Stika Has Mild Heart Attack, Tim Townsend, St Louis Post Dispatch, August 17, 2009

Stika Has “mild Heart Attack”

By Tim Townsend
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
August 17, 2009

http://www.stltoday.com/blogzone/civil-religion/general/2009/08/stika-has-mild-heart-attack/

Bishop Richard Stika introduces himself during a Knoxville press conference in January. Credit: Knoxville News Sentinel

Bishop Richard Stika, a former St. Louis priest who is now bishop of Knoxville, Tenn., was hospitalized over the weekend while visiting a sick friend in Florida, according to the chancellor of the Knoxville diocese, Deacon Sean Smith.

Stika, 52, was the pastor of the Church of the Annunziata in Ladue when Pope Benedict XVI named him Knoxville’s bishop in January. He was installed in March.

According to Smith:

Bishop Stika traveled to Florida to visit a sick friend and became ill with severe flu-like symptoms, which precipitated a diabetic crisis. Although the Bishop suffered a mild heart attack related to the diabetic crisis, his heart was thoroughly examined and found to be in great shape.

Smith said Stika is “stable and responding well to his treatment. He is looking forward to returning home to Knoxville.”

Along with his five years at Annunziata, Stika served at Mary Queen of Peace in Webster Groves, St. Paul in Fenton and the St. Louis Cathedral Basilica. He was chancellor of the archdiocese from 1994 to 2004, and its vicar general from 1997 to 2004 - both under former St. Louis Archbishop (now Philadelphia Cardinal) Justin Rigali.