Attorney moves from practicing law
to practicing ministry

	EVANGELIZERS: Dcn. Mike Grzeca and Patti Christensen check the lectionary for Mass readings as part of their duties in the diocesan department of Evangelization and Worship, which Dcn. Grzeca heads. (Rick Evans photo)

By Betsy Foley

Six years ago, after 25 years as a practicing trial lawyer, Mike Grzeca presided as a Brown County Circuit Court judge.

Today, he's a deacon and a full-time administrator with the Green Bay Diocese, where he is director of Evangelization and Worship.

What prompted Dcn. Grzeca to move from courtroom to ordained service in the church? He was, after all, making a good living as a trial lawyer. Why give it up?

For one thing, he didn't like the "emotionally corrosive effect" the work had on him, he said. The "I'm-right-you're-wrong" advocacy position - often accompanied by hostility, anger, and defensiveness - affected him.

Even before his circuit court appointment in 1999, he grappled with a prevailing sense of unease, a feeling that there was "something else out there."

Full story ...

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