Installation of Archbishop Jeffrey Grob
By Judy Zunk
It was my honor to attend, along with Deacon Sandy Sites and Alicia Levin, the installation of Archbishop Jeffrey Grob on January 14 at St. John’s Cathedral. I had that “special” ticket that had me sitting in the atrium of the cathedral, not the main church. This allowed me to experience the installation from a different perspective. We watched the action on screens that were delayed from the sound, like watching a football or baseball game on TV but listening to the play-by-play on the radio. We were hearing and responding to actions that didn’t yet show up on the screen. Also, we could hear the Archbishop on his open mic, making interesting comments and yes, he did sing most of the songs.
I was impressed with the folks of the Communities of the Neocatechumenal Way who offered music and song outside of the cathedral as we entered. Most of these people joined us in the atrium at the start of the service. Also, all the priests in attendance had to line up in the atrium before entering the main church. I had an aisle seat right next to them. I said “Hi” to Fr. Peter; then had to straighten the collar of one of the Jesuit priests as he waited to move into church.
The Introductory Rites included the Presentation and Reading of the Apostolic Mandate followed by the Showing of the Apostolic Mandate. As the last shall be first, Archbishop Grob came to the atrium first to show the mandate document to us, before those in the main church. As he was processing around the room, in the back row corner behind me, Archbishop Grob bent low to one of the young kids from the music group who was on the aisle. The boy pointed at and touched the document as if to approve. It was such a touching moment that 99% of the people in the room did not see, nor did anyone in the main church. But I did. This totally impressed me. Archbishop Grob showed me his willingness to meet people, big and small, where they are and not pass them by.
While attending the reception at the Pfister Hotel, Alicia and I were chatting when the Archbishop came down the hall to enter the room. Was it really him? Yes, it was. Without hesitation, we extended our hand to greet him and welcome him back to Wisconsin and Milwaukee. He was very gracious but his “handler” asked us if he could move on. We realized the Archbishop was headed to his designated receiving line. Lucky us, we did our meet-and-greet without having to stand in line!
