Most Rev. Jerome E. Listecki was born March 12, 1949.  He attended St. Michael the Archangel Grammar School, Quigley Preparatory Seminary South High School and Niles College of Loyola University.  He began his graduate studies at the University of St. Mary of the Lake, Mundelein Seminary in 1971 and was ordained a priest on May 14, 1975. On November 7, 2000 he was appointed Auxiliary Bishop of Chicago by Pope John Paul II and was ordained a bishop on January 8, 2001.

Bishop Listecki was first assigned as a deacon at St. Michael Parish in Orland Park from 1974-1975.  His first assignment as a priest was at St. Margaret Mary Parish in Chicago from 1975-1976.  In 1976 he was appointed Dean of Students at Quigley Preparatory Seminary North in Chicago.  Also in 1976 he was assigned to Mater Christi Parish in North Riverside.

He began his graduate studies in Canon Law and Moral Theology in 1979 at the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas in Rome, Italy earning a licentiate and doctorate degree.  In 1976 he earned a civil law degree from DePaul University in Chicago.

Upon returning from Rome he began teaching Canon Law and Moral Theology at the Archdiocesan major seminary, the University of St. Mary of the Lake in Mundelein, Illinois.  He taught at Mundelein Seminary until being named pastor of St. Ignatius Parish in August, 2000.  On November 7, 2000 he was appointed as Auxiliary Bishop of Chicago by Pope John Paul II and was ordained a bishop on January 8, 2001.  In January, 2002 Bishop Listecki was named the Episcopal Bishop of Vicariate I of the Archdiocese of Chicago.

In addition to his duties as Auxiliary Bishop and Vicar for Vicariate 1, he is also a retired Lieutenant Colonel in the United States Army Reserves, still supporting the local troops.

Bishop Listecki is a member of numerous boards and committees.  He has also been involved in many different projects including an Appellate Judge for the Matrimonial Tribunal, in-house legal counsel for the Archdiocese of Chicago form 1985-1987, being a host for WIND Catholic Conversation from 1978-1979, a celebrant for WGN Mass for Shut-ins and being a producer for several television programs.  Bishop Listecki's sister, Mary (Penny) resides in the south suburbs of Chicago.

Bishop Listecki was installed as Ninth Bishop of La Crosse in the Year of the Eucharist, Tuesday, March  1, 2005, succeeding the Most Reverend Raymond L. Burke who was installed Archbishop of St. Louis in January 2004.

Father Michael Gorman has served as rector of the Cathedral since August 1, 2003.  He was born in Richland Center, Wisconsin, and grew up on a dairy farm in Richland County.  Father Gorman attended Akan Central Elementary School, Richland Center High School, Saint Francis de Sales Seminary College in Milwaukee and the Saint Paul Seminary in Saint Paul.  He was ordained a priest on May 17, 1980, here at the Cathedral.

Father Gorman served briefly at St. John the Baptist Parish in Marshfield before being appointed associate pastor of Blessed Sacrament Parish in La Crosse.   During these four years he served as chaplain of the Gateway Area Council of the Boy Scouts and the Riverland Council of the Girl Scouts.  In 1984 he was sent to study canon law at the Gregorian University in Rome, and was awarded a licentiate in canon law from the University in 1986 and a diploma from the University’s Superior School of Latin Literature.  That year he returned to La Crosse to serve in the Diocesan Matrimonial Tribunal and as Bishop’s Secretary and Master of Ceremonies.  He also served as chaplain at the Aquinas Convent until 1989.  For 15 years he held various offices in the Diocesan Curia including Chancellor, Director of Catholic Cemeteries, Moderator of the Curia, Acting Director of the Office of Sacred Worship and Moderator of the Fifth Diocesan Synod.  For a few months in 1984 he served as parochial administrator of Saint Leo the Great Parish in West Salem and Saint Mary Parish in Bangor.  From 1989 until 2001 he regularly assisted with Masses at the Cathedral.  He has served as the Latin teacher at Aquinas High School since 1995.

In 2001 Father Gorman was appointed pastor of Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary Parish in Viroqua and served briefly as dean of the Richland Center Deanery.  Since being appointed Cathedral rector in 2003, he has also served as chaplain of Knights of Columbus Council 839 since 2004 and Dean of the La Crosse Deanery since 2005.

Father Todd Mlsna was born on April 8, 1968 in Viroqua, Wisconsin to Allen and Bonnie Mlsna; the oldest of three children.  Greg is second oldest and lives in Spencer; a father of five.  Kristina has two children and lives in Oxford.  He is very close to his family whom he love very much. 

He was born two months premature, and as a result has only partial eyesight.  Out of his left eye he can only see light and a dark, and his right eye can see clearly 12 feet away.  Father is legally blind yet successfully completed seminary studies to become a priest of the diocese.

Father Mlsna first attended Wisconsin School for the Visually Handicapped in Janesville and finished his schooling at Sparta High School.  He went on to receive his undergraduate degree from St. Mary's University in Winona, Minnesota, and completed his studies at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul Seminary School of Divinity where he received his Master of Divinity (M. Div.).  He was ordained to the priesthood on November 7, 1998 by then Bishop Burke.

Father Mlsna has been assigned to St. John the Baptist in Marshfield, Christ the King in Spencer, and St. Joseph's Hospital in Marshfield.  He completed clinical pastoral education at Gundersen Lutheran Hospital in August 2003.  He was assigned to the Cathedral in July of 2002 as a priest in residence, assisting with the sacrament of Confession and the Holy Mass.  He began his ministry as chaplain of Franciscan Skemp Healthcare on October 1, 2003 where he continues today. 

His interests include; music, theater, watching TV, listening to the radio, collecting baseball cards, and of course sports.  He is an avid La Crosse Loggers fan as well as a an avid high school sports fan, especially Aquinas(La Crosse).

Deacon Joseph Richards was born in Cleveland, Ohio.  While he was still a child in 1958, his parents were instructed by doctors to move to the west coast to make life more bearable for a brother who had contracted tubercular meningitis.  Deacon Richards moved to La Crosse from California in 2000, with his wife and their three children. Since returning to the Midwest, the Richards family has educated their three (previously home-schooled) children at the La Crosse Aquinas Schools, all in preparation for their college education.

A building contractor by profession, he serves as the Director of Buildings and Grounds for Coulee Catholic Schools of La Crosse.  Deacon Richards did his undergraduate studies in philosophy at St. Michael’s Norbertine Abbey in Orange, CA, and in theology at the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas (the Angelicum) in Rome.  He completed his course of theological studies, receiving an M.T.S. from Madonna University’s Institute for Pastoral Theology.  Ordained on January 27, 2007, Deacon Richards was assigned to St. Joseph the Workman Cathedral Parish.

Chief among his parochial duties at the parish is to serve within his capacity as deacon, according to the determination of the Cathedral’s pastor (presently Very Rev. Michael Gorman). His number one personal aspiration is to bring the benefits of his service at the altar, through his work in the service of charity, to those who are in need: in ministry to those who suffer illness, to the elderly, the impoverished, as well as to those who are homebound.  And in whatever other way possible, the urge is to bring Christ to those among whom Deacon Richards has come to consider his own – all who are served by the Cathedral Parish of St. Joseph the Workman.   

Brian Luckner (b. 1959) was appointed Director of Music and Organist at the Cathedral of Saint Joseph the Workman in July of 1988. In addition to his full-time position at the Cathedral, Dr. Luckner is Director of Music and Organist at the Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe in La Crosse, and is director of the La Crosse Diocesan Chorale.  He also serves as an adjunct faculty member at Viterbo University.  His compositions are published by Paraclete Press, GIA Publications, Trinitas, MorningStar, and Mark Foster.  

Dr. Luckner served as head of the Conference of Roman Catholic Cathedral Musicians (United States and Canada) from 1997 to 2002. Prior to his appointment in La Crosse, he was the Assistant in Liturgical Music at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, D.C. Earlier church positions include serving as organist and music director at the Church of the Guardian Angels (Roman Catholic) and at Holy Trinity Episcopal Church in Cincinnati, and at Christ Episcopal Church in Oberlin, Ohio.  He previously held assistant organist positions at St. John the Baptist Catholic Church in Canton, Ohio, and at St. Joseph's Catholic Church in Massillon, Ohio.

He holds the Doctor of Musical Arts degree and the Master of Music degree from the College-Conservatory of Music at the University of Cincinnati, and the Bachelor of Music degree from the Oberlin College Conservatory of Music.  He participated in the "Accelerated Bachelor of Music Program for High School Students" at the Cleveland Institute of Music.

His organ teachers include Roberta Gary, Garth Peacock, Margaret Irwin-Brandon, and Philip Hodel; he studied harpsichord with William Porter and Lisa Crawford.  He has performed in master classes under David Craighead, Luigi Ferdinando Tagliavini, and Louis Robilliard.  His choral conducting studies were with Daniel Moe.

Awards include election to the national honorary music society Pi Kappa Lambda, the Selby Houston Memorial Award in Organ and Theory at Oberlin, and the University of Cincinnati Organ Playing Competition: Strader Awards (first place in 1981, second place in 1983).  He is listed in Who's Who in America (2006-) and Who's Who in the World (2007-).

Brian and his wife Danielle have two young sons, George and Harry.

Charlotte was born and raised in Onalaska on a farm. There were five boys and four girls in her family, and each one was given chores to do before and after school. It was eight miles to grade school and eleven miles to Aquinas one way; and all nine children received a Catholic education, for which Charlotte is very grateful to her parents.

Charlotte went to school to become an occupational therapist. She worked with geriatrics, physical disabilities, general medical and psychiatric clients. The last 25 years she worked at the V. A. Hospital in Tomah. Charlotte thoroughly enjoyed her work and hesitated about retiring, because she was afraid she would not have enough to keep her busy. It was during her stay in Tomah that Charlotte took advantage of the Lay Ministry class offered by the Diocese La Crosse. It was the second such class sponsored by the Diocese. The course consisted of a wide variety of subjects including Bible study, theology, psychology, liturgy and many others.

Charlotte has been a widow for over 40 years. She has one son who lives near Milwaukee and two grandsons who are in college. She has been involved in church work for nearly 30 years and is still learning.

Born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, she moved with her family to Antigo, Wisconsin at the age of 5.  There she grew to love the Church under the guidance of her maternal grandmother, Frances.  After graduating from Antigo High School she went to and graduated from St. Mary’s School of Nursing, Wausau, Wisconsin, met and married third-year medical student Robert Edland and moved to San Antonio, Texas, where he did his residency and she completed her Batchelor of Nursing degree at the Incarnate Word University.  They then were transferred to Augsburg, Germany where Carole taught religious education and directed the church choir.  She was asked to take over the NCCW religious education chairmanship for the European Command, which supplied catechetical materials and ideas to 10,000 CCD students and catechists.  Needless to say, she had to work 6 months ahead of each liturgical season. 

After her last child went to first grade, she completed an art major and music minor at the University of Wisconsin, La Crosse, Master of Arts in Pastoral Ministries at St. Mary’s University where her final thesis was the planning and implementation of an RCIA process for the Cathedral, and went on to earn a Doctor of Ministry degree at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, MN.  Her doctoral thesis was “Coping with Suffering Following a Medical Crisis: Methods and Ministry.”  From this research, she founded and is the facilitator for the Butterfly Ministry which supports and empowers individuals to rise above personal crisis and chronic stress by using Mind-Body-Spirit Skills.  In addition, she has taken a number of professional training classes to teach and organize groups for skills training.

At the Cathedral. Carole has been the Director of the RCIA Process since its beginning in 1992, completed the diocesan lay ministry training course, is a Commissioned Lay Minister and Leader of Prayer for the Diocese of La Crosse, Lector,  Eucharistic Minister and since 2006 has been the Director for the Parish Health Ministry.  In that role, she visits various nursing homes weekly, provides health literature for parish members and has blood pressure screening at special times. Carole is also a Chaplain for the Country Jail Ministry and Eucharistic Minister at Franciscan Skemp Healthcare Center.  She is on many advisory boards in the community.

Sue Gilbert has been the Pastoral Minister here at the Cathedral since July of 2002.

Previous to that time, she was Director of the Office of Family Life for the Diocese of La Crosse for seventeen years. Earlier in her career Sue had worked as a social worker for the Diocese of Madison and also for the County of La Crosse. Sue lost her husband, Lee, in 2002, and feels blessed by her family of five adult children. She is passionate about the church’s teaching that claims “Family: Church of the Home.”  In 2006 Sue received her Masters in Servant Leadership from Viterbo University.

Her responsibilities at the parish include facilitating the marriage preparation program, as well as administering the pre-marital inventory to all couples being married at the Cathedral. Along with Father Gorman, Sue visits the hospitals weekly to call on parishioners and brings Communion to the homebound. Presently she serves as chair of the Parish Pastoral Council, as chair of the Family Life Committee, as chair of the Ministry of Praise, as secretary of the Sacred Worship Committee, and is a member of the Newcomers Welcoming Committee. Sue feels privileged to be given the opportunity to serve as the Pastoral Minister of the Cathedral, and is inspired by the witness and faith which she encounters in parishioners on a daily basis.

Edward Jones (b. 1959) began his full-time position as Cathedral Administrative Assistant in September of 2005 after working a number of years in credit client services for a major mid-west furniture manufacturer. In addition to Edward’s full-time position at the Cathedral, he practices real estate as a licensed Realtor® in the state of Wisconsin.

In his leisure time, Edward enjoys kayaking and windsurfing, listening to classical, sacred and world music from his 2,000 plus CD collection, and is an avid collector of both British and foreign films.