MILWAUKEE (WI)
Journal Sentinel [Milwaukee WI]
October 2, 2025
By Sophie Carson
In a wide-ranging panel interview, Milwaukee Archbishop Jeffrey Grob said he doubted he would go along with Cardinal Timothy Dolan’s characterization of Charlie Kirk as a modern-day saint, and said he has discussed the possibility of removing the Sunday Mass obligation for immigrants afraid of federal arrests.
Grob also said he doesn’t “have any fear of” ordaining women as priests or deacons but said he must work within the current rules of the Catholic Church, so he would not be taking that step.
At the Milwaukee Press Club’s Newsmaker Luncheon Oct. 2, Grob, now eight months into his tenure as archbishop, reflected on questions from reporters in a contemplative way. He often answered with open-ended inquiries of his own. He urged more dialogue, criticized division and said he knew he had to wade into the political fray because of the times we live in, but wished it wasn’t necessary.
“I have no desire to be political, but I’m thrust into a world where I have to be political. My politics is Jesus Christ,” Grob said. “I was very content being a parish priest.”
Since becoming archbishop in January, he has emphasized listening, reaching across divides and connecting with the broader community. He echoed that again on the panel.
“Divisions are not born of God, and so how do we build bridges?” Grob said. “We’ve got to break down the barriers, we’ve got to break down the silos. We’re so much stronger when we work together.”
Grob said he has been making an effort to visit as many parishes and schools across the archdiocese as possible to lend his support and learn more about them.
“If I’m truly going to be the shepherd of (the archdiocese), I have to know it, and not just simply be a museum piece that they keep shelved in the chancery office and dust off periodically and bring out,” he said. “I want to go to the edges of the archdiocese.”
Here are a few more takeaways from Grob’s comments.
On immigration operations and faith communities’ fears
Grob was asked about other Catholic bishops’ criticism of the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown and the impact on immigrant parishioners and families.
“Things have continued to deteriorate,” he said, since the Wisconsin bishops put out a letter in February urging humane immigration policy.
He said some south side pastors have raised with him the possibility of suspending the obligation for Sunday Mass to alleviate fears of immigration operations at their churches. It’s a “discussion point” and not a done deal, and they will wait to see whether the situation escalates, he said.
There’s a “fine line you’re dancing between” understanding the government has the right to defend its laws along with a core Catholic belief in the dignity of the human person, he said.
On speaking out on political issues, current events
In August, one of Grob’s weekly email newsletters referenced starvation in Gaza, Alligator Alcatraz, bigotry, abortion and other issues. He wrote, “I ponder my own complicity at times for not speaking out more strongly and boldly in the face of the advancing darkness.”
Grob said he has been “bombarded” by opinions from community members, some saying he’s going too far, some saying he’s not going far enough. Some said, “How dare you attack the president,” and others said his comments upset them, Grob said.
“It’s the climate in which we’re living. But the fact of the matter is, what are we doing tangibly to help real lives — people — so that they maintain their dignity as human beings?” he said.
Grob said he hopes to invite people to think more deeply about issues, which he’s also trying to do. “Subtlety is lost on a lot of people,” he said, and people can misunderstand what he’s trying to say.
Grob said he doesn’t have all the answers, but he is obliged to tell the truth in his role. He also believes that he’s accountable to God at the end of his life and not to those who offer their commentary.
On transparency around clergy sex abuse
Grob, who was an auxiliary bishop in Chicago, said he served on a diocesan board reviewing sexual abuse claims for 15 years and saw “things that would turn a lot of people’s stomachs.”
“Shame on” those who perpetrated and covered up abuse, he said. He also said the archdiocese needs to continually review its policies and systems to prevent clergy abuse, and can’t be lax.
“We can never become complicit. We can never become anything other than vigilant,” he said.
Grob was asked whether he would consider adding religious order priests — who answer to organizations unaffiliated with the archdiocese — to the archdiocese’s list of restricted priests credibly accused of abuse, as advocates long have urged. He said he told Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul, who has led a statewide clergy abuse investigation, that he does not want to attach his name to reviews from religious orders he had no part in doing because the archdiocese cannot verify the religious orders’ processes.
“In good conscience, we could put links on our website to those religious orders,” he said. However, “I’m not that foolish to speak to someone else’s process.”
On the role of women in the church
On his views on women taking on leadership roles in the church, Grob said he recently hired Sister Diana De Bruin, of the Sisters of St. Francis of Assisi in Milwaukee, to be the “vicar for religious” in the archdiocese, a high-up position.
Asked whether he favors ordaining women as priests and deacons, he replied, “I don’t have any fear of it.”
“I see the role of women as integral in the life of the local church,” he said.
He said he is looking at roles where he can place women, use their skills and “create balance.”
“I have to work within the current structure. I don’t think as archbishop I’ll want to start ordaining women priests or deacons because it’ll be a real short tenure,” he said.
More: Pope Francis dies at 88: Wisconsin bishops, Catholic leaders talk about his humility
On the ‘pendulum’ of Catholicism
A reporter asked Grob if he agreed with the assessment of Kirk from Dolan, the former Milwaukee archbishop, as a “modern-day St. Paul” and a hero.
Grob replied: “Charlie Kirk was a human person, was a husband, had a wife and child. Did not deserve, like anyone, to end like that. I don’t know if I would compare him to a modern day St. Paul.”
He also offered a middle-of-the-road perspective on the trend of younger Catholics generally adopting more traditional or conservative practices, such as Latin Mass, compared to older generations.
“The pendulum never stays long in the center,” he said. “It swings from one side to another.”
He added that it was important to bring old and new ideas together, and the church will survive each iteration. On Latin Mass and incense, he said, “Again, things I’m not afraid of. But we’re not only that.”
The pendulum has swung in the past, he noted, such as from the conservative 1950s to the liberalizing movement of the Second Vatican Council in the 1960s.
“We’re always living in those tensions. The fact of the matter is that we don’t lose center, which is Jesus Christ,” he said.
Sophie Carson is a general assignment reporter who reports on religion and faith, immigrants and refugees and more. Contact her at scarson@gannett.com or 920-323-5758.