John Joseph Grimes (11 February 1842 – 15 March 1915) was the first Roman Catholic bishop of Christchurch, New Zealand.

Born in Bromley-by-Bow, London, he entered the Society of Mary (Marists), was professed on 29 April 1867, and was later ordained a priest.

The English-born Marist Francis Redwood (1839–1935), was appointed to be the second Catholic Bishop of Wellington, New Zealand in January 1874.

He was consecrated bishop by Henry Edward Cardinal Manning at the Marist parish, St Anne's, Spitalfields, London, on 17 March 1874, and after touring France and Ireland to find funds and personnel, returned in November that year to New Zealand, where he had been raised for part of his childhood, to take up his new appointment.

Redwood favoured the appointment as its first bishop the English Marist Father John Grimes, and his proposal was accepted by Rome and executed by a papal brief similarly dated 13 May 1887.