Passing On the Traditions of the Church
1993 Graduate Leads Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter
(Spring 2008 Newsletter)
When John Berg arrived at Thomas Aquinas College in the fall of
1989, few would have considered him a likely candidate for the office
of Senior Class Speaker four years later. So limited was his understanding
of the program on which he was to embark ("I thought an education
meant preparing to get a job") and of the community in which
he was to live ("I thought being Catholic meant going to Mass
on Sunday") that chances were slim he would be a suitable spokesman
for his fellow seniors at Commencement. Nevertheless, in the spring
of 1993, his friends and classmates did elect him to speak for them.
For in the intervening years, John had come to possess, more than
most, the intellectual and moral virtue to which they all aspired.
A Transformation of Mind and Heart
Born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, John was one of four children. As
he recalls, "Though I was raised a Catholic, attended Catholic
schools, and practiced the faith, I was not serious at all about
my religion." When his father presented the opportunity to
attend Thomas Aquinas College, John resisted, thinking the then-small
school with its temporary trailers "just a little too crazy."
He opted instead to attend a large Catholic university in his home
state where he would study physics. But it wasn't long before he
found the classroom experience simply too dry. Hoping to be more
engaged by the discussion-method classes at the College, he applied
and was accepted. Even then, though, the College's unabashedly Catholic
character held little interest for him.
In the course of the next four years, however, John found that
not only did his knowledge grow exponentially, so also did his faith.
"The College passes on the Faith through uniting it with reason,"
he would later say in his Commencement talk. "This rational
explication and defense of the doctrines of the Church…were
for many of us the first attempt we had ever seen made to defend
many doctrines…. The Faith—for the first time, perhaps-could
be seen as something coherent, reasonable, and defendable."
But knowledge alone was not sufficient for the conversion within
the Faith that John experienced. As Blessed John Henry Cardinal
Newman once said, "It is persons which influence us, voices
which melt us, and deeds which inflame us. We are not converted
by syllogisms." In the chaplains at the College, the tutors,
their wives, and in the upper-classmen, John found just such examples,
numerous models of self-sacrifice—of how to live the Faith—and
they inspired him to want to do the same.
Discerning a Vocation
During the course of his junior year, John began to hear God's
call and to desire "a future in which he would give all to
God." At the same time, through his studies of St. Thomas Aquinas'
Summa Theologiae, his understanding of the sacraments and
the role of priests as "dispensers of the mysteries of God"
(1 Cor 4:1) increased. So, also, did his love for the Mass, especially
what was then called the Old Rite of the Mass.
"At first," he recalls, "I would tell a friend of
mine that I would be a diocesan priest, where the battle really
was. He would argue that most did not offer very good formation,
but I would say that I would survive….In the end, however,
I realized I was too weak; I needed the Old Mass, now called the
extraordinary form. I needed all of the support this form offers.
It is rich in prayers and gestures and rules, and is made for those
who need the extra help to be well-prepared for the graces of the
Sacrament."
With the liturgy now a primary focus, John turned his sights to
the newly-formed Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter. "It had
been established," he explains, "as a society of apostolic
life only a few years earlier by Pope John Paul II, through the
intercession of then Cardinal Ratzinger, who is, therefore, regarded
by members of the Fraternity as a kind of 'founder of our founders.'
Right from the beginning, it was established as a society of pontifical
right, which was unprecedented in the history of the Church."
John was attracted to this new order by its three pillars: its attachment
to the See of Peter, as its name betokens; its dedication to the
extraordinary form of the Mass and all the sacraments, in parish
settings; and its emphasis on the thought of St. Thomas Aquinas
as a clear basis for presenting the Faith to believers and unbelievers
alike in the modern world. He, therefore, sought entrance to the
Fraternity, was accepted, and began his preparation for the priesthood
during the summer of 1993, just after graduating from the College.
Path to the Priesthood
John spent his first year of spirituality in the Fraternity's new
seminary in Scranton, Pennsylvania. Having already fulfilled the
philosophy requirement at the College, he was sent for the next
two years to study theology in Wigratzbad, Germany. He then spent
three years completing his theological studies at Santa Croce,
the Opus Dei seminary in Rome, receiving a pontifical licentiate
in theology. During this time, he was ordained to the priesthood
and did some pastoral work as the first chaplain for the Fraternity's
church in Rome, San Gregorio dei Muratori.
Fr. Berg returned to the United States in 2000 to teach dogmatic
theology for a year at the Fraternity's North American seminary,
after which he was assigned for the next five years to the parish
of St. Stephen the First Martyr in Sacramento, California. One of
the parishioners, it turned out, was his former tutor and the founding
president of Thomas Aquinas College, Dr. Ron McArthur. "Imagine
what it was like," he says, "to give sermons, knowing
he was in the congregation!"
A Tremendous Responsibility
On July 7, 2006, Fr. Berg was elected by the Fraternity's General
Chapter as its third Superior General. His first reaction was one
of surprise, and an understandable reluctance. "All of our
priests want to be in parishes or seminary formation, not doing
administrative duties," he explains. "And I was fairly
young for such responsibilities (though with regard to our order,
I am one of the older priests, believe it or not). I was reassured,
though, by one of our founders, who told me my youth would be on
my side; I would have the energy to do the job. Still, I knew I
would have to pray harder for wisdom and prudence."
Fr. Berg now lives in the order's general house in Fribourg, Switzerland.
He has in his care over 200 priests and 120 seminarians, who serve
the Church in over 100 dioceses worldwide. They are present in dioceses
and parishes in France, Germany, Switzerland, Italy, Austria, the
Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, Hungary, Poland, England, Scotland,
Nigeria, Canada, the United States, Australia, New Zealand, and
Columbia.
It is no surprise, then, that Fr. Berg travels at least two-thirds
of the year. "My main duty," he explains, "is to
the priests and seminarians of the Fraternity. I am responsible
that they have the means set out by our constitutions-and, therefore,
the Church-to achieve holiness. I must ensure that our seminaries
(one in Lincoln, Nebraska, and one in Germany) are well-staffed
and well-ordered, and I must place our priests in work that will
provide them appropriate formation. Then it is my task to contact
them frequently, in a fatherly manner. In addition, I make the financial
and material decisions for the order with the aid of a general council."
The Impact of the Motu Proprio
With the promulgation of Pope Benedict XVI's motu proprio
in July of 2007, the priests and services of the Priestly Fraternity
of St. Peter are in greater demand than ever before. "Just
prior to the motu proprio being issued," recounts Fr.
Berg, "we had begun to offer week-long training sessions in
the extraordinary form of the Mass and the sacraments at our North
American seminary, as demand was already on the rise from priests
all around the country."
Under Fr. Berg's direction, the Fraternity has now increased the
frequency of these sessions, as many bishops want to make certain
that their priests are well-versed in the extraordinary form. "We
have now trained over 100 priests," says Fr. Berg. "They
leave often with increased reverence for the Mass, saying that they
finally understand various elements of the Novus Ordo because
they have seen their roots in the extraordinary form."
In June the Fraternity will release an instructional training
DVD, produced in conjunction with the EWTN Global Television Network
and endorsed by His Eminence Dario Cardinal Castrillon Hóyos,
president of the Pontifical Commission Ecclesia Dei, which
oversees the Fraternity.
Explains Fr. Berg, "For many years, the crisis in the Church
has been presented as a catechetical one, or as a matter of communicating
better with the world. But I believe the Holy Father is telling
us that it is a liturgical problem as much as a catechetical one.
Man is not just a mind or soul; he is moved through his senses,
through ritual, and what he believes is thereby reinforced. As the
preface of Christmas says, man arrives at the invisible through
the visible."
Providence has so disposed it that Fr. Berg now has the opportunity
to heed in an eminent way an
admonition from his own Commencement talk 15 years ago. When he
spoke to his classmates of what lay ahead, he said, "We have
a duty to bring to the world the Catholic faith just as we have
received it, in part, here. We must show others that knowledge of
the Divine does illumine all other knowledge, and that the tenets
of the Faith are reasonable….We must also live a moral, Catholic
life in all of our dealings with society, and pass on the beautiful
traditions of the Church to others in the community in which we
live, whether that community be small, as a family, or large, as
a town." Fr. Berg's community is now as wide as the world.
-- Qtrly Newsletter, Spring 2008
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