John Berg (priest)


John Marcus Berg, F.S.S.P. is an American Catholic priest and former Superior General of the Priestly Fraternity of Saint Peter. He was elected on July 7, 2006 by the General Chapter of the Fraternity at its mother house in Wigratzbad, Germany, for a six-year term. Fr. Berg was elected to a second term as Superior General at the FSSP's fifth General Chapter in July 2012. Berg's second term as Superior General concluded on July 9, 2018.

Biography

Father Berg was born to a Catholic family in Minnesota in 1970. Fr. Berg graduated from the Academy of Holy Angels in Richfield, MN. Berg studied philosophy at Thomas Aquinas College in California from 1989 to 1993, where he discerned a vocation to the priesthood. In 1994, he entered the Fraternity's seminary in Wigratzbad, where he studied for two years; he finished his studies with a Licentiate in Dogmatic Theology from the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross in Rome. Ordained by Bishop James Timlin of Scranton on September 6, 1997, he has worked as both a pastor and as a seminary professor. Until his election to Superior General, Berg was chaplain of the Latin Mass Community of Sacramento, California.
On July 7, 2007, the first anniversary of Berg's election as Superior General, Pope Benedict XVI issued the motu proprio Summorum Pontificum, affirming that Latin Rite priests of the Catholic Church are free to use the 1962 Roman Missal both privately and, under certain conditions, publicly. In accordance with the rules governing the society of which he became superior general, Berg has celebrated Low Mass, Sung Mass, and Solemn Mass in Latin using this form of the Roman Rite.
Berg currently lives at the rectory of St. Mary's Church on Broadway in Providence, Rhode Island. He is currently serving as pastor of St. Mary's at the invitation of Bishop Thomas Joseph Tobin.