Bishop Richard F. Stika Special ordination edition Section B
Bishop Stika’s coat of arms reflects his family and faith n designing the shield—the central element in what is formally called the heraldic achievement—a bishop has an opportunity to depict symbolically various aspects of his own life and heritage and to highlight particular aspects of Catholic faith and devotion that are important to him. Every coat of arms also includes external elements that identify the rank of the bearer. The formal description of a coat of arms, known as the blazon (see the box below), uses a technical language, derived from medieval French and English terms, which allows the appearance and position of each element in the achievement to be recorded precisely. A diocesan bishop shows his commitment to the flock he shepherds by combining his personal coat of arms with that of the diocese, in a technique known as impaling. The shield is divided in half along the pale or central vertical line. The arms of the diocese appear on the dexter side—that is, on the side of the shield to the viewer’s left, which would cover the right side (in Latin, dextera) of the person carrying the shield. The arms of the bishop are on the sinister side—the bearer’s left, the viewer’s right. The central feature of the arms of the Diocese of Knoxville, designed by Deacon Paul Sullivan in 1988, is a cross in gold (Or), taken from the arms of Pope John Paul II, who established the diocese. Three small red (Gules) crosses on this large gold cross represent the three dioceses in the state of Tennessee. The background of the shield that shows behind the cross is divided quarterly into areas of red and blue (Azure). Charges in these quarters allude to natural features that dominate the landscape of East Tennessee: mountains, a dogwood blossom, and the Tennessee River. A railroad trestle in the bottom right quarter honors the Irish immigrants who brought the Catholic faith to the area, many of whom worked constructing railroads, especially trestles. In the center of the arms of Bishop Richard F. Stika is a chevron, shaped like an inverted V. The chevron also resembles a carpenter’s
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square, a traditional emblem of St. Joseph, to whom the bishop has a special devotion. The chevron is divided along the center line (per pale) into sections of red and white (Argent). This coloration alludes to the beams of light that St. Maria Faustina Kowalska saw emanating from the Sacred Heart of Our Lord, who appeared to her in 1931 and spoke of the mystery of his Divine Mercy. St. Faustina had an image made of this vision of
Our Lord, which is inscribed at the bottom with the Polish words Jesu Ufam Tobie (“Jesus, I trust in you”). These words from the image of Divine Mercy form the bishop’s motto, which is written in Latin on the scroll below the shield. The shield itself is blue and is charged with two symbols in gold, above and below the chevron. These colors traditionally symbolize the Blessed Virgin Mary, and in this context they also allude to the
Blazon for the coat of arms uarterly Gules and Azure, on a cross Or between a fess the top edge dancetty of three points, a dogwood flower saltirewise, three bars wavy and a railroad trestle issuant from base all Argent, three crosses couped of the first, impaling Azure, a chevron per pale Gules and Argent between in chief a cross flory ensigned with a coronet of fleurs-de-lis, and in base a pike embowed, all Or. ■
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coat of arms of the Archdiocese of St. Louis, where Bishop Stika was born and which he served as a priest for more than 23 years. The gold cross flory—that is, a cross whose beams end in the shape of a fleurde-lis, or lily—and the crown encircling it—representing St. Louis, King of France—also refer to the arms of the Archdiocese of St. Louis. The fish that appears below the chevron is an ancient symbol of the Lord Jesus. As early as the first century AD, Greek-speaking Christians used a simple drawing of a fish— ichthys in Greek—to identify themselves and their houses because the first letters of the Greek words for “Jesus Christ, Son of God, Savior” form the word ichthys. The fish seen on the shield is a pike, an allusion to the bishop’s family name: the Czech
word štika refers to this particular type of fish. Bishop Stika said he wanted his coat of arms to be simple “first of all,” but some charges on the shield can be seen two ways. “I didn’t want it to be overly complicated, and the designer was very good at guiding me in that direction, and so a number of the symbols that are a part of the coat of arms play a dual role,” he said. “For example, the carpenter’s square bespeaks my devotion to St. Joseph. On the coat of arms, [the chevron is] also red and white, which are the colors of Poland, the colors of my mother’s family.” The bishop said that “also you can talk about the colors red, white, and blue for the United States, the country which I am gratefully proud to be from.” Heraldry continued on page B6
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‘The lifeblood of the church’ Bishop Stika talks of his love for contemplatives and his hopes to have such a presence in East Tennessee. By Dan McWilliams atholics in St. Louis are surrounded by eight contemplative communities, and Bishop Richard F. Stika would like to see at least one such community established in East Tennessee. Bishop Stika has long been the chaplain for the Carmelite Monastery in Ladue, Mo., and has known the “Pink Sisters” of St. Louis for many years. The Diocese of Knoxville’s third bishop frequently celebrated the 7 a.m. Mass at the Church of the Annunziata in Ladue, Mo., where he had served as pastor since 2004, then went down Clayton Avenue a short way to the Carmelite church for the 7:30 liturgy there. “As the Diocese of Knoxville grows, there are certain entities that I think would be so helpful in terms of our prayer life,” Bishop Stika said in a March 10 interview. “Here in St. Louis I have been truly blessed to have great friendships with the various contemplative communities, especially the Pink Sisters and the Carmelite Sisters. “With contemplative communities, it’s those prayers that are constant—they’re constantly before the Blessed Sacrament—that I think are part of the lifeblood of the church. It would be a real blessing to the Diocese of Knoxville to eventually have a contemplative order praying for us and praying for the church.” The bishop said he hopes to bring an order to East Tennessee “sooner than later,” although he isn’t sure whether the Carmelites, Pink Sisters, or another order might come. “I don’t know whether those particular orders will come, but it is my ultimate goal to have a contemplative community in the diocese,” he said. Sister Mary Gemma, SSpSAP, is superior of the Mount Grace Convent of the Sister Servants of the Holy Spirit of Perpetual Adoration in St. Louis, better known as the Pink Sisters because of their rosecolored habit. Bishop Stika “has a great value for contemplative life, a high esteem of it, so I would imagine that one of the first things he would want to do is try to establish a contemplative community in his diocese,” said Sister Mary Gemma. Mother Mary Joseph, OCD, is superior of the Carmelite community in Ladue, which has 11 sisters. “Sometimes St. Teresa referred to contemplatives as prayer warriors who bring graces because of their prayer life,” she said. “They pray for the church every day, and they pray for the whole world. They’re an important part of a diocese for the new life and energy of the diocese.” The Carmelite chapel is a popular place for St. Louisans and for visitors. “Our chapel is open every day for adoration, and we have close to a thousand visitors a week,” said Mother Mary Joseph. “These people are not all Catholic, but God has brought them here. This is a center of prayer—this is Mount Carmel, [with our] being Carmelite—where they sense the presence of God very strongly and also the prayer life of the sisters. We do not see the people, [and] they don’t see us, but there’s a presence in a monastery that speaks of God.” Mother Mary Joseph’s blood sister, Sister Stella Maris, OCD, is the sub-prioress of the Carmelite community. “People find peace and a sense of direction— ‘getting themselves back together,’ they say—in coming to the chapel, where the total focus is on God,” said Sister Stella Maris. “The world is so fractured and people’s attention so dissipated, and they just feel they don’t THE EAST TENNESSEE CATHOLIC
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Bishop Stika delivers a homily in the chapel at the Carmelite Monastery on Feb. 21 as the sisters watch from behind the grille at right. The bishop served as chaplain for the Carmelites during his years as pastor of the Church of the Annunziata in Ladue, Mo.
‘THEY PRAY FOR THE CHURCH EVERY DAY’
The Carmelites expected that their chaplain would someday become a bishop. “We always knew it would come because he has the gifts, the talents, to be a bishop,” said Mother Mary Joseph. “He’s very friendly. He brings people together. Whatever he does: he teaches, he speaks of Christ. He’ll be a wonderful bishop.” The Pink Sisters “weren’t surprised” at the news either, said Sister Mary Gemma. “We expected him to be appointed a bishop of some diocese, so we were very happy and elated and quite proud of him.”
COURTESY OF BISHOP RICHARD STIKA
know who they are or where they’re going sometimes.” The Carmelites are among many in the St. Louis area who will miss a longtime friend when Bishop Stika moves to Knoxville. Mother Mary Joseph has known him for “20 or 25 years,” she said. “He’s been our chaplain for about 10 years,” she said. “The time goes quickly, ever since he moved to Annunziata [in 2004]. We will miss Bishop Stika. He’s a very holy man. He speaks of Christ in his whole demeanor, and he brings the everyday into the Gospel. He’s wonderful. He’s very gifted.”
Bishop Stika (top photo) stands with Sister Paula Marie, OCD, the extern for the Carmelites, in the parlor at the monastery Feb. 20. Behind the grille are Mother Mary Joseph (left), the superior of the community, and her blood sister, Sister Stella Maris, the sub-prioress. In the bottom photo, taken circa 1983, seminarian Stika visits the Pink Sisters with Bishop Charles R. Koester (center), longtime auxiliary bishop of St. Louis. www.dioceseofknoxville.org
Sister Stella Maris said that Bishop Stika “includes everyone” in his ministry. “He has a gift for that, in making people feel comfortable, and he can always take any incident that has happened in public life and put it right into the Gospel for the day,” she said. “He doesn’t have prepackaged sermons. They’re always alive with what is happening. It’s just marvelous.” The bishop “has a wonderful sense of humor,” said Mother Mary Joseph. “He keeps people laughing. You feel comfortable, people of all denominations, the young, the old—everyone.” Sister Mary Gemma has known Bishop Stika for 22 years. “He’s been really a great friend to our convent.” The sisters sought the future bishop’s assistance when he was secretary to then–St. Louis Archbishop Justin F. Rigali, now a cardinal and the archbishop of Philadelphia. “Any time we had special needs or even favors to ask, we would go to Monsignor Stika, and he always came through with some kind of solution or answer to our questions,” said Sister Mary Gemma. “He was a resource person for us also and was very helpful. It was when he was secretary to Cardinal Rigali that we had special recourse to him, when there were things we had to ask, but we knew him from the time he was an assistant pastor as a young priest.” The bishop’s amiability will help him as he leads his new flock, said Sister Mary Gemma. “He likes people, and people like him because he’s so down to earth, and he’s very helpful to everybody,” she said. “He would really try his best to help anyone who would come to him.” On a recent Sunday, Bishop Stika visited the Pink Sisters with his friend Monsignor Ed Rice, vocation director for the Archdiocese of St. Louis. “Monsignor Rice has been part of the Pink Sisters community since he was a young boy, and I came along during my seminary years,” said Bishop Stika. “The sisters put together an album of photographs of the two of us from about 1984 until today. I was kidding Father Rice—you could see me gaining weight and Father Rice losing hair, but we Contemplatives continued on page B6
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The Church of the Annunziata stands tall on a hill along Clayton Road in Ladue, Mo., just outside St. Louis. The roof of the parish’s school, now used for special education by the archdiocese, may be seen behind the sign at bottom left. ‘HE’S BROUGHT LIFE TO THE PARISH’
Parishioners will miss their pastor Members of the Church of the Annunziata say that Bishop Stika revitalized their parish. By Dan McWilliams wo parishioners of the Church of the Annunziata in Ladue, Mo., recalled how Bishop Richard F. Stika spent time with them in their husbands’ final days, and each noticed the infusion of youth the parish has received since their pastor was appointed in 2004. Joan Sheehan of Annunziata has known the Diocese of Knoxville’s third bishop for about 14 years. “My husband was chairman of the Archdiocesan Development Appeal, and we met him then because he was Arch-
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bishop [Justin F.] Rigali’s right-hand man, so to speak,” she said. Her pastor’s appointment as bishop came as no surprise, she said. “We’ve been saying for three or four years that he would make a good bishop. I’m sorry it’s so soon, but I’m really happy for him.” Mrs. Sheehan said the bishop’s warm personality will be a boon to him as he leads East Tennessee Catholics. “And he is a very, very devout and holy man. He’s fun, but he really knows his Bible, and he’s a
prayerful, wonderful man. I think he’ll make a great bishop. I was surprised because he’s so young [51]. We’re going to miss him so much.” Annunziata once had enough young people to operate its own elementary school. The youth population is growing again among the parish’s 600 or so families. Mrs. Sheehan credits Bishop Stika for “revitalizing our parish in a lot of ways.” “He has brought so much youth into the parish. He’s really brought the older generation into
things. He appointed two wonderful young people to take over the youth section.” Jackie Naunheim, a 55-year Annunziata parishioner, said that Bishop Stika “struck me as someone so happy to be here” when he was assigned as pastor. “He loved the interaction with the people. He’s introduced a youth group to the church. He’s brought life to the parish in a whole different way. It’s a parish that has a lot of older parishioners, and he’s involved the children and the older as well.” Mrs. Sheehan said
Jackie Naunheim has been a parishioner at Annunziata since 1954. Above, she stands outside the Carmelite Monastery’s chapel after attending a Mass celebrated there by Bishop Stika on Feb. 20. B4
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she “was in the parish in 1937, but it was just a small building,” not the 1951 Romanesque church the parish has now. She and husband Dan, minus his time in the U.S. Air Force and a few years when they lived in university cities, spent most of their 53-year marriage as Annunziata parishioners. Dan Sheehan died Dec. 9. “Bishop Stika was with me every minute,” said Mrs. Sheehan. “The minute he got the call, Bishop Stika was out there and stayed with me all day and
all evening with my children, and he was just wonderful.” Mrs. Naunheim’s husband died in 2005. “While he was in the nursing home, Monsignor Stika would come visit him, so I got to know him better then, and I got to know him after Gene died in April,” she said. “Monsignor was fun to talk to, and he was good. We’re going to miss him.” Mrs. Naunheim had been taking her mother to another parish but came back to Annunziata after Parish continued on page B6
Joan Sheehan says she thinks her pastor “will make a great bishop” for East Tennessee Catholics. THE EAST TENNESSEE CATHOLIC
‘We’re losing a boss’ The staff of the Church of the Annunziata enjoyed the working atmosphere Bishop Stika created as pastor. By Dan McWilliams ishop Richard F. Stika’s office staffers at the Church of the Annunziata are happy for his elevation to bishop of Knoxville but sad that they will lose their own friend and “boss” of more than four years. As pastor of the parish in Ladue, Mo., Bishop Stika had his rectory and office in one building. Office manager Julie George, a nine-year Annunziata employee, has a room between bookkeeper Clarie Samuel’s and the bishop’s. “This is a different kind of office,” she said. “We’re literally working in someone’s home. Even though we have nice facilities here, it’s a confined space. The dynamics are important. It could be a miserable job if we didn’t all work together.” Ms. Samuel, who has been at Annunziata for seven years and full time for the last four, said she had mixed emotions about Bishop Stika’s new role. “We’re excited for him. It’s a great, great honor, but in the same respect we have to be a little bit selfish,” she said. “We’re losing a boss and a great guy and such an asset to the city of St. Louis.” Bishop Stika became pastor of Annunziata in 2004. “Julie has been so vital to the running of the parish, and she keeps it all together, especially when I had diocesan responsibilities that would take me away from the parish,”
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Julie George took a crown hanging on the top-right corner of her computer screen and donned it for a photo with Bishop Stika, who said his office manager “is so vital to the running of the parish” of Annunziata. QUEEN OF ALL SHE SURVEYS
said Bishop Stika. “Clarie and Julie both were there before I became pastor, and both have excelled in their commitment to the parish. In fact, the entire staff has—the housekeeper, Toni [Hickel], and the maintenance people.” Ms. Samuel said that his outgoing personality will help Bishop Stika as he leads East Tennessee
Catholics. “He’s very Catholic and believes so wholeheartedly that I think he’s going to be a great bishop,” she said. “He will really promote Jesus and his church.” Bishop Stika and Mrs. George could have a drummer follow them around, providing rim shots to punctuate their
one-liners. “Every personality is different, and Julie and I have a similar sense of humor sometimes,” said Bishop Stika. Knoxville’s new shepherd likes keeping the atmosphere loose around the Annunziata office. “My sense is when you work with people, you [should] get to know
them, and if it’s always a formal setting, there’s not that interaction,” he said. “All through my priesthood, I’ve always tried to get to know the people whom I’ve worked with, and we’ve become friends. There’s always that line— in terms of leadership, they always know that ultimately my decision counts. But I try to respect people and be kind to people, and we form friendships that are special.” Being informal is “the way he is,” Mrs. George said of Bishop Stika. “He is the most laidback, easy-going, comfortable people person,” she said. “That’s very important to him. He’s very generous and accommodating and likes to have fun. He has a great sense of humor.” Bishop Stika said he and the Annunziata staffers “celebrate birthdays and go out for meals together.” “He gets pretty silly when we have birthday parties,” said Ms. Samuel. “We’re big on celebrating birthdays here in the rectory, and he’s not afraid to make fun of himself,” said Mrs. George. “I can remember specifically, after he had been here a short while, that we had a birthday lunch here in the rectory. He along with everybody else put on party hats and blew kazoos, and that’s him in a nutshell. He enjoys life.” Ms. Samuel said she will miss such Bishop Stika skills as his knowledge of Staff continued on page B6
Annunziata bookkeeper Clarie Samuel and parish-council president Tom Tucker look over the Feb. 22 bulletin. Ms. Samuel spent part of her morning Feb. 20 putting inserts into the bulletins, which had just arrived from the printer. THE EAST TENNESSEE CATHOLIC
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More on St. Louis sisters he Sister Servants of the Holy Spirit of Perpetual Adoration in St. Louis—a.k.a. the “Pink Sisters”—describe themselves as “a cloisteredcontemplative missionary congregation, living in community, whose members are entirely dedicated to the contemplative life in the service of perpetual adoration of the Blessed Sacrament.” The rose-colored habits that give the congregation its nickname are worn “in honor of the Holy Spirit” and “symbolize our dedication to the third person of the Blessed Trinity.” German priest St. Arnold Janssen, SVD, founded the Holy Spirit Adoration Sisters congregation in 1896 after earlier establishing the Society of the Divine Word for priests and brothers and the Holy Spirit Missionary Sisters. Visit the Pink Sisters’ website at mountgraceconvent.org. The Discalced Nuns of the Carmel of St. Joseph, whose monastery is in Ladue, Mo., just outside St. Louis, are “cloistered contemplative women dedicated to a life of prayer in service of the church.” The sisters “day in and day out seek Jesus as our companion, our friend, the one with whom we live. His love and friendship fills our days and nights.” St. Teresa of Ávila (1515-1582) reformed the Carmelite order and is considered one of its founders. Visit the St. Louis Carmelites’ website at stormpages.com/mtcarmel. ■
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had a good laugh just seeing how we’ve aged a little.” East Tennessee Catholics can count on being in the prayers of the Carmelites, said Mother Mary Joseph. “We’ll certainly be praying for the people of Knoxville, especially on the day of the ordination,” she said. “It will be a wonderful, joyful day, I’m sure, and our prayers go with Bishop Stika. He’s so wonderful, and St. Louis is kind of a ‘bishop factory.’ We pray for the priests here very much, and we’re very happy that Bishop Stika is coming to Knoxville.” The Pink Sisters will be unable to attend the ordination because they are cloistered, but they plan to keep Bishop Stika lifted up in prayer that day. “We certainly will—we’ll be praying for him very specially on the 19th of March, and always,” said Sister Mary Gemma. ■
The fish “represents Christ from early days” as well as the Stika family, the bishop said. “I tried to respect my family’s history, my family’s background, the background that I come from—St. Louis—as well as my devotion to the Lord in christological terms, as well as my devotion to St. Joseph and the Blessed Mother,” he said. “So it’s simple when you look at it, but there’s a lot of interpretation that comes from it. That’s why I’m so grateful to the designer because he helped guide me with a touch of noble simplicity.” The shield is ensigned with external elements that identify the bearer as a bishop. A gold processional cross appears behind the shield. The galero, or “pilgrim’s hat,” is used heraldically in various colors and with specific numbers of tassels to indicate the rank of a bearer of a coat of arms. A bishop uses a green galero with three rows of green tassels. ■
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her husband died. “Since that time I’ve joined the parish council at Monsignor’s request and gotten much more involved.” She also serves on Annunziata’s finance council, she added. Bishop Stika is “just so good with people, and there isn’t a Mass I can think of where I haven’t walked away with something very good to take home from one of his sermons.” Mrs. Naunheim went on a pilgrimage to the Vatican in 2006 with her pastor. “We were a very, very privileged group of people,” she said. “Monsignor and Cardinal Rigali met us in Italy, and the cardinal said Mass for us in the Vatican where John Paul is buried, so it was a very special trip.” Parish-council president Tom Tucker has known Bishop Stika since his arrival as Annunziata’s pastor. “He’s a very solid priest. He leads by example, teaching us the faith and living the faith,” he said. “His motto is wanting to be the face of Christ to everyone, and he certainly does that and inspires us to do it too. He’ll be a great bishop.” Mabel Lackland, a 42-year Annunziata parishioner, has known Bishop Stika for close to a decade. The bishop occasionally celebrated Mass at Annunziata in the years before he was assigned there. Mrs. Lackland was “quite upset” at the news of Bishop Stika’s appointment in Knoxville because she “didn’t want to lose him.” “I was happy for him but sorry that he’s going to be leaving,” she said. ■ B6
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Renovated Chapel of St. Vincent de Paul shows the new bishop’s ‘sense of church’ Bishop Richard F. Stika supervised an Archdiocese of St. Louis project that he called his proudest achievement when it comes to church architecture. “When I was vicar general, one of my jobs was to oversee the renovation of our former seminary building, which was then called Kenrick Seminary, into what’s now the Cardinal Rigali Center— it’s where most of the [archdiocesan] offices are,” he said. “The great experience there was that I was able to restore the chapel to its original look. It’s just a beautiful chapel.” The chapel’s physical location in the Rigali Center is no coincidence. “[The building] really is the center of the diocese in terms of its offices, and the chapel is actually the center of the building with offshoot wings,” said Bishop Stika. “It shows what my sense of church is. All the activities that we do should always be connected to the center, which is the Eucharist itself.” “The highlight of the renovation is the total face-lift of the Chapel of St. Vincent de Paul,” according to a 2001 article in the St. Louis Review, the archdiocesan newspaper. “Changes had reduced the natural light in the chapel built in 1916 to almost nothing. To bring light back into the chapel, soft, bright, neutral colors were selected for the walls and ceilings. Color accents were added. All lighting fixtures were renovated.” The Rigali Center, located in Shrewsbury, Mo., was formerly known as the Archdiocesan Pastoral Center. The archdiocese began using the building in 1987, when Kenrick Seminary and Cardinal Glennon College consolidated at the site of Cardinal Glennon, the Review article stated. Renovations to the center, completed at an estimated cost of $12 million, allowed “some 250 archdiocesan employees to have space in the historic building,” the article stated.
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history (“How did you know something like that?” she said she frequently asks him) and his ability to hire “fantastic” people, such as the parish’s youth ministers and director of faith formation. “He’s been a fantastic boss for me. He knows what he wants, and he knows what’s going to be best for the church, and it’s worked here,” she said. Mrs. George said she heard soon after the Annunziata pastor’s arrival in 2004 that he might be headed for the episcopacy someday. “St. Louis is the biggest small town I know of, and there are rumors here constantly,” she said. “He had been here only a short time, and the rumors were already circulating at that point that ‘he’s not going to be here for long’ or ‘he’s going to move on to bigger and better things.’”
Mrs. George said Bishop Stika’s approachability will be a big asset in leading the church in East Tennessee. “He’s very personable. People aren’t intimidated by him. They can approach him with anything. He loves kids. Kids do well with him.” Bishop Stika is also “a pretty savvy businessman,” she added. “As far as finances go, you put a balance sheet before him, and he knows how to read it. He’s pretty impressive that way. Mrs. Hickel, also the rectory cook, has worked for Bishop Stika for seven years. “I do everything for him,” she said. “I’m just like a mom around here to him. I take care of vestments sometimes. Actually, I’m sewing one now for him. “We’re happy for Monsignor, but we’re also going to miss him. I’m totally happy
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for him. He deserves it. He’s such a good man. You’re just going to love him.” Father John Ditenhafer, a retired priest in residence at Annunziata, became the parish administrator with Bishop Stika’s departure. The two priests have known each other “quite a long time,” said Father Ditenhafer, adding that he was “very surprised and excited” when he heard his friend would become a bishop. “It’s quite a challenge to leave and pick up and move on to a whole new area—people don’t realize how overpowering it is,” he said. “But I think already he realizes there’s going to be a lot of support there [in the Diocese of Knoxville], and it should be a wonderful time for him.” Mrs. George twice used the same phrase in an interview about her work at Annunziata: “best job I’ve ever had.” ■ THE EAST TENNESSEE CATHOLIC
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Percentage of Catholics down, but church still largest U.S. Christian body More Americans are claiming no religion, according to the latest Religious Identification Survey.. By Chaz Muth WASHINGTON (CNS)—A new survey shows the percentage of U.S. residents who identify themselves as Catholic has declined, but Catholicism remains the largest body of Christians in the country. Trinity College of Hartford, Conn., released its third American Religious Identification Survey on March 9. The survey also found that the U.S. Catholic population has shifted away from the Northeast toward the Southwest, the percentage of Latinos in the U.S. Catholic Church has grown, and the number of U.S. residents claiming no religion has increased dramatically. Most of the Christian population growth came from people who identify themselves only as Christian, evangelical/born again, or nondenominational Christian. Stephen Schneck, director of the Life Cycle Institute at The Catholic University of America in Washington, told Catholic News Service March 10 the biggest surprise in the survey for him was the surge in the number of Americans who don’t identify with any religion. “As a trend I think it’s accelerating at a faster rate than any of us expected,” Schneck said. “To a certain extent it’s a trend we can expect to continue. The erosion most noticeable is with young people.” The percentage of Americans who claimed no religion has jumped from 8.2 in 1990, the year of the first American Religious Identification Survey, to 14.2 in 2001, the year of the second one, to 15 in 2008, according to the third survey, which was conducted by Trinity’s Program on Public Values between February and November 2008. Surveyors questioned 54,461 U.S. adults in the 48 contiguous states by telephone. The research methodology was identical to that used for the 1990 and 2001 surveys and questioned the adults in either English or Spanish. The margin of error was less than 0.5 percent. The percentage of Christians in the U.S. dropped from 86.2 in 1990 to 76.7 in 2001 to 76 in 2008. Ninety percent of the decline came from the non-Catholic portion of the Christian population, most significantly from the mainline Protestant denominations, including Methodists, Lutherans, Presbyterians, and Episcopalians/Anglicans. Although the number of U.S. adults who identified themselves as Catholics increased by 11.1
million since 1990, the percentage of Catholics in the general population dropped about a point, to 25 percent. Nonetheless, Catholics remain the largest religious group nationally, with 57 million people identifying themselves as members of the church. Catholics are on the move, however, with their U.S. population shifting away from the Northeast and toward the Southwest. “The decline of Catholicism in the Northeast is nothing short of stunning,” said Barry Kosmin, a principal investigator for the 2008 survey. “Thanks to immigration and natural increases among Latinos, California now has a higher proportion of Catholics than New England does.” The population shift among Catholics is the result of two factors, Schneck said. “There is an erosion of white Catholics in the Northeast, and we’re seeing more Hispanic Catholics in the South and South-
west,” he said. “The future of the church in the United States is with the Latinos. It’s going to be a Latino church before long. I’m 55 and I believe the American Catholic population will have a Hispanic majority in my lifetime.” Other key findings include the following: ■ Baptists—the largest nonCatholic Christian faith—increased their numbers by 2 million since 2001 but continue to decline as a proportion of the population. ■ Mormons held their own proportionally, at 1.4 percent of the population. ■ The Muslim portion of the population continues to grow, from 0.3 percent in 1990 to 0.6 percent in 2008. ■ Numbers in Eastern religions such as Buddhism more than doubled in the 1990s but in 2008 declined slightly, to just under 2 million. Asian-Americans are significantly more apt to specify no religious identity than other
racial or ethnic groups. ■ Those who identify religiously as Jews continue to decline numerically, from 3.1 million in 1990 to 2.8 million in 2001 and 2.7 million in 2008, 1.2 percent of the population. Defined to include those who identify as Jews by ethnicity alone, the American Jewish population has remained stable during the past two decades. ■ Only 1.6 percent of Americans call themselves atheists or agnostics. Based on avowed beliefs, however, 12 percent are atheists (believe there is no God) or agnostics (unsure whether there is a God), whereas 12 percent are deistic (believe in a higher power but not a personal God). The number of outright atheists has nearly doubled since 2001, from 900,000 to 1.6 million. Twentyseven percent of Americans do not expect a religious funeral at their death. ■ Devotees of new religious movements, including Wiccans and self-described pagans, have grown faster this decade than in the 1990s. ■ The 13 states with the largest Catholic population in 2008 were California, with 10.1 million; Texas, 5.8 million; New York, 5.4 million; Florida, 3.7 million; Illinois, 3.1 million; Pennsylvania, 2.9 million; New Jersey, 2.7 million; Massachusetts, 1.9 million; Ohio, 1.7 million; Michigan, 1.5 million; Arizona, 1.4 million; Wisconsin, 1.2 million; and Maryland, 1.1 million. The survey authors concluded that northern New England has now eclipsed the Pacific Northwest as the least religious section of the United States; Vermont, with 34 percent of its residents identifying themselves as having no religious affiliation, leads all other states as the least religious by 9 percentage points. “Just as with Catholic losses, it is important to note that a significant portion of the declines for these denominations has occurred through generational replacement rather than individual losses of identity,” said Mark Gray, a research associate at the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate at Georgetown University in Washington. “The biggest challenge for many religions today is not keeping their older members engaged,” Gray told CNS, “but attracting American youth who have no attachments.” ■ Copyright 2009 Catholic News Service/U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops
Vatican considering document on communications in age of ‘new media’ BY JOHN THAVIS
VATICAN CITY (CNS)— The Vatican is considering the preparation of a major document on new media and their implications for the church’s communications strategy. Bishops from 82 countries began a five-day meeting in Rome March 9 to discuss modern media and the new culture of communications that has arisen in recent years. The seminar was sponsored by the Pontifical Council for Social Communications. Archbishop Claudio Celli, the president of the pontifical council, said the purpose of the seminar was to review with bishops the changing communications scene and see how the church should respond to its challenges and opportunities. The pontifical council, in a plenary meeting in late THE EAST TENNESSEE CATHOLIC
October, will then decide whether to go ahead with a new document on the subject, he said. The modern church’s communications strategy has been based primarily on the Second Vatican Council’s 1963 decree Inter Mirifica on the instruments of social communications and on the pontifical council’s 1991 pastoral instruction, Aetatis Novae (“At the Dawn of a New Era”). Archbishop Celli said that since 1991 “new media are posing new questions, new interests, and new pastoral necessities.” He said it was important for the church to understand that it’s not only new technological tools that have arisen but also an entirely new attitude toward communication based largely on interactivity and dialogue.
“The church today cannot only give information—which is certainly useful, but we cannot limit ourselves to that,” Arch-
‘You go where [the youth] are. And where are they? They’re on Twitter and Facebook.’ bishop Celli said. “I think the church needs to enter into a dialogue that is increasingly rich and proactive, a dialogue of life with people who are seeking, who are distant, and who would like to find a message that is closer and more suitable to their path,” he said. www.dioceseofknoxville.org
For that reason, he said, his council has been pushing bishops around the world not only to have their own websites but also to make sure these sites are interactive. Unfortunately, Archbishop Celli added, it’s been impractical for the Vatican to make its own web presence interactive because it would be flooded by questions and comments from all over the world. It’s something more easily done on the local level, he said. Archbishop George H. Niederauer of San Francisco, chairman of the U.S. bishops’ communications committee and a participant at the Vatican seminar, said the effective use of new media is vital in reaching younger generations. “You go where they are. And where are they? They’re on Twitter and
Facebook and other [sites],” he said. “We need to be present, and we need the young people to help us be present.” Archbishop Niederauer said the change in media is in some ways like the change from the horse to the car a century ago. “Because 100 years ago, if an old man bought a car, who could fix it? His grandson or his son because they learned the machinery. They headed straight for it; they didn’t look back,” he said. In a similar way today, he said, young people have seized on the communications opportunities of new media, and the church should welcome their talents and expertise. ■ Copyright 2009 Catholic News Service/U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops MARCH 22, 2009
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Bishop Richard Stika Ad Multos Annos! from your St. Louis Classmates:
Rev. Msgr. Timothy Cronin Rev. Msgr. Patrick Hambrough Rev. Thomas Molini Rev. Msgr. James Ramacciotti The Priestly Ordination Class of 1985
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Holy Family Roman Catholic Church Holy Resurrection Byzantine Catholic Mission La Comunidad Hispana de la Diócesis de Knoxville RECIBE CORDIALMENTE a nuestro nuevo Obispo
RICHARD F. STIKA ¡Estamos deseosos de trabajar con Usted!
The Reverend Monsignor Philip F. Thoni and the parishioners of St. Mary’s Gatlinburg give a hearty welcome to Bishop Richard Stika. THE EAST TENNESSEE CATHOLIC
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Applause and Congratulations Bishop Richard Stika on becoming the third bishop of Knoxville
WARMEST WISHES AND PRAYERS The People of Immaculate Conception Church A historic and vibrant presence on Summit Hill and The Mother Church for Knoxville Served by the Paulist Fathers
Knoxville, Tennessee (865) 523-7931 www.john23rd.org
Welcome our newest Tennessee Volunteer
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The couples and priests of the Diocese of Knoxville Worldwide Marriage Encounter Community Joyfully welcome
Bishop Richard Stika On this occasion, we renew our commitment to the mission of Worldwide Marriage Encounter for the greater good of our Diocese. “Worldwide Marriage Encounter’s Mission of renewal in the Church and change in the world is to assist couples and priests to live fully intimate and responsible relationships by providing them with a Catholic experience and ongoing community support for such a lifestyle.”
“Love one another as I have loved you.” John 15:12
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Š‡ �‘š˜‹ŽŽ‡ �‰ƒ‰‡† �…‘—�–‡” ‘��—�‹–› Congratulates and Welcomes Bishop Richard F. Stika May God bless your mission in our diocese for many years to come.
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& Moderator Monsignor Mankel
WELCOME
PARISH AFFILIATES CHATTANOOGA DEANERY Holy Spirit Our Lady of Lourdes St. Bridget St. Jude Sts. Peter and Paul Shepherd of the Valley
FIVE RIVER DEANERY Church of the Good Shepherd Holy Trinity Notre Dame St. Mary St. Patrick
SMOKY MOUNTAIN DEANERY Cathedral of the Sacred Heart of Jesus Immaculate Conception John XXIII Our Lady of Fatima St. Mary Holy Cross St. Joseph the Worker Holy Family Holy Ghost
CUMBERLAND MOUNTAIN DEANERY Blessed Sacrament Christ the King Our Lady of Perpetual Help St. Alphonsus St. Christopher St. Therese St. Ann St. Jude St. Thomas the Apostle All Saints St. Francis of Assisi St. Joseph St. Mary
Many NCCW individual members
We respond to the needs of our Church, Family, Community and World by: Water for Life • Partner with Catholic Relief Service for Women & Children • Crazy Quilt • Legislative actions at state and national levels • $10,000 raised for St. Vincent de Paul • Hurricane Katrina • St. Claire • Biloxi • Environment • Furnished St. Elizabeth Home • House of Discernment • Spiritual development of women • Prayer shawls for the ill and shut-ins • $50,000 raised for girls school in Southern Sudan • Support of Pro-life campaigns • Books for Needy Children • Support of local food pantries • Much more, including our:
KDCCW 20 th Annual Convention MAY 1•2, 2009, ST. JUDE Chattanooga, TN For more information, please call Ann Dennis, President, 865•573•1586 Affiliated with the:
National Council of Catholic Women www.nccw.org Mission Statement: The National Council of Catholic Women acts through its membership to support, empower, and educate all Catholic women in spirituality, leadership and service. NCCW programs respond with Gospel values to the needs of the Church and society in the modern world.
Patty Johnson Suzanne Erpenbach
Ann Dennis
Jane Carter
Women of Faith, Women of Action
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Congratulations, Bishop Stika! Welcome to the Diocese of Knoxville St. John Neumann Catholic Church and School
Pastor Fr. John Dowling Assisting Priest Fr. Bill McNeeley Deacons Don Amelse, Mark Syler and Mike Gouge and the entire St. John Neumann Community welcome you to East Tennessee! Our campus community is one of prayer, learning and fellowship. Dotti Morris, Principal of SJN Catholic School, invites you to visit our school, which serves grades K-8, to see the wonderful things the students of SJN are learning.
Monsignor Edward Dolan Council 8781 Proudly serving St. John Neumann for the past 25 years Richard W. Hughes, Grand Knight Colin M. Gates, Financial Secretary 185 members strong, and growing
In Service To One, In Service To All. In Solidarity with our Priests. THE EAST TENNESSEE CATHOLIC
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The Chancery staff welcomes Bishop Richard Stika. B We look forward to serving you as you fulfill your mission of teaching, sanctifying, and governing the Church of East Tennessee. B16
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