Patricia Montemurri and Bill Kubota
Cardinal Joseph Tobin’s life has been shaped by faith, family and service. The eldest of 13 children, he was raised just two blocks from Holy Redeemer Catholic Church and School in Southwest Detroit.
Tobin, 72, will enter the Sistine Chapel on Wednesday, May 7, as one of 135 cardinal-electors in the papal conclave who will select the successor to Pope Francis, who died April 21. Several Vatican observers say the native Detroiter could emerge as the first American to become pope, the leader of 1.4 billion Catholics worldwide.
Tobin’s journey began at Holy Redeemer parish at the intersection of Vernor and Junction. The Tobin home on Campbell St. was a place of ritual — dinner every night followed by the family rosary, the clatter of dishes giving way to quiet devotion.
“Joe knew at a very early age on he wanted to be a priest,” said his sister Molly Brusstar.
She recalled a neighbor made her brother a set of child-size priestly vestments to stage a pretend Mass with two buddies as altar boys. When Molly asked if she also could be an altar server, Tobin’s buddies complained, but he let his sister join in.
“And Joe said, ‘No, she will serve.’ And it really speaks to his passion for the inclusivity of all of God’s children,” said Brusstar.
Even as a boy, Tobin stood out — literally. Big, brawny, red-headed and bursting with energy, he played varsity football before he even hit high school. “Mom would yell out the door … we’d either find him on the football field, here on the playground or … in here (the church) cleaning vigil lights and getting things ready for the Mass of tomorrow,” recalled sibling Jim Tobin.
Joe also could be a bit of a troublemaker. “I think our parents had a private office at the convent here at Holy Redeemer for all the times the sisters called about Joe,” said Jim.
“Now if there ever was a scuffle out on the playground, they’d throw up the windows and say, ‘Tobin, knock it off.’ They didn’t even have to look,” recalled sibling Patricia Steinhauer.
Tobin left Holy Redeemer school after 8th grade, studying at a high school and seminary in Wisconsin, run by the Redemptorist priest order, which also ran Holy Redeemer. He dreamed of being a Redemptorist missionary overseas and mastered Spanish and other languages. But as a young priest, he was assigned back home to Holy Redeemer parish.
There, he connected deeply with the growing Hispanic community.
“He was the gentle giant … He was just a son of the parish,” says Sister Elizabeth Fleckenstein, the Holy Redeemer elementary school principal for many of the years Tobin ministered at the parish. “That’s when I think Joe got his real love for working with people of other cultures.”
Holy Redeemer had two sanctuaries for services, one in the basement and one on the main floor. “For a time, the Hispanic people had their Masses in the lower church and so did the little children,” recalled Fleckenstein. “Finally, Joe said, ‘You know, we’re going to unify this parish and he said … we’re going to have Mass for everybody upstairs.’ And we started the bilingual Masses.”
In Detroit, Tobin was mentored by the legendary pastor of Holy Trinity Catholic Church, Monsignor Clement Kern, who ministered to the poor and immigrants.
“When Father Kern was in the hospital, his last words were to Cardinal Tobin and Cardinal Tobin was the last one to talk to Father Kern before he passed away on Aug. 15, the Feast of the Assumption, 1983,” recalled Vic Venegas, a longtime Holy Trinity supporter and Hispanic community activist.
Tobin’s journey wasn’t without darkness. In a candid 2013 address for Guest House, a treatment center in Lake Orion, Tobin spoke about his battle with alcoholism as a young parish priest. “Alcohol was like the thread holding it all together,” he said. “If you pulled on it, everything came apart.” Yet even this struggle became part of his ministry — a story of redemption that resonated deeply with the faithful.
After stints as a parish priest, Tobin helped lead the Redemptorists, visiting its missionaries in more than 70 countries. In 2010, he was appointed to the No. 2 position at the Vatican, overseeing clergy and sisters worldwide.
Tobin’s Vatican tenure was cut short when he publicly defended American nuns who were under a Vatican investigation because some conservative bishops thought the sisters’ emphasis on social justice issues overshadowed traditional teachings. He was reassigned to become the archbishop of Indianapolis, a move widely seen as a demotion.
In Indianapolis in 2015, Tobin quietly marshaled archdiocesan resources to resettle Syrian war refugees despite outspoken opposition from then-Governor Mike Pence, who said he feared terrorists could be among them. Tobin’s fierce advocacy for migrants and refugees is one of the reasons Pope Francis made Tobin a cardinal in 2016 and moved him to the Newark archdiocese.
Now, at 72, Cardinal Joseph Tobin is the progressive leader of the Archdiocese of Newark, New Jersey. A reformer, a weightlifter, a sports fan, who has always believed in the dignity of all people — he is quietly considered by Vatican watchers as a potential future pope.
His sister Terese Tobin notes that her brother lost a friend with the death of Pope Francis.
“Not just a friend, but the mentor and the person he kind of had a shared vision with,” said Terese. “I think they had the shared vision for inclusivity, making sure everyone was welcome, making sure everyone was treated with dignity and respect.”
Fleckenstein says Tobin has the qualifications to be the next pope.
“I think definitely he does. Will he ever? I don’t know,” she chuckled. “There can be many surprises at a conclave. You never know. You let the Spirit work.”