DETROIT— Ever since Archbishop Michael J. Byrnes was a newly minted associate pastor at St. Joan of Arc Parish in St. Clair Shores, Deacon Tom Strasz knew he had the qualities of a natural leader: Good listener, excellent teacher, calm under pressure.

But more than any of those traits, Deacon Strasz said one thing stands out when he thinks about his longtime friend and mentor:

“He has the heart of an evangelizer,” said Deacon Strasz, a permanent deacon at St. Joan of Arc and who for the last five years has served as Archbishop Byrnes’ secretary at his regional office at St. Francis of Assisi-St. Maximilian Kolbe Parish in Ray Township. “He wants you to have the Lord and he wants you to see the Lord and hold the Lord in your heart. Everything he does goes toward that.”

Even still, Deacon Strasz — nor anyone else, for that matter — could never have guessed those qualities would take Archbishop Byrnes halfway around the world as he takes on his next assignment as coadjutor archbishop of Agana, Guam.

With the Agana archdiocese embroiled in controversy amid a Vatican investigation into allegations of sexual abuse of minors by its current leader, Archbishop Anthony Apuron, OFM Cap., Archbishop Byrnes’ leadership there will face an immediate test.

However, if anyone was equipped to take on such a monumental task, Pope Francis couldn’t have chosen a better candidate, Deacon Strasz said.

“He will tell you about his great uncle who was a missionary; in a sense, he’s following in those footsteps,” Deacon Strasz said. “He’s just the kind of guy who goes where he’s needed and just happens to do an excellent job wherever that is. The people of Agana are going to be very blessed. He will bring stability and peace and comfort and consolation in the Lord to these people, and be a good leader for them, too.”

Sacred Heart Major Seminary professor Fr. Daniel Jones, a high school friend who also worked with Archbishop Byrnes during his time as vice rector of the seminary, said Archbishop Byrnes’ many gifts and talents will make him “a tremendous ordinary and archbishop.”

“He has a general competence that is just very wide,” said Fr. Jones, who got to know Archbishop Byrnes well during their time together at the University of Michigan in the 1980s. “His first publication was in microbiology, but he’s got a doctorate in Scripture, he’s taught for the Catholic Leadership Institute on organizational behavior, temperaments, things like that.”

During his time at Sacred Heart, Archbishop Byrnes’ classes were always among the seminarians’ favorites, Fr. Jones said.

“The men really loved him, particularly as a teacher but also as vice rector. They felt he was very fair and they knew where they stood before him,” Fr. Jones said. “There were no surprises, which is really important in a seminary.”

Archbishop Byrnes’ straightforward nature also meant you never had to guess where he stood on important matters, Fr. Jones added.

“He has tremendous integrity,” Fr. Jones said. “If he knows something’s right, he’ll do it, and if he knows he’s wrong, he’ll admit it.”

During his time as an auxiliary bishop in Detroit, Archbishop Byrnes led efforts related to the archdiocese’s evangelization initiative, Unleash the Gospel, including this month’s historic archdiocesan synod.

Erik Coules, regional coordinator of parish life and services for the Archdiocese of Detroit who worked closely with Archbishop Byrnes on the initiative, said a distinctive element of Archbishop Byrnes’ leadership is his ability to “allow for mess” to make room for the Holy Spirit.

“In Church work, we want things organized, we want them orderly, we want it to be clearly structured and have an exact understanding, but he’s allowed himself to go forward while saying ‘I don’t know what the Lord wants, but I know this is the direction,’” Coules said. “He’s definitely a man led by the Spirit.”

Deacon Strasz added Archbishop Byrnes is “an excellent listener” who has the “rare characteristic that he can be put in the midst of all kinds of turbulence and not only keep his head, but enter into conversation about correcting behaviors where he doesn’t lose it and doesn’t come off as bludgeoning.”

“He’s just got that way about him where he can criticize and not take you down,” Deacon Strasz said. “He builds you up.”

Being made a bishop didn’t change the way Archbishop Byrnes related to those around him, and neither will being made an archbishop, Fr. Jones said.

“One of the things that’s striking is that when he became a bishop, it didn’t make him proud. He was the same guy — in fact, it only made him more of a servant,” Fr. Jones said. “I’m sure this will do the same thing.”

Coules said Archbishop Byrnes’ prayerful life, humility and love for his people will be a blessing for the people of Guam, who will come to love him as much as his native Detroit does.

“I was so disappointed to hear we were losing him, but it did not surprise me at all,” Coules said. “They say the Archdiocese of Detroit is a bishop-maker, but we’re definitely going to miss him.”

 

---

Archbishop Michael J. Byrnes

One of two sons of Patrick and the late Marie (McAndrew) Byrnes, Michael Jude Byrnes was born Aug. 23, 1958, and attended St. Mary of Rockford Elementary and Junior High before graduating from Detroit Catholic Central in 1976.

Archbishop Byrnes went on to the University of Michigan, where he earned a Bachelor of Science in microbiology in 1976. While working as a lab assistant at the University of Michigan Medical School, he also served as a part-time campus minister through University Christian Outreach, which served the University of Michigan and Eastern Michigan University.

In 1985, he became involved in Servant Ministries in Ann Arbor, an outreach group active in the charismatic renewal movement. He left that post in 1990 and entered formation at Sacred Heart Major Seminary, earning a Master of Divinity and Master of Arts degree with a concentration in Scripture.

After being ordained a priest by Cardinal Adam J. Maida in 1996, Archbishop Byrnes was assigned as associate pastor of St. Joan of Arc Parish in St. Clair Shores, while also serving as an adjunct faculty member at the seminary.

In 1999, he went to Rome to study at the Pontifical Gregorian University, earning a Doctorate in Sacred Theology in 2003. Afterward, Archbishop Byrnes returned to Sacred Heart to teach while serving on the weekends at Presentation/Our Lady of Victory Parish, St. Gregory the Great Parish and Church of the Madonna, all in Detroit.

In 2004, he was named vice rector of the seminary and pastor of Presentation/Our Lady of Victory. Archbishop Byrnes continued in these roles until May 5, 2011, when Archbishop Allen H. Vigneron ordained him an auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Detroit, given the care and pastoral oversight of the archdiocese’s Northeast Region, where he has served since.

Archbishop Byrnes’ father and stepmother, Roberta, live in Farmington Hills; his mother passed away in 1991. He has one brother, three step-sisters, four nieces and two nephews.