CNS PHOTO/PAUL HARING
A rainy Easter in Rome Priests walk among rows of daffodils as they prepare to distribute Communion during Pope Benedict XVI’s celebration of Easter Mass in St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican on April 4. page 10
THE EAST TENNESSEE
Volume 19 • Number 15 • April 11, 2010
The
N E W S PA P E R
of the D I O C E S E of K N O X V I L L E w w w. d i o k n o x . o r g
Bishop Stika asks prayers for those burned in Easter vigil accident
‘Together we look forward’ Bishop Stika celebrates a busy first year as the leader of the Diocese of Knoxville. By Dan McWilliams
BY M A RY C. WE AV E R
Vigil continued on page 2
Please pray for our priests Dear Lord: We pray that the Blessed Mother will wrap her mantle around your priests and through her intercession strengthen them for their ministry. We pray that Mary will guide your priests to follow her own words, “Do whatever he tells you” (John 2:5). May your priests have the heart of St. Joseph, Mary’s most chaste spouse. May the Blessed Mother’s own pierced heart inspire them to embrace all who suffer at the foot of the cross. May your priests be holy and filled with the fire of your love, seeking nothing but your greater glory and the salvation of souls. Amen. St. John Vianney, pray for us. ■
ishop Richard F. Stika saw a somewhat smaller congregation on March 19 at Sacred Heart Cathedral than he did exactly one year earlier at the Knoxville Convention Center, when 5,000 people filled the building for his ordination and installation Mass. Knoxville’s shepherd celebrated his first year as bishop with a Mass at the cathedral on the solemnity of St. Joseph. With him were more than a dozen priests from all four deaneries as well as Sisters of Mercy, Chancery and diocesan staffers, and members of the cathedral parish. “What a difference a year makes. Last year there was a little bit more activity going on, but God is pleased with all of us, I think, as we celebrate this feast of St. Joseph,” said the bishop in his opening remarks. “This feast reminds us that God has given us the ability to build his
Bishop Richard F. Stika gives the homily at his first-anniversary Mass on March 19 at Sacred Heart Cathedral, one year to the day after his ordination and installation at the Knoxville Convention Center. In the background is Deacon Sean Smith. ONE YEAR AND COUNTING
kingdom. As Joseph built things in his life, we as the faithful members of his Church build his kingdom by living Gospel values, by living the commitments that were given to us, the commitments
that we live by virtue of our baptism. We realize that all of us are called to a vocation to be Christ to others.” In his busy first year of leading the church in East Tennessee, Bishop Stika
ordained two priests and a permanent deacon, presided at more than a dozen church and school building dedications and renovations, and attended pro-life events from Chattanooga to Knoxville to Wash-
ington, D.C. (see the list on page 6 for more details). Bishop Stika remembered his parents, the late Frank and Helen Stika, and Nancy and Peter David Feist in his anFirst year continued on page 6
Bishop’s first Catholic Day on the Hill ‘quite enjoyable’ Bishops Stika and Steib visit Gov. Bredesen and discuss a proposed hospital fee and predatory lending in meetings with lawmakers in Nashville. BY DAN M C WILLIAM S
ishop Richard F. Stika’s first Catholic Day on the Hill saw him meet with the governor and state legislators, celebrate Mass with his fellow Tennessee bishops, and encounter disgrun-
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tled Tea Party members who descended on Capitol Hill the same day. The bishop and several other East Tennessee Catholics visited Nashville on March 24 for the 13th annual event. Catholic Day
is sponsored by the Tennessee Catholic Public Policy Commission (CPPC), cochaired by the state’s three bishops. Three CPPC members from the diocese attended this year’s Catholic Day: Father Ragan Schriver,
Bishop Stika smiles during a meeting with Gov. Phil Bredesen at Catholic Day on the Hill. Next to the governor is his senior adviser, Pat Miller. With Bishop Stika are (from left) Marty Regan, Memphis diocesan attorney; Bishop J. Terry Steib, SVD, of Memphis; Father Tim Sullivan, CSP, episcopal vicar for social ministry for the Memphis Diocese; and Deacon Sean Smith, Diocese of Knoxville chancellor.
CAPITOL CONFERENCE
Download prayers and a rosary booklet: bit.ly/priestprayers.
MARY C. WEAVER
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DAN MCWILLIAMS
ishop Richard F. Stika has asked the clergy, religious, and faithful of East Tennessee to pray for three Immaculate Conception parishioners who were injured in a freak accident during the lighting of the Easter fire at the start of the Knoxville parish’s Easter vigil on April 3. Deacon Joseph Hieu Vinh; his daughter, Trang; and Patrick Connelly suffered burns to their faces and upper bodies when the fire “flashed” and set their vestments ablaze, said Captain D. J. Corcoran of the Knoxville Fire Department. Miss Vinh and Patrick were altar servers for the vigil. The three were taken to the University of Tennessee Medical Center immediately after the accident and later airlifted to the burn unit of Vanderbilt Medical Center in Nashville. Father Joe Ciccone, CSP, the pastor of Immaculate Conception,
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executive director of Catholic Charities of East Tennessee; Laura Seymour, CCET executive assistant; and Paul Simoneau, director of the diocesan Justice and Peace Office. Catholic Day offers participants a chance to meet with their legislators to speak out on the Church’s position on various issues. On the Catholic Day radar this year were a hospital fee that would support TennCare, and predatory-lending practices such as payday loans with interest rates as high as 400 percent. Hospitals themselves have proposed the fee, which would come from their net revenues, to offset proposed cuts in hospital reimbursements in the TennCare budget. The fee would also keep open rural medical centers that might otherwise close. House Bill 3111 sets a cap on payday-loan interest at 100 percent APR. Bishop Stika called his initial Catholic Day “quite CDOH continued on page 2