By The East Tennessee Catholic
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (OSV News) — Bishop Richard F. Stika, who served as the third bishop of the Diocese of Knoxville from 2009 to 2023, died in his native St. Louis at age 68. He was found in his residence on Feb. 17.
A memorial Mass will be celebrated at the Church of the Annunziata in the St. Louis suburb of Ladue March 3. The funeral Mass and burial will take place March 10 at the Cathedral of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus in Knoxville with Bishop Mark Beckman as principal celebrant and Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan, retired archbishop of New York, as homilist.
His parish before being named a bishop
Annunziata is where, as a monsignor, Bishop Stika served before his appointment to East Tennessee.
Bishop Beckman, Knoxville’s fourth bishop, who succeeded Bishop Stika, learned of his predecessor’s death on Feb. 17.
“We keep Bishop Stika in our prayers, that the Lord may bring him fully into the light of His kingdom, and for his family, and for all who mourn his passing, we offer our prayers for their consolation. May he rest in peace with the Lord,” Bishop Beckman said.
Richard Frank Stika was born July 4, 1957, in St. Louis, the third child of Frank Jr. and Helen Stika. He had two older brothers, Lawrence and Robert Stika, and a younger brother, Joe Calabro.
Grew up in small bungalow
The future bishop grew up in a small brick bungalow on Scanlan Avenue in South St. Louis, where the family belonged to Epiphany of Our Lord Parish.
The young Richard Stika attended the parish elementary school before going to St. Augustine Seminary High School in Holland, Michigan, the only time he lived outside of the St. Louis area before coming to Knoxville as bishop. He returned to St. Louis and graduated in 1975 from Bishop DuBourg High School.
He studied at Jesuit-run St. Louis University, where he earned a bachelor of science degree in business in 1979 and discerned his vocation to the priesthood. He enrolled at Kenrick Seminary in Shrewsbury, Missouri, now Kenrick-Glennon Seminary, where he earned a bachelor of arts degree in philosophy in 1981 and a master of divinity degree in 1985. Cardinal John J. Carberry ordained him as a transitional deacon on May 1, 1985.
Ordained a priest Dec. 14, 1985
He was ordained a priest on Dec. 14, 1985, by St. Louis Archbishop John L. May. He served as an associate pastor in several parishes, including the Cathedral of St. Louis Parish. He also was chancellor of the Archdiocese of St. Louis.
In 1999, then-Msgr. Stika coordinated an event that was one of the most historic in the life of the archdiocese: Cardinal Justin Rigali, then archbishop of St. Louis, hosted St. John Paul II when he came to St. Louis in 1999, with Msgr. Stika coordinating the Holy Father’s visit.
Msgr. Stika was pastor of Annunziata Parish in Ladue when he received a call Dec. 16, 2008, from the papal nuncio at the time, Archbishop Pietro Sambi, telling him Pope Benedict XVI had appointed him bishop of Knoxville.
‘A very gracious call’
“It was a very gracious call that began a flood of emotion that takes me to this very special moment with you today,” he said at his initial press conference in Knoxville Jan. 12, 2009, the day his appointment was announced. “I’ve had almost three weeks to prepare — weeks that were filled with faith-filled moments and very human moments of joy that I was coming to Knoxville but also sadness because I will be leaving a community, a city, and parishes that I’ve served and where I’ve lived for nearly 52 years.”
He was ordained and installed as bishop on March 19, 2009, the solemnity of St. Joseph, to whom he had a special devotion. He would later credit the saint’s intercession after he survived major health incidents related to his Type 1 diabetes and his heart.
Resigned in 2023 over health concerns
He resigned his episcopate in June 2023, citing health concerns. The resignation occurred amid controversy surrounding his handling of legal cases involving the diocese.
Questions arose over the manner in which he dealt with separate complaints involving a seminarian and a former priest in the diocese. This resulted in a canonical process called a “visitation” conducted by brother bishops, who forwarded their reports to the Roman dicastery charged with advising the pope on matters involving bishops.
After this visitation, Bishop Stika offered his resignation as bishop of Knoxville to Pope Francis, who accepted it on June 27, 2023.
Effort to build new cathedral
Bishop Stika will be remembered for leading the effort to build the new Cathedral of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, dedicated in 2018. He even operated a backhoe to turn over the first furrows of earth at the groundbreaking in 2015 and frequently rode in a crane for up-close inspections of the cathedral dome under construction.
The bishop presided at Masses for the cathedral groundbreaking on April 19, 2015, and for its dedication on March 3, 2018.
The baldacchino of the cathedral, a 45-foot-high canopy over the altar, bears an inscription of Bishop Stika’s episcopal motto: “Iesu Confido in Te” (“Jesus, I trust in you”).
24 priests and 47 permanent deacons
During his tenure, Bishop Stika ordained 24 priests and 47 permanent deacons, established several parishes, and welcomed five religious communities to the diocese, including the Religious Sisters of Mercy of Alma, Michigan.
Among the new Catholic communities established were two for Vietnamese Catholics: Divine Mercy in Knoxville and the St. Faustina Public Association of the Faithful in Chattanooga.
He presided over both the inquiry in 2020 opening the sainthood cause of Father Patrick Ryan, a “Servant of God,” and the reentombment of the priest’s remains at the basilica in 2021.
Sainthood candidate Father Ryan
Father Ryan was pastor of Sts. Peter and Paul Parish in downtown Chattanooga. He ministered to victims of the city’s yellow-fever epidemic in the 1870s, then died of the disease himself in 1878, just a day short of his 34th birthday.
Bishop Stika organized a Eucharistic Congress in September 2013, which attracted bishops from around the United States, including Cardinal Dolan; Cardinal Justin Rigai, former Vatican official, former archbishop of St. Louis (1994 to 2003) and retired archbishop of Philadelphia (2003-2011); Bishop Robert E. Barron, now bishop of Winona-Rochester, Minnesota; and now-retired Archbishop Joseph E. Kurtz of Louisville, Kentucky, who was Knoxville’s bishop from 1999 to 2007.
Bishop Stika forged a decades-long friendship with Cardinal Rigali after the latter was appointed archbishop of St. Louis in 1994.
Cardinal Rigali principal consecrator
Cardinal Rigali was principal consecrator of Bishop Stika at his episcopal ordination. Co-consecrators were Archbishop Kurtz and Bishop Robert J. Shaheen, then bishop of Our Lady of Lebanon of Los Angeles, a Maronite eparchy with a cathedral in St. Louis. Bishop Stika had bi-ritual faculties in the Maronite Church.
Cardinal Rigali went on to serve as archbishop of Philadelphia in 2003. After he retired in 2011, he relocated to Knoxville to live with Bishop Stika, and he continued to reside with him when the bishop returned to St. Louis.
Bishop Stika’s death occurred just days before his beloved St. Louis Cardinals baseball team played its first spring-training game, an event he looked forward to every year.
The bishop was a lifelong fan of the team and a longtime friend of Cardinals legend and Hall of Fame member Stan Musial and his wife, Lillian, and he knew many other St. Louis players and front-office personnel. Bishop Stika was a celebrant at Stan Musial’s funeral Mass in 2013.
The East Tennessee Catholic is the news outlet of the Diocese of Knoxville. This story was first published by The East Tennessee Catholic and distributed in partnership with OSV News.
