Retired military chaplain, Bishop of La Crosse is new Archbishop of Milwaukee

Milwaukee, Wis., Nov 14, 2009 / 10:28 am

The Most Rev. Jerome E. Listecki, until now Bishop of La Crosse and a retired Lieutenant Colonel in the United States Army, has been appointed by Pope Benedict XVI to succeed the Most Rev. Timothy Dolan as the new Archbishop of Milwaukee.

“I am humbled by my selection as the Archbishop of Milwaukee. I will do my best to fulfill the confidence His Holiness Benedict XVI has placed in me," said the Archbishop-elect in a statement.

Jerome Listecki was born March 12, 1949 in Chicago. He attended St. Michael the Archangel Grammar School, Quigley Preparatory Seminary, South High School and Niles College of Loyola University. He began his graduate studies at the University of St. Mary of the Lake, Mundelein Seminary in 1971 and was ordained a priest on May 14, 1975.

His first assignment as a priest was at St. Margaret Mary Parish in Chicago from 1975-1976.

He began his graduate studies in Canon Law and Moral Theology in 1979 at the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas in Rome, Italy earning a licentiate and doctorate degree. In 1976 he earned a civil law degree from DePaul University in Chicago.

Upon returning from Rome, he began teaching Canon Law and Moral Theology at the Archdiocesan major seminary, the University of St. Mary of the Lake in Mundelein, Illinois.

On November 7, 2000 he was appointed Auxiliary Bishop of Chicago by Pope John Paul II and was ordained a bishop on January 8, 2001.

Bishop Listecki is a member of numerous boards and committees, including the National Catholic Bioethics Committee  in Boston, Massachusetts.

On March 1, 2005, he was installed as the Ninth Bishop of the Diocese of La Crosse. He succeeded Raymond L. Burke, currently Prefect of the Apostolic Signature at the Vatican.

Bishop Listecki led the Diocese of La Crosse with various initiatives including a successful $50 million dollar capital campaign, the individual incorporation and computerization of all 165 parishes of the diocese and the formulation of a diocese-wide pastoral plan. He helped raise over a half-million dollars in Gulf Coast flood relief and assisted in relief efforts for local floods. 

During his tenure as bishop, fifteen priests were ordained for the Diocese of La Crosse, with six ordinations in 2009 alone. Twenty-six women from the diocese entered consecrated religious life.

In his statement, the Archbishop-elect said that "the priests, religious, deacons, curial staff and lay faithful of the Diocese of La Crosse have made me a better man, a more faithful priest and hopefully a good bishop."