August 31st, 2026 (Continued): “Yeah. What's your journey to the priesthood? How did you know you wanted to be a priest? And like, also, what's your journey to becoming an archbishop? And how did you know that was the right path? - Hannah
“That was the And I rarely, I rarely tell my vocation story. And when I say that, I rarely tell it because whether you're talking to members of the family or people in the neighborhood that I was born and raised, I wanted to be a priest since I was either two and a half or three, depending upon who you want to talk to. You know, and I've never wanted to be anything else. My mother would like to be a doctor. My father would want me to be a lawyer. Well, I did become a lawyer, you know, but I was a priesthood, and with my mother, it was a year after I was ordained, I was looking at the Fifth Pathway, and I did studies in organic chemistry, thinking that maybe I would do the trifold thing, you know, do the three things. But it was never wavered in my mind about being a priest. It was always a priest, always a priest. And the reason I don't say that is because my classmate, I'm ordained with 38 others for Chicago. There were 38 in my class. There was a guy who was on a fast track in General Electric, GE, not GM, GE. He was on a fast track for GE. He was seven months away from being married, gives it up, goes into the seminary, and basically gets ordained a priest. I know, I know, you're looking at it. So individuals, you're saying that individuals, I don't want somebody scratching their head and saying, well, I didn't, two and a half or three, I didn't, I wasn't thinking about that. So I'm very cautious about saying that. As far as everything else, everything else is a, is basically a, is whether individuals kind of take a look at you. There's no, you can't try to politicize and try to get votes or something to be a bishop type of thing. Someone takes a look at you, thinks that you would be worthy or somebody that would be a job. When I, when I was named a bishop, I was named First Auxiliary Bishop in Chicago under Francis George. The Cardinal didn't even know that I was being named. The Cardinal, he got a call, I got called in. He said, you know, I, I thought he was getting called in because, you know, I, I had the in-house counsel and I, Canon law, so I thought he was asking me for some type of advice on something. Calls me in and he says, Jerry, he said, I said: ‘What?’ Tell me, you know, I'm, I'm beside myself. Kind of tell me what? He said, Jerry, the Holy See called this morning, you've been named a bishop. So, you know, and so I served, I served for four years in Chicago. And after that, I served as the Bishop of La Crosse. And that was also kind of strange. They just, they decided immediately to, that I would replace, I joke about this. I replaced, basically, Ray Burke, who was the former thing. Bishop Burke is now Cardinal Burke, and a good friend of mine is Cardinal Burke. And then, and then I left from La Crosse to Milwaukee and I replaced Dolan. It's Cardinal Dolan. So, if you want to be a Cardinal in the church, ask the church to have me replace you. So that all of a sudden you're immediately, you didn't have to be a Cardinal. But you, you, you don't know. In fact, it came, even, even the Milwaukee thing became, was kind of a, I was not in the running. Nobody had me listed as, you know, these people who are supposedly in the know-it-all, you know, they have this. There was a, there was a group, the nunciator, when he called me up, he told me, I said: ‘You know, I'm very happy in La Crosse. I'm sure you'll have a lot of other candidates.’ And the response was: ‘Bishop Listecki,’ I said: ‘Yes?’ And he said: ‘the Holy Father has made his decision. You are now the Archbishop of Milwaukee.’ I said: ‘Okay, I'm the Archbishop of Milwaukee.’ So, so you, it comes, it comes about as a, basically as a surprise. I'm sure there are individuals who take a look at you and kind of say, yeah, you know, you'd be a good candidate and kind of throw you out. But, but, but honestly, I tell you, the big thing is just, and I tell this to my priests, don't worry about looking at, you know, your next assignment or something. Just be a good priest. Just be a good, be a good priest and God will take care of the rest. God will take care of the rest. You know, gotta have a lot, that's what faith gives you, a lot of trust, trust in God. Anything else from anybody? Yes!” - Archbishop Emeritus
“Do you still do the camo vestments? Do you have any camouflaged vestments?” - Catejean
“I do, yeah, I do have. So you know, it's always interesting.
It was always interesting, you know, to do it. What I would do is, when I'd be out there, holy God, We Praise Thy name was at least a song that everybody knew. So that was one that we would always, always do.
And of course, you can imagine these guys being out in the field, you know, and imagine you know, 30 or 40 guys trying to sing: ‘Holy God, we praise thy name." You know, at the end of it, I' my remark was always, well, you're not the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. Although later, in around 2016, I did direct the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. I was invited to do that, so I actually the Milwaukee Theater I did I was able to do that.
Any other questions, you know? Yes.” - Archbishop Emeritus
“What is your favorite hat? What? Favorite hat.” - Cringey girl.
“My favorite hat?” - Archbishop Emeritus
“Yes. In general.” - Cringey girl.
“My favorite hat in general, you, you know, strangely enough, I, in my life I never wore hats, but then, but I, but I, you know, you, you put the zucchetto on, so you got, that's that little, that little red, or whatever, I guess fuchsia or whatever they call that, you know, the color, you know, that red, that red color. And then of course there's the mitre, you know, that you wear, so you've got, you know, basically got the mitre. And then one that's not used very often, but, but I have this kind of beretta, you know, and it's got, and if you, you take a look, it's got corners. And if you're a doctor, I'm a doctor in the church, so I have four corners to it, plus the little ball in the middle. But most priests can wear just a beretta if they want, but nobody wears those, those things basically any longer. But my favorite hat is a stocking cap in a winter. I like, I like that. And I, I've got, I got my coat of arms on there too, so I got that one. So, that was an interesting question, yes.” - Archbishop Emeritus
“What do you miss most about Chicago?” - Guy
“I'm sorry?” - Archbishop Emeritus
“What do you miss most about Chicago?” - Girl closer to stage
“What do I miss most about Chicago? Well, you know, I, 54 years of my life was Chicago, so, and I'm a South Sider, no side but the South Side, so basically a South Sider. You know, I, you know, my, my sense is, you know, I, for my First Holy Communion, I only wanted one gift. Now, I told you I wanted to be a priest from the time I was two and a half to three. So, for my First Holy Communion, they said, well, what do you want for your First Holy Communion? You would think I would say a crucifix, a Bible, you know, rosary. There was only one gift that I wanted, and that was an autographed baseball by my favorite White Sox player, Minnie Miñoso. And I, and I got it. I got it. My uncle, my uncle was a police officer, a desk sergeant in Chicago, and one of his friends worked the dugout, and he got, he was able to get me Minnie's, Minnie's. But, but I, Chicago, Chicago will always be a special place in my heart because of the, because I was a boy growing up, you know, I did. I worked on the southeast side, so I tell you right now, if you, if you kind of think that it was, it was easy. I worked my, my high school years in the steel mills. So, I literally worked, I literally worked in the blast furnaces as a laborer, in the blast furnaces. So, so, and, and I was very grateful to God for the, for that experience because it was, taught me about, showed me a lot of the, the great, great dedication, great work that people had in order to support their families and stuff. So, certainly not, certainly, I can tell you, blast furnaces, not, not easy work. Dirty, hot, you know, so, but, but, so, the thoughts of Chicago always, you know, always, you know, great, great experiences, and obviously seminary years growing up..." - Archbishop Emeritus
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