Diocese of Knoxville bucks national trend of falling wedding numbers By Gabrielle Nolan While national marriage rates are on the decline within the United States, the Diocese of Knoxville is seeing growth that it hopes to sustain. Catholic News Agency reported in July that Georgetown University’s Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate (CARA) showed that between 1969 and 2019, Catholic marriage rates dropped by around 70 percent. The article also listed Pew Research data showing that currently in the United States, 25 percent of 40-year-olds have never been married. Within the Diocese of Knoxville, marriage rates went up by 5.68 percent from 2022 to 2023. The diocese had 264 marriages in 2022 and 279 in 2023. The Cathedral of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus in Knoxville and the Basilica of Sts. Peter and Paul in Chattanooga hosted the highest and second-highest number of weddings in the diocese, respectively.... Read more →