Newly named shepherd for Detroit Archdiocese feels 'blessed to be here'

DETROIT (OSV News) -- In Scripture, St. John the Baptist is described as the voice of one "crying out in the desert" to make straight the paths of the Lord.

On Feb. 11, Pope Francis called a new shepherd from the desert to serve as the sixth archbishop of the Archdiocese of Detroit, charged with a similar mission: to proclaim Jesus in all things.

The pope accepted the resignation of Archbishop Allen H. Vigneron, 76, from the pastoral governance of the archdiocese of Detroit and appointed Bishop Edward J. Weisenburger of Tucson, Arizona, as his successor.

Archbishop Vigneron has headed the Michigan archdiocese since 2009. He is one year past the age at which canon law requires bishops to submit their resignation to the pope. Archbishop Weisenburger, 64, has headed the Diocese of Tucson since 2017.

The resignation and appointment were publicized in Washington Feb. 11, by Cardinal Christophe Pierre, apostolic nuncio to the United States.

The pope's appointment of the Tucson bishop to be Detroit's next chief shepherd came as somewhat of a surprise -- even to him.

"Those who know me know that I am very, very seldom speechless," Archbishop Weisenburger said during a morning press conference Feb. 11 at Sacred Heart Major Seminary in Detroit. "But when the nuncio called me, I tried to stammer twice, and then he began laughing. As I eventually was able to talk, he said, 'Just say yes.'

"I have been doing my best now for 37 years to say 'yes,' and it's been a wonderful journey thus far, and I think it will be a wonderful journey ahead," Archbishop Weisenburger said. "This is home, and I am blessed to be here."

Archbishop Weisenburger will be installed as Detroit's archbishop during a solemn Mass at 2 p.m. March 18 at the Cathedral of the Most Blessed Sacrament in Detroit. His episcopal motto is "Behold the Lamb of God," referencing St. John the Baptist's words proclaiming Jesus' identity in John 1:29.

Until the installation, Archbishop Vigneron will serve as apostolic administrator of the archdiocese.

"It is my great honor, my blessing, to be able to welcome Archbishop Weisenburger to his new home," Archbishop Vigneron said during the livestreamed media event from Sacred Heart's Cardinal Mooney Parlor. "I'm so happy that he has agreed to come to serve this local church, especially, Archbishop, that you come in the middle of our Jubilee Year as a pilgrim of hope to help all of us on our pilgrimage of hope -- you are most welcome."

Archbishop Vigneron said the entire Archdiocese of Detroit has "been praying for you, even though we didn't know who you would be."

After opening the press conference in prayer, Archbishop Vigneron gave Archbishop Weisenburger a gift -- a Pewabic tile depicting Blessed Solanus Casey, Detroit's native saint -- on behalf of the archdiocese, saying it "is a pledge that you come to a church that has produced great holiness."

Archbishop Vigneron noted that Archbishop Weisenburger is "a son of the same church (in Oklahoma) that produced Blessed Stanley Rother, the great martyr who gave up his life in Latin America rather than desert his flock," referencing the new Detroit archbishop's time as pastor (1995 to 2002) of Holy Trinity Parish in Okarche, Oklahoma, Blessed Rother's home parish.

Archbishop Weisenburger also served as promoter of justice for Blessed Rother's canonization cause, and as pastor in Oklahoma, got to know the Rother family, including his sister, who is an Adorer of the Blood of Christ, Sister Marita Rother.

"And so we know the stuff you come from, and we're very grateful that you bring that same apostolic courage to our community," Archbishop Vigneron said.

Archbishop Weisenburger returned Archbishop Vigneron's praise, saying he's humbled to follow in the longtime Detroit archbishop's footsteps.

"I really can't say anything of credibility without beginning by saying how wonderfully this local church has been led in these years under such a faithful shepherd," Archbishop Weisenburger said.

Archbishop Weisenburger noted the Archdiocese of Detroit under Archbishop Vigneron's leadership, especially Sacred Heart Major Seminary, "seems to specialize in the new evangelization," adding, "I'm deeply, deeply committed to new forms of evangelization."

The press conference kicked off a whirlwind day of introductions and welcome for the newly named archbishop, which included a meet-and-greet with Detroit's seminarians in Sacred Heart's chapel, an introduction via Zoom with priests of the Archdiocese of Detroit, meetings with curia and archdiocesan leaders, and brief tours of the archdiocesan Chancery building and the Cathedral of the Most Blessed Sacrament.

As the sixth archbishop of Detroit, Archbishop Weisenburger will assume pastoral responsibility for more than 900,000 Catholics over 3,903 square miles in six counties of southeast Michigan. The Archdiocese of Detroit is home to 213 parishes, 81 Catholic schools, two Catholic colleges, a seminary, and countless ministries and apostolates spanning all of its six counties.

Detroit is the metropolitan see of the Catholic Church's province of Michigan, which also includes the dioceses of Lansing, Grand Rapids, Saginaw, Kalamazoo, Gaylord and Marquette.
At the press conference, Archbishop Weisenburger said that growing up, "priests were my heroes."

"Priests were friends of my family. Priests were in my home. I admired what they did, and I wanted to join them, and I never looked back," he said. "It's been a wonderful journey."

Edward Joseph Weisenburger was born Dec. 23, 1960, in Alton, Illinois, the third of four surviving children of Edward John Weisenburger and Asella (Walters) Weisenburger. He grew up primarily in Lawton, Oklahoma, living briefly in Kansas and Texas as the family moved to follow his father's military career.

After graduating from Conception Seminary College in Missouri in 1983, he was sent to study at the American College Seminary at the Catholic University of Louvain in Belgium, earning a pontifical baccalaureate of sacred theology, a master's in religious studies and a master's in moral and religious sciences. He later earned a canon law degree from the University of St. Paul in Ottawa, Ontario (1992).

Ordained a priest of the Archdiocese of Oklahoma City Dec. 19, 1987, he served as vice chancellor and adjutant judicial vicar of the archdiocese, was a pastor, including at Holy Trinity in Okarche, and served in prison ministry.

In the aftermath of the April 19, 1995, bombing of the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, he served as an on-site chaplain to first responders and rescue workers.

On Feb. 6, 2012, Pope Benedict XVI appointed then-Msgr. Weisenburger as the 11th bishop of Salina, a rural diocese of about 42,000 Catholics in central Kansas. On Oct. 3, 2017,
Pope Francis appointed him as the seventh bishop of Tucson.

Reflecting upon his experience as a priest in Oklahoma City, then as a bishop in Salina, where his mother is from and where he had lived as a child, Archbishop Weisenburger said he thought "that's where I would end my days," adding, "I own a cemetery plot there."

Getting the call to go to Tucson, however, "was just marvelous," and "seven years there have really been joyful for me."

Archbishop Weisenburger said he'll miss Tucson because of "the wonderful, wonderful people I've gotten to know there." The Spanish-speaking archbishop said the Hispanic community in Arizona "especially has lifted me up in wonderful ways."

Asked a question about the state of U.S. immigration and his message for immigrant families, Archbishop Weisenburger said the church in Tucson has managed "an immense amount" of asylum-seekers, with the government bringing "about 1,400 people per day" to the church for help.

"When you actually go and encounter these people, and you talk to them and what they've been through, (you hear about) the incredible suffering -- sometimes having witnessed murders, people desperately struggling just to keep their children alive, trying to hope for employment. ... They're struggling, and we have to be able to see Christ in those people."

While acknowledging "every nation has a right to monitor its borders" and regulate it immigration processes, he said if programs that seek to aid migrants are dismantled, "millions will starve and die, and hundreds of millions will be plunged into abject poverty in our culture."