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November 6, 2024
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

For more information, please contact:
Chris Weinkopf, Executive Director of College Relations
805-421-5926 | pr@thomasaquinas.edu

 

An alumnus of ϲ, the Very Rev. John M. Berg, F.S.S.P. (’93), has once again stepped up to the challenge of becoming the  of the  (FSSP).

The Fraternity’s General Chapter first elected Fr. Berg to be its superior general in 2006, when he was just 36 years old — one of the youngest priests ever to hold the position. Initially, he was surprised and reluctant. “All of our priests want to be in parishes or seminary formation, not doing administrative duties,” he said. “I was reassured by one of our founders, who told me my youth would be on my side. Still, I knew I would have to pray harder for wisdom and prudence.”

Six years later, the General Chapter elected him to a second six-year term, after which he stepped down as superior general in 2018. For the next three years, he served as pastor for St. Mary’s Church in Providence, Rhode Island, followed by three years at Immaculate Conception Church in Omaha, Nebraska. This summer, the General Chapter of the FSSP , naming him as Superior General for another six years.

A member of the ϲ Class of 1993, Fr. Berg entered the seminary for the Fraternity shortly after his graduation. He spent three years completing his theological studies at Santa Croce, the Opus Dei seminary in Rome, receiving a pontifical licentiate in theology. He was ordained to the priesthood in 1997 and served as the first chaplain for the Fraternity’s church in Rome, San Gregorio dei Muratori. He has also worked as a professor at the International Seminary of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Denton, Nebraska.

“My main duty,” says Fr. Berg of his responsibilities as superior general, “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 also protect the three pillars of the Fraternity: the study of St. Thomas, the traditional Mass, and fidelity to the Holy See, the Seat of Peter.”

 

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With campuses in California and Massachusetts, has developed over the last half century a solid reputation for academic excellence in the United States and abroad. It is highly ranked by secular organizations, such as The Princeton Review and U. S. News, as well as Catholic guides, including the Cardinal Newman Society and the National Catholic Register. The college offers one, four-year, classical curriculum that spans the major arts and sciences. Instead of reading textbooks, students study the original works of the greatest thinkers in Western civilization — the Great Books — in all the major disciplines. Rather than listen to lectures, they work through these texts in small, rigorous classroom discussions. The academic life of the college is conducted under the light of the Catholic faith and flourishes within a close-knit community, supported by a vibrant spiritual life. Alumni consistently excel in the many world-class institutions at which they pursue graduate degrees in fields such as law, medicine, business, theology, and education.

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