Did you ever notice that when a police officer tucks themselves behind you, whether you were speeding or not, you get a sinking feeling in your gut? Well, the same happens when you look down at your ringing cell phone and see the name of the pope’s ambassador, Cardinal Pierre. You know — whether you were speeding or not — that he didn’t call to find out about the offensive punch of the Green Bay Packers in the coming year. He said very congenially that the Holy Father, Pope Francis, had named me the new bishop of La Crosse. I acknowledged that I was on the other end of the line, stunned though I was, but mainly just listened. After he explained why he was calling, he asked the all-important question, which my silence did not adequately answer: “Do you accept?”
Of course, I accept. Once the numbness sufficiently cleared, I realized that Jesus, in the person of the papal nuncio, was asking me this question. Do I accept? Gladly, prayerfully, trepidatiously and with ardent desire. I come as a successor of the apostles, the eleventh of my kind, as a priest and a pilgrim, a teacher and a student, as one who seeks Christ, has found Christ and desires, together with you, the good priests, deacons, religious and people of La Crosse, to be entirely His.
I pray and know that I will find Jesus in La Crosse. I pray I will bring Jesus to La Crosse in my flesh and receive Him in yours. I pray that together we will proclaim Him in season and out as Lord, asking as one voice that the Holy Spirit may establish us more deeply in the Son and that the Holy Family will continue to be the pattern for our family in the Church of La Crosse.
This special issue introducing me to you will tell part of my story, though even the most thorough exposé can only scratch the surface. It is our lives together that will tell the story because my biography is not complete until it contains you and the graced time I will spend as your shepherd, as your priest.
Growing up in the city of Detroit, my life was bookended by our parish, St. Benedict’s, and our home. We were one of the lucky ones. My dad’s parents lived with us, and their influence on us was enormous. We are of Irish extraction, and my grandmother would regale us with stories of the “auld sod,” where, according to my grandma, the pigs were pink, the sheep white as the clouds and the girls all virtuous. The singular feature of our home was laughter. I want to tell you it was always reverent, but I don’t want to start our relationship with even a hint of mendacity. We laughed a lot; even the tragedies often had, if you looked hard enough, something risible about them. Of my eight siblings, I am the least comedic, but outside of the family, some think I am not without a degree of humorous irony.
I look forward to getting to know you and your story, desiring with all my heart to grow in union with you in the Sacred Heart of Jesus, the Immaculate Heart of Mary and the chaste heart of Good St. Joseph. On my coat of arms is the phrase from St. John’s Gospel In Sinu Patris, “in the embrace of the Father.”
In the embrace of the Father is where we all must abide and abide forever. May God bless and keep you!
It is our lives together that will tell the story because my biography is not complete until it contains you and the graced time I will spend as your shepherd, as your priest.”
As St. Peter said to Jesus on the Mount of Transfiguration, ‘Lord, it is good that we are here.’ I am grateful to God for bringing us together on this day in this magnificent cathedral under the patronage of St. Joseph. I’m grateful to you for joining with me in order that we might manifest the church and, in doing so, we worship and are changed. We are formed and we are sent by Christ.”
Story by Most Reverend Gerard W. Battersby