Cardinal Rigali to Move to Knoxville, Roman Catholic Diocese of Knoxville, July 19, 2011

Cardinal Rigali to Move to Knoxville

Roman Catholic Diocese of Knoxville
July 19, 2011

http://dioknox.org/home/cardinal-knoxville/

Cardinal Justin Rigali of Philadelphia venerates the crucifix in a file photo shot at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington in September 2009. CNS photo/Nancy Wiechec

Bishop Richard F. Stika of the Diocese of Knoxville loves baseball and is a big St. Louis Cardinals fan—and soon he’ll have a Cardinal living with him.

With the news of Pope Benedict XVI’s acceptance of the retirement letter of Cardinal Justin F. Rigali, submitted last year on the occasion of his 75th birthday as required by Church law, Bishop Stika has announced that the Cardinal will move from the Archdiocese of Philadelphia to the Diocese of Knoxville. Cardinal Rigali had served as Philadelphia’s archbishop since 2003.

Archbishop Charles J. Chaput, OFM Cap, will be installed as Philadelphia’s new shepherd on Sept. 8. He had been archbishop of Denver since 1997.

Cardinal Rigali said he greatly enjoyed his years in Philadelphia but that as he closes this chapter in his life, he is deeply blessed to be able to move to the South. “I have enjoyed the gracious hospitality of the people of Tennessee on several occasions when I have visited,” he said. “I look forward to making my home in the Diocese of Knoxville.”

The Archdiocese of Philadelphia will provide for all of Cardinal Rigali’s expenses as part of his retirement.

Bishop Stika, a native and priest of St. Louis before being named bishop of Knoxville, served as then–Archbishop Rigali’s secretary, chancellor, and vicar general for the Archdiocese of St. Louis from 1994 to 2003.

“We used to chat about the possibility of the Cardinal’s living with me when he retired,” Bishop Stika said, “but I thought it would be in a rectory where I was serving as a parish priest in the Archdiocese of St. Louis, not in the bishop’s residence in East Tennessee.”

Knoxville will be Cardinal Rigali’s principal home, but he will continue to travel twice a month to Rome, where he serves on the Vatican’s Congregation for Bishops. As a welcoming gift for the Cardinal, Bishop Stika intends to present him with a Vols ball cap. “By the end of the Cardinal’s first week here, I hope to have taught him all the words to ‘Rocky Top,’” said Bishop Stika.

Cardinal Rigali’s long and distinguished service to the Church began in 1961 with his ordination to the priesthood in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles. Later the same year he began his graduate studies in canon law in Rome at the Pontifical Gregorian University, completing his doctorate in June 1964. In November of that year he entered the English-language section of the Vatican’s Secretariat of State, becoming its director in 1970.

In his various roles with the Vatican, Cardinal Rigali has served three popes, beginning with Pope Paul VI (through 1978), Blessed Pope John Paul II (1978 through 2005), and Pope Benedict XVI (2005 to the present).

In 1985 he was ordained a bishop by Blessed Pope John Paul II. From 1985 to 1990, in addition to serving as president of the Pontifical Ecclesiastical Academy, he held a number of positions at the Vatican, serving the Secretariat of State, the Council for Public Affairs of the Church, the Congregation for Bishops, and the Pontifical Council for the Laity. In 1990 he became secretary of the College of Cardinals.

In 1994 Blessed John Paul II appointed him archbishop of St. Louis, where he served until being named archbishop of Philadelphia in July 2003. In October that year he was made a Cardinal by Blessed John Paul II.

In 2007 Pope Benedict XVI appointed the Cardinal as a member of the Vatican Congregation for Bishops. He is a member of the Vatican Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, the U.S. bishops’ committees on Divine Worship and Pro-Life Activities, and Vox Clara, which advises the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments on English translations.

The Cardinal is chairman of the ad hoc subcommittee on Aid to the Catholic Church in Central and Eastern Europe and president of the board of directors of the Black and Indian Mission Office. He also serves on the board of the National Catholic Bioethics Center.