“I offer my genuine and heartfelt apology to anyone I have disappointed over the years,” he also said.
“I have tremendous respect for everyone,” Stika added, “even my detractors. I will continue to keep all of you, and this diocese, in my prayers.”
Stika also asked for prayers and said he will likely move near his hometown of St. Louis, where he would like to “remain in active ministry, but at a slower pace.”
The bishop had admitted to having a close relationship with Sobczuk, the former diocesan seminarian accused of sexual assault, and The Pillar reported that Stika gave Sobczuk thousands of dollars in diocesan funds as well as gifts such as trips, laptops, and car repairs, exceeding the financial support ordinarily given to seminarians.
In November 2022, the Vatican sent two Virginia bishops to carry out an official apostolic visitation in the Diocese of Knoxville, the results of which are unknown.
Stika has also been criticized over debts the diocese incurred in the construction of Knoxville’s Cathedral of the Sacred Heart and been accused by one priest of misusing internally-designated diocesan funds for ordinary administration, The Pillar reported.
Stika denies the charge of misusing diocesan funds.
According to The Pillar, in 2021, 11 Knoxville priests sent a letter to Archbishop Christophe Pierre, apostolic nuncio to the United States, asking for “merciful relief” from Stika’s leadership.
This story has been updated.
Hannah Brockhaus is Catholic News Agency's senior Rome correspondent. She grew up in Omaha, Nebraska, and has a degree in English from Truman State University in Missouri.