KNOXVILLE, Tennessee (LifeSiteNews) — Pope Francis has accepted the resignation of the much embattled Bishop Richard Stika of Knoxville diocese, following a Vatican visitation to the diocese amid allegations of sexual cover-up and financial improprieties.
Bishop Stika’s resignation was announced jointly by the Vatican and the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) June 27. While the Vatican’s statement simply revealed Stika’s resignation had been accepted, the USCCB’s added the information that Archbishop Shelton J. Fabre of Louisville was appointed as apostolic administrator of the diocese, home to over 68,000 Catholics.
The resignation had been anticipated by The Pillar, which has led the way in reporting on the issue and conducted several interviews with Stika throughout the controversy of recent years.
The Pillar reported some weeks ago that sources “close to the Vatican’s Dicastery for Bishops” claimed that Pope Francis had already decided in April to ask for Stika’s resignation. This information was based of the results of the Vatican’s investigation into the 65-year-old Stika, The Pillar reported.
Background of Knoxville rumblings
Todays developments come in light of a steadily developing series of news reports centered on Stika — particularly regarding allegations that he covered-up sexual assault. A lawsuit accused the bishop of concealing “sexual misconduct and sexual abuse” allegedly perpetrated by former seminarian Wojciech Sobczuk, which “was meant to quiet and subdue complaints of sexual abuse and prevent valid legal filings,” the lawsuit claims.
READ: Lawsuit accuses Tennessee bishop of covering up same-sex rape by seminarian
The suit was filed by a former parish organist, who argued that Sobczuk both raped him at home and “sexually harassed” him “on numerous occasions at the Cathedral of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus in Knoxville, TN” in 2019.
As LifeSite has reported, Stika invited Sobczuk to the Knoxville diocese in 2018 after he left the community, later accepting Sobczuk as a diocesan seminarian and inviting him to live in the episcopal residence with him and retired Cardinal Justin Rigali.
According to the organist’s “John Doe” lawsuit, Stika practiced “defamatory” conduct and told “numerous individuals” that it was Doe who committed the rape, and not Sobczuk.
The Pillar’s reports noted that Stika further raised suspicions amongst those in the diocese when he fired the investigator George Prosser — appointed by the diocesan review board to look into the Sobczuk case — for “asking all these questions” as part of his investigation. Stika replaced Prosser with his own appointment: an intervention which led to diocesan clergy flagging the bishop’s actions to the Congregation for Bishops.
But at this stage, Sobczuk was being accused of another, unrelated instance of sexual harassment by a fellow seminarian at St. Meinrad Seminary in Indiana, where Stika had sent the seminarian, financially supporting him to the tune of several thousands of dollars.
Sobczuk was dismissed from the seminary over allegations of sexual harassment — having already been dismissed from the Jesuit formation house in Poland “for sexual misconduct.” Doe’s lawsuit argues that Stika subsequently accepted the ex-seminarian back into the bishop’s residence before giving him a “staff position” and “an office in the diocesan chancery.”
The bishop even confirmed to The Pillar that Sobczuk joined Stika and Cardinal Rigali on a 10-day “road trip vacation,” with news reports also arguing that Stika continued to use diocesan funds to support Sobczuk’s college education in order to prevent his running into any visa problems.
Somewhat separate to this, a number of diocesan clergy raised concerns with U.S. Papal Nuncio Archbishop Christophe Pierre in the fall of 2021, arguing that Stika’s handling of the Sobczuk issue was merely representative of wider failings in his administration of the diocese. They argued that “the past twelve years of service under Bishop Stika have been, on the whole, detrimental to priestly fraternity and even to our personal well-being.”
READ: Tennessee diocese, bishop face apostolic visitation for alleged improprieties
In July 2022, a group of concerned lay members of the diocese produced a 175-page record of the scandal including supporting documents. Copies were sent to Stika, along with Archbishop Fabre, Archbishop Pierre, and then-Prefect of the Congregation for Bishops, Cardinal Marc Ouellet.
Eventually, the Vatican was forced, perhaps by growing voicing of concern, to take action regarding the diocese, with Bishops Barry Knestout of Richmond, Virginia, and Michael Burbidge of Arlington, Virginia, being tasked with conducting an investigation into Stika’s diocese.
Stika’s resignation in his own words
With his resignation reportedly being asked for some weeks ago, Stika released a statement June 27, in which he thanked Pope Francis for accepting the bishop’s request to resign.
READ: Tennessee Catholics threaten to defund their diocese over COVID shot mandate
Stika did not link his resignation to a failing in leadership, or indeed to any of the concerns raised by his clergy or diocesan faithful. Instead, he provided a summary of his “life-threatening health issues,” listing nearly dying from a diabetic coma in 2009, “losing vision” in an eye, having a heart attack, heart bypass surgery, “four heart stents,” and “neuropathy.”
“Last month, I was transported to a hospital in East Tennessee for another health issue,” he stated.
Stika referenced the recent controversy surrounding him, only to note that it had “weighed on me physically and emotionally.”
For these reasons, I asked the Holy Father for relief from my responsibilities as a diocesan bishop.
He expressed a desire to remain in “active ministry” around St. Louis, and to continue living with retired Cardinal Rigali.
For his part, Fabre did not reference any of the controversy which has affected the diocese either, saying instead that “together we will prayerfully address all the pastoral needs before us.”
This report was compiled with files from David McLoone.