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NEW BISHOP OPENS DOOR TO DIALOGUE
Marshfield News-Herald
The successor to the Most Rev. Raymond Burke, who grew up in Stratford and was bishop of the diocese of La Crosse before moving on to the archdiocese of St. Louis, is cut from the same cloth.
Similar to Burke, Listecki came from average origins, as the son of a steelworker on Chicago’s blue collar southeast side.
Like Burke, Bishop Jerome Listecki spent time in Rome, where he caught the pontiff’s eye. Both are respected scholars.
A civil and canon lawyer, Bishop Listecki is a member of the Illinois Bar Association, the Chicago Bar Association, the Catholic Theological Society of America, the Canon Law Society and the Catholic Scholars of America. He was a professor of moral theology and canon law at St. Mary of the Lake Seminary.
But unlike Burke, Listecki has a background as a pastor.
And that experience, more than anything else, heartens area priests, who at times chafed under Burke. They felt he sometimes lacked the understanding that comes of day-to-day contact with parishioners and administering a local church.
Listecki was close to his parishes and people, those who knew him well in Illinois say. “He comes here every year on Christmas Eve to say the first Mass,” said the Rev. Farrell Kane, associate pastor of St. Paul the Apostle Parish in Gurnee, Ill., which lies in Listecki’s former vicarate. After Mass, Listecki hung around to chat and meet new parishioners, Kane said.
Burke was both adored and controversial. A short time after learning he’d be sent to St. Louis, Burke directed La Crosse diocese priests to refuse communion to Catholic politicians who support abortion.
Among those who drew his ire were U.S. Rep. Dave Obey, a Wausau Democrat.
The Catholic bishops’ position on withholding communion to members whose political positions differ from their church’s teachings also became an issue in the U.S. presidential election. Democratic Party candidate John Kerry is Catholic. While at La Crosse, Burke also ordered Catholic parishes to withdraw from the ecumenical CROP Walk for Hunger. He said the Church World Service, its sponsor, wouldn’t guarantee funds wouldn’t help pay for birth control in the Third World.
And he warned a church-based AIDS ministry against taking part in an annual AIDS fund-raiser, contending that some groups in the march promoted homosexuality.
His strong positions aligned Burke with the Holy Father but alienated some parishioners, while distancing the diocese from some other Christian denominations in central Wisconsin.
That’s the environment into which Listecki has been thrust as the ninth bishop of the diocese.
Those who opposed Burke’s statements on communion for Catholics whose politics are out of step with Rome, his ban on CROP Walk participation and his position on homosexuality are unlikely to find greater comfort in Listecki.
The church’s teachings haven’t changed, after all.
There is a chance now, however, for Listecki to initiate a more constructive discussion between Catholics and other believers about the core issues that led to Burke’s strong stances that, however principled and proper according to Catholic theology, were poorly explained and received.
An examination of the reasons why the church would restrict access to a sacrament or not want to be associated even tangentially with birth control or homosexuality would clarify those areas for Catholics and non-Catholics alike.
In so doing, people of all faiths would be able to affirm their beliefs on the basis of a thoughtful elucidation of their churches’ theology.
It’s a shallow understanding of bedrock principles that leads to some worshippers’ disenchantment when a Bishop Burke bursts upon the scene. A deeper knowledge may well lead to a stronger commitment and more fulfilling religious life.
That alone would justify such an endeavor.
We welcome Bishop Listecki to the diocese of La Crosse and look forward to his full participation in this effort.