died from yellow fever on Sept. 28, 1878 at the age of 33. Father Ryan is described by an eyewitness as "going from house to house in the worst-infected section of the city to find what he could do for the sick and needy." In 2016, the Diocese began a cause of canonization of Father Ryan. In 2021, his remains were transferred from Mount Olivet Cemetery to Saints Peter and Paul Basilica. Sexual abuse cases On April 16, 2010, Bishop Richard Stika of the Diocese revoked the ministerial privileges of William Casey, a priest who formerly served in the diocese. Casey had been accused of rape and sexual abuse by a young altar boy. When confronted, Casey admitted his crimes to Stika and other diocesan officials. Casey was convicted in July 2011 of first-degree sexual misconduct and two counts of aggravated rape and sentenced to prison. The Vatican laicized Casey on January 10, 2013. On January 1, 2020, the Diocese settled a sex abuse lawsuit involving a man who claimed two priests in the Diocese sexually abused him as a child in the 1990s. Those accused were Monsignor Francis Xavier Mankel and the Diocese of Knoxville's first Bishop Anthony O'Connell; O'Connell previously confessed in 2002 to committing acts of sex abuse before he joined the Diocese of Knoxville as well. The terms of the settlement were not disclosed. Originally filed in the Knox County Circuit Court, both parties involved in the lawsuit agreed to instead settle the lawsuit out of court. Despite denying any wrongdoing concerning the two accused priests, who are both dead, the Diocese agreed to settle due to the financial burden which would have grown by continuing the lawsuit. In February 2021, a lawsuit filed against both Stika and the Diocese of Knoxville alleged that Wojciech Sobczuk, a Polish seminarian who Stika had invited to study to become a priest in the diocese, raped and sexually harassed an organist employed by Sacred Heart Cathedral. Prior to becoming a seminarian, Sobczuk had been dismissed from the Jesuits after accusations of sexual misconduct at SS. Cyril and Methodius Seminary. Shortly following the alleged rape, Sobczuk moved into the bishop's rectory and was sent to St. Meinrad Seminary, being dismissed after multiple other allegations of sexual misconduct there. He remained classified as a seminarian of the diocese, which could be construed as immigration fraud, and returned to living in the