Bishop Richard Stika, former Knoxville ordinary accused of abuse cover-up, dies at 68

Stika was born in St. Louis, Missouri, and ordained a priest in that archdiocese in 1985. In 2009 he was appointed by Pope Benedict XVI to lead the Knoxville Diocese, which he did until he stepped down in 2023, citing health concerns.

Stika’s resignation came after years of controversy and scandal following a Vatican visit to the diocese and amid allegations of sexual cover-up and financial improprieties.

His tenure became turbulent in 2021 when he admitted to interfering in a diocesan investigation into allegations of a homosexual rape involving a Polish seminarian named Wojciech Sobczuk. Stika claimed that he believed he was innocent.

Two priests in the diocese would eventually come forward to accuse Stika of covering up abuse of seminarians. In September 2021, 11 priests of the Knoxville Diocese wrote U.S. Apostolic Nuncio Christophe Pierre noting that allegations of coverup were reflective of a larger pattern of problematic leadership under Stika.

The letter painted a picture of priests suffering because of Stika’s alleged mismanagement. A lawsuit filed in 2022 by a former parish organist accused Stika of concealing “sexual misconduct and sexual abuse” that he endured while a seminarian.

According to the Knoxville News Sentinel, Stika sought to intimidate priests who were blowing the whistle on abuse allegations. “Bishop Richard Stika continues to make his presence felt, contacting whistleblowers directly with threats of a lawsuit, including one who is a key witness in the sexual assault lawsuit against the Church,” the Sentinel reported in 2024.

The Sentinel further said that Stika sent a text message to three priests, including one whistleblowing priest who left the diocese in April 2024 after he was moved from his parish. The message reportedly said, “My attorneys are ready, and the information will be shared with my successor.”

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 as well as Archbishop Shelton Fabre of neighboring Louisville. Copies were also forward to then-Archbishop Pierre and then-Prefect of the Congregation for Bishops, Cardinal Marc Ouellet.

Stika did not link his resignation to a failure in leadership, or to any of the concerns raised by clergy or laity. Instead, he shared a summary of “life-threatening health issues” such as “losing vision” in an eye, experiencing a heart attack, undergoing heart bypass surgery, “four heart stents,” and “neuropathy.”

In 2025, Catholics in Knoxville wrote a letter to the Vatican on behalf of Father Joseph Reed to Fabre, Pierre, and then-Cardinal Robert Prevost (now Pope Leo XIV) of the Congregation for Bishops. The petition was signed by 435 people. Jenny Hay, the investigative reporter behind the petition, told LifeSiteNews that she believes Reed may have been targeted because of his part in a lawsuit involving a former seminarian of the Diocese of Knoxville. The former seminarian, Wojciech Sobczuk, had been accused of a homosexual rape that allegedly took place in 2019. Sobczuk’s purported victim sued Stika as well as his diocese and argued that Stika covered up his claims by interfering with the diocesan investigation into them.

The organist, who filed under “John Doe,” claimed that Sobczuk raped him at his home in 2019 and “sexually harassed” him “on numerous occasions at the Cathedral of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus in Knoxville.” Stika initially invited Sobczuk to the Knoxville Diocese in 2018, later accepting him as a diocesan seminarian and even inviting him to live in his residence along with himself and retired Cardinal Justin Rigali.

Stika claimed that he and the cathedral rector launched their own investigation into the allegations in 2019 – a claim that is rejected by the lawsuit – finding the accusations against Sobczuk “baseless” before sending him to St. Meinrad Seminary in Indiana.

Before Sobczuk finished his second year at St. Meinrad, he was again dismissed from studies following allegations of sexual harassment, The Pillar reported at the time. Although aware of the allegations both before and during his time at St. Meinrad’s, Stika accepted Sobczuk back to his residence at the diocese after being dismissed, the lawsuit explained. While there, Stika gave Sobczuk a “staff position” and “an office in the diocesan chancery.” Stika was also accused of intimidating Doe after sending an unexpected gift – an expensive missal – just two days after the alleged rape.

Earlier this year, at the request of the plaintiff, Knox County Circuit Court Judge Jerome Melson ordered the dismissal, without prejudice, of John Doe’s civil lawsuit against the Diocese of Knoxville and Stika. According to the plaintiff’s lead attorney, Patrick Thronson, Doe did not receive a settlement for the voluntary dismissal. “The plaintiff’s health prevented him from continuing to pursue the case, particularly given how traumatic this litigation is,” Thronson said in an email.

The diocese, which is now lead by Bishop James Mark Beckman, issued a statement urging prayer “for healing and peace for all individuals involved in this matter.”

While Stika criticized pro-abortion politicians as well as pro-LGBT clergy during his tenure, he was made news with his decision to ban the reception of the Eucharist on the tongue while kneeling amid the COVID crisis and his refusal to grant diocesan employees religious exemptions to the abortion-tainted COVID shot.