Roman Catholic Diocese of Nashville

In 1808, Pope Pius VII erected the Diocese of Bardstown, a huge diocese in the American South and Midwest. The new state of Tennessee was part of this diocese. Pope Gregory XVI erected the Diocese of Nashville on July 28, 1837, taking all of Tennessee from the Diocese of Bardstown[2] and making it a suffragan of the Archdiocese of Baltimore. Holy Rosary Cathedral, located where the Tennessee State Capitol now stands, became the first cathedral of the diocese.

Gregory XVI selected Richard Miles to serve as the first Bishop of Nashville. Arriving alone in Nashville, Miles took up residence in a boarding house and almost immediately fell seriously ill with a fever. A priest travelling through Nashville helped Miles recover. His parishioners consisted of approximately 100 families scattered throughout the state. Miles traveled on horseback to meet with them.

During his tenure, Miles ordained the first priest in Tennessee, and established a seminary and a hospital, run by the Sisters of Charity of Nazareth from Bardstown, Kentucky, and an orphanage run by the sisters of St. Dominic. He dedicated the Cathedral of the Blessed Virgin of the Seven Sorrows in Nashville in 1848 to replace the Cathedral of the Holy Rosary. In 1859, Pope Pius IX appointed James Whelan as coadjutor bishop of the diocese to assist Miles.[3]

When Miles died in 1860, Whelan automatically succeeded him as bishop of Nashville. He enlarged the cathedral and established an academy, boarding school, and orphanage.[4] Due to the stresses of being bishop during the American Civil War, Whelan resigned as bishop of Nashville in 1864. Pius IX replaced Whelan with Patrick Feehan of the Archdiocese of St. Louis.

During the summer and fall of 1866, Feehan worked to relieve the suffering of those suffering from a cholera outbreak in Nashville.[5] The diocese was hard hit by bank closures and the depression of 1873. To help his parishioners, Feehan encouraged a group of men to create a fraternal organization that would be known as Catholic Knights of America.[6] In 1877 and 1878, the diocese suffered yellow fever outbreaks, resulting in the deaths of 13 religious sisters and nine priests, including the vicar-general.[7] In 1880, Pope Leo XIII appointed Feehan as archbishop of the Archdiocese of Chicago.

The next bishop of Nashville was Joseph Rademacher from the Diocese of Fort Wayne, named by Leo XIII in 1883. Ten years later, he was appointed bishop of Fort Wayne by Leo XIII. Rademacher's successor in Nashville was Thomas Byrne of the Archdiocese of Cincinnati, selected by the pope in 1894.

In 1893, the diocese contained 18,000 Catholics, 38 churches, and 30 priests.[8] By the time of Byrne's death 30 years later in 1923, there were 25,000 Catholics, 58 churches, and 53 priests.[9] One of Byrne's most significant accomplishments was the construction of a new cathedral. Unhappy with the size of the Cathedral of the Blessed Virgin of the Seven Sorrows, Byrne acquired new property in 1902 and completed the Cathedral of the Incarnation in 1914.[10] As part of the cathedral's complex, he also built a new rectory and school.[10] St. Thomas Hospital in Nashville was also established during his tenure.

After Byrne died in 1923, Pope Pius IX appointed Alphonse Smith of the Diocese of Indianapolis as the new bishop of Nashville. When Smith came to the diocese he found there were only a few native priests from the diocese itself and ten seminarians. He worked to change the situation and within two years the number of seminarians from Tennessee had grown to 60, and 26 priests were ordained for the diocese during his episcopate. The monastery of the Poor Clares was established in Memphis, Tennessee. Several new parishes and schools were also established.[11] In 1925, he founded Father Ryan High School.[12] Smith died in 1935.

In 1936, William Adrian of the Diocese of Davenport was appointed the seventh bishop of the Diocese of Nashville by Pope Pius XII. In 1937, Pius XI transferred the diocese to the new Archdiocese of Louisville from the Archdiocese of Baltimore.[13] Adrian, who became known as a "man who gets things done", oversaw the creation of several parishes, the acquisition of a new episcopal residence in East Nashville, Tennessee, the remodeling of the Cathedral, and the establishment of a diocesan newspaper and the National Council of Catholic Women.

In 1954, Adrian ordered the racial desegregation of all parochial schools in Nashville and Davidson County, far ahead of public school desegregation.[14] On December 11, 1963, Pope Paul VI appointed Auxiliary Bishop Joseph Durick of the Diocese of Mobile-Birmingham as coadjutor bishop of the Diocese of Nashville with right of succession to Adrian. That same year, Durick and seven other colleagues wrote the letter "A Call For Unity". It called on Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and "outsiders" to stop the Birmingham campaign of protests and boycotts and let the courts work toward racial integration. King responded with his "Letter from Birmingham Jail", voicing disappointment in the white clergy, who should be "among our strongest allies". This, and the message he got from Vatican II, led Durick to become a strong voice for civil rights . He was called a heretic and a communist by some in his congregation. From 1968 to 1969, Durick faced boycotts of his public appearances. When Adrian resigned in 1969, Durick automatically became the new bishop of Nashville.

On June 20, 1970, Pope Paul VI erected the new Diocese of Memphis,[2] taking the Tennessee counties west of the Tennessee River from the Diocese of Nashville. Due to health problems, Durick retired in 1975.

In 1975, Paul VI appointed James Niedergeses as bishop of the Diocese of Nashville.[15] In 1988, Pope John Paul II created the Diocese of Knoxville,[2] taking the eastern counties of Tennessee from the Diocese of Nashville. Niedergeses retired in 1992. To replace him, John Paul II that same year named Auxiliary Bishop Edward Kmiec of the Diocese of Trenton as bishop of Nashville.[16] Twelve years later, in 2004, John Paul II named Kmiec as bishop of the Diocese of Buffalo.[17] The next bishop of Nashville was David Choby, named by Pope Benedict XVI in 2005. A study released in 2014 by the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate (CARA) at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., cited the Diocese of Nashville as having the 8th highest rate of conversions to the Catholic Church.[18] Choby died in 2017.

The current bishop of the Diocese of Nashville is J. Mark Spalding from the Archdiocese of Louisville.

In 2003, allegations began to surface that Father Ryan High School principal Ronald Dickman had been forced to resign in 1987 due to reports of molesting two students.[19] Mark Cunningham, a local Catholic businessman, reported that he had alerted Father Giacosa in 1991 that his late brother, John Cunningham Jr., had been molested by Dickman.[20] In 1991, Dickman left the priesthood, and in 1992 was forced out of his job as executive director of Nashville's Crisis Intervention Center.[19] In taped conversations between Mark Cunningham and Nashville Diocese attorney Gino Marchetti, Marchetti refused to acknowledge that Dickman was removed from the priesthood due to the allegation of molestation but admitted: "Now you don't have to be a damn rocket scientist to figure out somebody who has been in the priesthood for, you know, whatever, 20 years - that, you know, somebody comes in August or September of '91 and then December 1, '91 he, quote, leaves the priesthood, unquote. ... I mean, like I said, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out."[20]

After Mark Cunningham released recordings of his conversations to The Tennessean, diocesan spokesperson Rick Musacchio conceded in January 2003 that

"Gino only acknowledged to Mark that a conversation between Mark and Father Giacosa took place in 1991 and that someone might draw a conclusion that there was a connection between that meeting with Giacosa and Dickman's departure from the priesthood. However, any inference that this conversation confirms an allegation of the sexual abuse of a minor is simply incorrect."[20]

David Brown, a Father Brown alumnus, came forward in 2005 after the diocese released sex abuse victims from confidentiality agreements. He alleged that biology teacher Paul Frederick Haas had molested children at Father Ryan in the 1960s . Brown had initially alerted the diocese in 1996, but officials convinced him to settle the case. Bishop Kmiec told him: "Yours is an isolated case... We don't know of any others."[21]

In 2011, Father Ryan High School was planning to name its new football stadium after former teacher Giacosa, who had bequeathed the school approximately $1 million for its construction[22] Father Ryan alumnus and local businessman Charles Coode complained to the school board of trustees about the proposal.[22] The board ultimately named the stadium after Giacosa.

In his complaint about the naming of the stadium, Coode cited an opinion of the Tennessee Supreme Court that Giacosa and Bishop Niedergeses were aware in 1986 that Edward McKeown "had sexual contact with approximately thirty boys over the past 14 years."[23] The diocese sent McKeown to in-patient treatment at the Institute of Living in Hartford, Connecticut, from October 1986-March 1987. Giacosa and Niedergeses then brought McKeown back to Nashville in the spring of 1987.

"Although the Diocese putatively forbade McKeown's access to youth, ... McKeown heard children's confessions, participated openly in various Diocesan youth activities including overnight, 'lock-ins," and spent time individually with minor boys with whom he had made contact through the Diocese... The record also indicates that Bishop Niedergeses and Father Giacosa became aware of some if not all of these activities no later than February 1989."[23]

Giacosa and Niedergeses finally took action because, according to their notes from a 1988 meeting with McKeown, they "worried about the Diocese being exposed in sensationalistic news television."[23] Giacosa's notes were labeled "'Top Secrecy' 'Could hurt your church'" and indicated that "they wanted the Diocese to avoid financial liability for his sexual misconduct."[23] Giacosa and Niedergeses finally induced McKeown to leave diocese property in 1989 after McKeown presented a boy with a condom at a Christmas party. However, the diocese continued to pay McKeown until early 1994. According to the Tennessee Supreme Court, "[i]n 1995 Bishop Kmiec, Bishop Niedergeses' successor, became aware that a parent in Knoxville alleged that McKeown had molested her son several years earlier."[23] From 1995 to 1999, McKeown sexually abused two minor boys whom he often accompanied "on the sidelines during football games at a Diocesan high school."[23] McKeown was tried and convicted in 1999 after the two boys and their parents reported the abuse to the Metropolitan Nashville Police Department. He died in prison in 2018.[24]

On February 28, 2020, the diocese released the names of 25 clergy who were accused of committing acts of sex abuse while serving in the Diocese of Nashville.[25] Many were deceased and none were still in active ministry.[25]

In July 2020, the Catholic Herald of London revealed that an adult female student at Aquinas College in Nashville claimed that Kevin McGoldrick had sexually assaulted her in 2017. She reported it in 2019. McGoldrick served as chaplain of the Dominican campus, which included Aquinas College, from 2013 to 2019.[26][27] The diocese allegedly refused to investigate the student's allegation or report it to McGoldrick's home diocese, the Archdiocese of Philadelphia.[27]

1. Richard Pius Miles (1837–1860)
2. James Whelan (1860–1864; coadjutor bishop 1859–1860)
3. Patrick Feehan (1865–1880), appointed Bishop and later Archbishop of Chicago
4. Joseph Rademacher (1883–1893), appointed Bishop of Fort Wayne
5. Thomas Sebastian Byrne (1894–1923)
6. Alphonse John Smith (1923–1935)
7. William Lawrence Adrian (1936–1969)
8. Joseph Aloysius Durick (1969–1975; coadjutor bishop 1963–1969)
9. James Daniel Niedergeses (1975–1992)
10. Edward Urban Kmiec (1992–2004), appointed Bishop of Buffalo
11. David Raymond Choby (2005–2017)
12. J. Mark Spalding (2018–present)

• Richard Scannell, appointed Bishop of Concordia in 1887 and later Bishop of Omaha
• John Baptist Morris, appointed Coadjutor Bishop (in 1906) and later Bishop of Little Rock
• John Patrick Farrelly, appointed Bishop of Cleveland in 1909
• Samuel Alphonsus Stritch, appointed Bishop of Toledo in 1921 and later Archbishop of Milwaukee, Archbishop of Chicago, and Pro-Prefect of the Sacred Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith (elevated to Cardinal in 1946)
• Fernand J. Cheri, appointed Auxiliary Bishop of New Orleans in 2015

• Father Ryan High School – Nashville
• Pope John Paul II High School – Hendersonville
• St. Cecilia Academy – Nashville

Aquinas College – Nashville (run by the Dominican Sisters of St. Cecilia)