Biography
Jerome Listecki was born in Chicago and raised on the Southeast Side. His father (d. 1986) owned a tavern before working as a bus driver for the Chicago Transit Authority. Jerome received his early education at the parochial school of St. Michael the Archangel Church before attending Quigley Preparatory Seminary South, from where he graduated in 1967. He earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from Saint Joseph College Seminary in 1971, and completed his theological studies at St. Mary of the Lake Seminary (in Mundelein, Illinois). During his summers as a seminarian, he worked in a blast furnace centering plant in the US Steel mills near Chicago. He was ordained to the priesthood by Cardinal John Cody on May 14, 1975.
After studies in canon law and moral theology in Rome, Listecki earned a licentiate and doctorate in canon law from the Angelicum. He previously earned a Juris Doctor degree from DePaul University, making him the holder of degrees utriusque juris as Doctor of Canon and Civil Law. During his service to the Archdiocese of Chicago, he taught at both Quigley Preparatory Seminary North (later Archbishop Quigley Preparatory Seminary) and St. Mary of the Lake Seminary, served in a number of Chicago parishes and as pastor of St. Ignatius Church, worked within the Archdiocesan Chancery as an Appellate Judge for the Matrimonial Tribunal and separately as in-house legal counsel for the Archdiocese of Chicago from 1985–87, and served as the chaplain to the Catholic Physicians' Guild of Chicago.
His media experience included co-hosting the Chicago radio station WIND program "Catholic Conversation" from 1978–79, his regular participation as celebrant for the WGN TV "Mass for Shut-ins", as well as service as a producer for several other television programs. On November 7, 2000, he was appointed auxiliary bishop for the Archdiocese of Chicago by Pope John Paul II; he was consecrated on January 8, 2001.
On December 29, 2004, Listecki was appointed Bishop of the Diocese of La Crosse, succeeding Bishop Raymond Leo Burke, who became archbishop of the Archdiocese of St. Louis, Missouri in St. Louis, Missouri. On March 1, 2005, he was installed as Bishop of the Diocese of La Crosse.
At La Crosse he initiated a $50 million fundraising campaign, a planning process to restructure ministry and parishes in the diocese, and was instrumental in the development of the Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe, a project initiated by his predecessor, Bishop Burke. On January 3, 2010, Listecki was installed as Archbishop of Milwaukee and on January 12, 2010 he testified before the Wisconsin State Senate opposing a bill to remove time limits on sex abuse cases, claiming the bill was designed to bankrupt the church.
Listecki served as an Army Reserve Chaplain in the United States Army Reserves for 20 years, retiring as a Lieutenant Colonel.
Read more about this topic: Jerome Edward Listecki
Famous quotes containing the word biography:
“The death of Irving, which at any other time would have attracted universal attention, having occurred while these things were transpiring, went almost unobserved. I shall have to read of it in the biography of authors.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Just how difficult it is to write biography can be reckoned by anybody who sits down and considers just how many people know the real truth about his or her love affairs.”
—Rebecca West (1892–1983)
“A great biography should, like the close of a great drama, leave behind it a feeling of serenity. We collect into a small bunch the flowers, the few flowers, which brought sweetness into a life, and present it as an offering to an accomplished destiny. It is the dying refrain of a completed song, the final verse of a finished poem.”
—André Maurois (1885–1967)