Chicagoan is Names New Bishop of La Crosse

The new bishop of the Diocese of La Crosse grew up on the southeast side of Chicago in a Polish-Hispanic neighborhood and worked for a time in the steel mills there. Bishop-elect Jerome E. Listecki, whose appointment was announced Wednesday morning, described his background as that of "a neighborhood kid" growing up in a working-class Roman Catholic community where his mother was a homemaker and his father was a city bus driver, who before that owned a neighborhood tavern. Both parents are deceased.

"It is an honor following Archbishop Raymond L. Burke, a person I consider a friend and a bishop that I respect and admire," said Listecki, who studied church canon law at the same university and lived in the same housing complex in Rome as Burke in early 1980s.

[Archbishop] Burke also issued a formal statement later in the day Wednesday in which he expressed "profound joy" at Listecki's appointment. "Knowing well Bishop Listecki's outstanding spiritual gifts and his excellent preparation by both education and experience, I also know that he will serve the faithful of the Diocese of La Crosse with tireless devotion and great distinction," Burke said.

Listecki, who retired as a lieutenant colonel on Sept. 30 after 23 years in the Army Reserve...

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