house in the worst-infected section of the city to find what he could do for the sick and needy." In 2016, the Diocese began a cause of

canonization Canonization is the declaration of a deceased person as an officially recognized saint, specifically, the official act of a Christian communion declaring a person worthy of public veneration and entering their name in the canon catalogue of ...

of Father Ryan. In 2021, his remains were transferred from Mount Olivet Cemetery to

Sexual abuse cases

On April 16, 2010, Bishop Richard Stika of the Diocese revoked the ministerial privileges of William Casey, a priest who formerly served in the diocese. Casey had been accused of rape and sexual abuse by a young altar boy. When confronted, Casey admitted his crimes to Stika and other diocesan officials. Casey was convicted in July 2011 of first-degree

sexual misconduct Sexual misconduct is misconduct of a sexual nature which exists on a spectrum that may include a broad range of sexual behaviors considered unwelcome. This includes conduct considered inappropriate on an individual or societal basis of morality, se ...

and two counts of aggravated rape and sentenced to prison. The Vatican

laicized In the canon law of the Catholic Church, the loss of clerical state (commonly referred to as laicization, dismissal, defrocking, and degradation) is the removal of a bishop, priest, or deacon from the status of being a member of the clergy. The t ...

Casey on January 10, 2013. On January 1, 2020, the Diocese settled a sex abuse lawsuit involving a man who claimed two priests in the Diocese sexually abused him as a child in the 1990s. Those accused were Monsignor Francis Xavier Mankel and the Diocese of Knoxville's first Bishop

Anthony O'Connell Anthony J. O'Connell (May 10, 1938 – May 4, 2012) was an Irish-born prelate of the Roman Catholic church. He served as the first of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Knoxville, Diocese of Knoxville in Tennessee from 1988 to 1998. He later ser ...

; O'Connell previously confessed in 2002 to committing acts of sex abuse before he joined the Diocese of Knoxville as well. The terms of the settlement were not disclosed. Originally filed in the Knox County Circuit Court, both parties involved in the lawsuit agreed to instead settle the lawsuit out of court. Despite denying any wrongdoing concerning the two accused priests, who are both dead, the Diocese agreed to settle due to the financial burden which would have grown by continuing the lawsuit. In February 2021, a lawsuit filed against both Stika and the Diocese of Knoxville alleged that Wojciech Sobczuk, a Polish seminarian who Stika had invited to study to become a priest in the diocese, raped and sexually harassed an organist employed by Sacred Heart Cathedral. Prior to becoming a seminarian, Sobczuk had been dismissed from the

Jesuits The Society of Jesus ( la, Societas Iesu; abbreviation: SJ), also known as the Jesuits (; la, Iesuitæ), is a religious order (Catholic), religious order of clerics regular of pontifical right for men in the Catholic Church headquartered in Rom ...

after accusations of sexual misconduct at

SS. Cyril and Methodius Seminary SS. Cyril and Methodius Seminary is a four-year private Polish seminary in Orchard Lake, Michigan, United States. The seminary, taking its name from Saints Cyril and Methodius, was founded in 1885 in Detroit, Michigan, to prepare candidates for ...

. Shortly following the alleged rape, Sobczuk moved into the bishop's rectory and was sent to St. Meinrad Seminary, being dismissed after multiple other allegations of sexual misconduct there. He remained classified as a seminarian of the diocese, which could be construed as immigration fraud, and returned to living in the episcopal residence. Due to the alleged assault, diocesan officials appointed an investigator, who was dismissed by Stika seemingly for contacting diocesan and seminary officials with questions. The replacement investigator Stika appointed interviewed only Sobczuk before closing his investigation. In July 2022, the diocese successfully sought to de-anonymize the victim in court proceedings, going against prior diocesan policy to respect victim privacy. It also attempted to place internal church documents under clergy-penitent privilege and the

pontifical secret The pontifical secret or pontifical secrecy or papal secrecy is the code of confidentiality that, in accordance with the Latin canon law of the Catholic Church as modified in 1983, applies in matters that require greater than ordinary confident ...

, going against prior instructions by the Holy See. In April 2022, Fr. Anthony D. Punnackal, a priest of the Congregation of the Carmelites of Mary Immaculate (CMI) serving in the Diocese, was accused of 'one count of sexual battery and one count of sexual battery by an authority figure' during a grief counseling session.

COVID-19 response

Public Masses were suspended on March 20, 2020, in response to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

. On May 6, 2020, Bishop Stika issued a decree for the resumption of public Masses with protocols to reduce spread of the virus, including directives which prohibit the reception of Holy Communion on the tongue.

Coat of Arms

Bishops

Bishops of Knoxville

The following is a list of bishops along with their dates of service: #

Anthony Joseph O'Connell Anthony J. O'Connell (May 10, 1938 – May 4, 2012) was an Irish-born prelate of the Roman Catholic church. He served as the first of the Diocese of Knoxville in Tennessee from 1988 to 1998. He later served as the third bishop of the Dioce ...

(1988–1998), appointed Bishop of Palm Beach #

Joseph Edward Kurtz Joseph Edward Kurtz (born August 18, 1946) is an American prelate of the Roman Catholic Church who served as the archbishop of the Archdiocese of Louisville in Kentucky from 2007 to 2022. He previously served as the bishop of the Diocese of Kn ...

(1999–2007), appointed Archbishop of Louisville #

Richard Stika Richard Frank Stika (born July 4, 1957) is an American prelate of the Catholic Church, serving as the third bishop of the Diocese of Knoxville in Tennessee since 2009. He is accused of covering up the rape of a diocesan employee by a seminarian ...

(2009–present)

Other priest of this diocese who became bishop

* James Vann Johnston Jr. appointed Bishop of Springfield-Cape Girardeau and later Bishop of Kansas City-Saint Joseph

Education

High schools

Knoxville Catholic High School Knoxville Catholic High School is a private, Roman Catholic high school in Knoxville, Tennessee. It is located within the Roman Catholic Diocese of Knoxville. History Knoxville Catholic High School, originally located on East Magnolia Avenue, reg ...

web page
* Notre Dame High School (Chattanooga)
web page

References

External links

*
''The East Tennessee Catholic'' Online

Archdiocese of Louisville
{{Coord, 35, 58, 22, N, 83, 56, 32, W, source:plwiki, display=title Christian organizations established in 1988 Christianity in Tennessee Catholic Church in Tennessee

Roman Catholic Ecclesiastical Province of Louisville 1988 establishments in Tennessee Organizations based in Knoxville, Tennessee