OBITUARY | Bishop Richard F. Stika

Bishop Richard F. Stika, who served as the third bishop of Knoxville, Tennessee, from 2009-23, died in St. Louis, the Diocese of Knoxville announced Feb. 17. He was 68 years old.

A memorial Mass will be celebrated at 10 a.m. Tuesday, March 3, at the Church of the Annunziata in Ladue. The funeral Mass and burial will take place at 11 a.m. Tuesday, March 10, at the Cathedral of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus in Knoxville.

Born on July 4, 1957, in St. Louis to Frank and Helen (Musielak) Stika, he was the third of four children. He was baptized at St. Francis de Sales Church on July 21, 1957, and attended Epiphany of Our Lord School in south St. Louis.

He attended St. Augustine Minor Seminary High School in Holland, Michigan, for one year. He later transferred to Bishop DuBourg High School in St. Louis, where he graduated in 1975. He earned a bachelor’s degree in business in 1979 from Saint Louis University and then entered Kenrick-Glennon Seminary, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in philosophy in 1981 and a master’s degree in divinity in 1985.

Archbishop John L. May ordained him to the priesthood at the Cathedral of Saint Louis on Dec. 14, 1985. He served as an associate pastor at Mary Queen of Peace Parish in Webster Groves (1985-91), part-time associate pastor at St. Paul in Fenton (1991-92) and part-time associate pastor and master of ceremonies at the Cathedral Parish (1992-2004).

He served as secretary to then-Archbishop Justin F. Rigali from 1994-2003, chancellor of the archdiocese and vicar general from 1994-2004 and vicar for priests from 2002-05. He helped coordinate St. John Paul II’s visit to St. Louis in 1999.

Bishop Stika served as pastor of Annunziata Parish in Ladue from 2004-09. On Jan. 12, 2009, Pope Benedict XVI appointed him as bishop of the Diocese of Knoxville, and he was ordained on March 19, 2009.

He resigned his episcopate in June 2023 at the age of 65, citing health concerns. The resignation occurred amid controversy surrounding his handling of legal cases involving the diocese.

Questions arose about how he handled 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 Holy Father 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.

Bishop Stika led the effort to build the new Cathedral of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, which was dedicated in 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”).

During his tenure, Bishop Stika ordained 24 priests and 47 permanent deacons, established several parishes and welcomed five religious communities to the diocese. He dedicated numerous churches and other parish buildings. Under his leadership, the St. Mary’s Legacy Foundation was established following the sale of St. Mary’s Health System. In 2013, Bishop Stika dedicated the first St. Mary’s Legacy Clinic mobile medical van, which offers free medical care to uninsured residents of East Tennessee.

Sts. Peter and Paul Church in Chattanooga was declared a minor basilica by the Vatican in 2011, and the bishop’s Home Campaign also funded a major renovation of the basilica, built in 1890. He opened the cause of sainthood for Blessed Father Patrick Ryan, a Sts. Peter and Paul pastor who died in the city’s yellow fever epidemic in the 1870s. He oversaw the re-entombment of Father Ryan’s remains at the basilica in 2021.

He also organized a Eucharistic Congress held in Sevierville in September 2013, which attracted bishops from around the United States, including Cardinal Timothy Dolan; Cardinal Rigali; 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. After Cardinal Rigali retired in 2011, he relocated to Knoxville to live with Bishop Stika, and he continued to reside with him for a time when the bishop returned to St. Louis.

Jennifer Brinker, the East Tennessee Catholic and OSV News contributed information for this obituary.