However, some parishes outside that area have seen considerable growth in recent times due to the influx of Hispanic immigrants.

In 1859, Pope Pius IX appointed James Whelan as coadjutor bishop of the diocese to assist Miles.

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.

The next bishop of Nashville was Joseph Rademacher from the Diocese of Fort Wayne, named by Leo XIII in 1883.

After Byrne died in 1923, Pope Pius IX appointed Alphonse Smith of the Diocese of Indianapolis as the new bishop of Nashville.

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.

[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.

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[citation needed] .

[16] Twelve years later, in 2004, John Paul II named Kmiec as bishop of the Diocese of Buffalo.

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.

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.

[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.

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.

"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...

"[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] 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.

[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.