Bishops Jeffrey R. Haines (left) and James T. Schuerman are looking forward to welcoming Archbishop-Designate Jeffrey S. Grob to Milwaukee. (File photo)

On the day Bishop Jeffrey S. Grob was announced as the next Archbishop of Milwaukee, he approached Auxiliary Bishop Jeffrey R. Haines and asked him if it was OK that there was going to be another Bishop Jeff.

Bishop Haines told him, “you can never have too many.”

However, Bishop Haines then went on to “threaten” Milwaukee’s next shepherd by saying, “Having the same name, I may just forward all the calls to you.”

Bishop Grob’s demeanor and the sense Bishop Haines and Bishop James T. Schuerman have gotten from him in limited interactions have already made the two auxiliary bishops feel at ease. Bishop Grob, an auxiliary bishop for the Archdiocese of Chicago, will be installed Jan. 14 as the 12th Archbishop of Milwaukee.

“I’m very pleased, just given the quality of this person,” Bishop Schuerman said. “I couldn’t have thought of a better choice for us. It was really, I think, a godsend.”

Bishop Haines concurred.

“As far as the way he carries himself, the kind of priest he is, I think (the people of the archdiocese) are going to find a guy who has really wonderful human qualities — that he doesn’t look at himself as a prince of the Church,” Bishop Haines said. “He very much he sees himself as someone who is there to serve. I think people are going to know that right away, and they’re also going to know his desire to get to know people and care for them.”

Bishops Haines and Schuerman had gotten to know Archbishop-Designate Grob on a limited basis through regional bishops’ meetings and bumping into him at United States Conference of Catholic Bishops conferences, but they weren’t extremely familiar with the man from Cross Plains who was ordained an auxiliary bishop in Chicago in 2020.

At the most recent USCCB conference in Baltimore in November, Bishops Haines and Schuerman heard a number of ringing endorsements of Pope Francis’ choice to lead the 10-county region of southeastern Wisconsin.

“I can’t tell you how many bishops came up to Jim and I and said how fortunate we were to get him,” Bishop Haines said. “When people are going out of their way to say, ‘You are really blessed,’ that made us all feel pretty good.”

Bishop Schuerman admitted to the Catholic Herald that he heard Bishop Grob’s name bandied about speculatively between March, when Archbishop Jerome E. Listecki handed in his retirement papers, and November, when the announcement was made. However, he had also forgotten about that when the announcement was made.

“He’s the sort of person I’ve always felt at ease around,” Bishop Schuerman said. “When he began to speak of synodality as his approach, I thought, ‘That’s perfect.’ It really is. He’s going to be a good fit because he’ll listen, he’ll try and incorporate what the people have to say.”

Added Bishop Haines, “I was just so happy it was someone we knew. I didn’t even know he was from Wisconsin originally. So when he started talking about growing up, about Madison and how they would come down to Milwaukee to see the Brewers, I thought, ‘Well, this is great.’”

Bishop Haines was also impressed that it appeared Bishop Grob had done some homework on the archdiocese before meeting with key stakeholders in the past two months.

Unlike in 2009, when Archbishop Listecki was named as archbishop, the Archdiocese of Milwaukee doesn’t have the cloud of potential bankruptcy looming over it in the wake the clergy abuse scandal.

Bishop Grob, on the other hand, will enter the Archdiocese of Milwaukee at a time of spiritual rebirth for the Church, both locally and globally.

“We’re seeing some real signs of life that came along after (the bankruptcy process),” Bishop Schuerman said. “We have the seminary that’s bulging, and they don’t have room for everybody, which is a great sign. We have really active groups of people throughout the archdiocese — prayer groups, apostolic groups and all kinds of things going on. I think, right now, to have someone who is really grounded spiritually, is a real boon; it’s going to help the archdiocese to grow.”