ARTICLES

Heeding the Call

Yuba City Man Chooses Heavy Lifting in Priesthood

By Robert Kumpel

Most priests will claim that they sensed the calling from some point in their childhood. Typically, the example of one or two priests inspired them to respond and, after college, they entered the seminary. In the case of Father Blaise Berg, the call came at childhood, but the response was a bit slower. After college, he focused on a career and was looking to marry until, as he puts it, "God finally got through to me!" After a period of study in Rome, Father Berg, 39 is working at his first full-time parish position at St. Rose's in Roseville.

The fourth youngest (and first son) in a family with 12 children, Father Berg grew up on a farm near Yuba City. "I went to St. Isidore's grade school in Yuba City." With hobbies like basketball and woodworking, Father Berg had a normal childhood and decided to attend the St. Ignatius Institute at University of San Francisco, taking a degree in philosophy. "I graduated in 1983, but I went back to school at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo for an MBA. Then I was worked in business for a few years, with the family's deciduous fruit tree nursery. When I was 29, I entered into a house of discernment, the Casa Balthasar in Rome." Berg continued, "I had questions about where I was called and that was definitely a period of my life when I was able to be in an environment that really nurtured the possibility of, first of all, knowing what God's will might be and, second of all, being able to respond to it with my whole heart. This particular house I was in was a new project at the time and it was founded to be open to young men who think they might have a call to the priesthood or religious life, but aren't sure. It allowed us to think about whether we wanted the diocesan priesthood or some other form or consecrated life. It was great to live with the evangelical counsels in a concrete way, and live with other students who were on the same page."

Deciding on the diocesan priesthood, Berg stayed in Rome to study theology at the Gregorian University. "After Bishop Weigand accepted my application to the diocese, I came home to do a pastoral year in Sacramento. I returned to Rome to study at the John Paul II Institute for Studies of Marriage and Family at the Lateran University at the bishop's request. I got a licenciate and doctoral degree there. I had already been there a while as a layman and my bishop knew that I knew the language and the academic system. I was in Rome for eight and a half years, altogether."

After ordination in 1998, Berg finished work on his doctorate in sacred theology and returned to the U.S. in August 2000. In spite of his education, Father Berg's personality indicates a down-to-earth man who enjoys the simple side of life. "I've always got a lot of enjoyment out of manual labor and truck-driving. I've done some long-haul truck driving.

"I'd always felt called to be in a parish. More than anything, I just enjoy being close to the sacramental life of the Church and serve people in that way. I still kind of feeling my way, but I like accompanying others on their pilgrimage of faith. I'm still learning an awful lot, but it's been very rewarding.

"The sacrament of confession is very important and it's helpful for me to not just hear confessions, but also as a penitent myself. As I hear a confession, I'll think, I need to be thinking about that myself! And it's very important that I go frequently myself.

"In academics, you pretty much have control over your time. You know when you sit down at your desk that you'll have six or eight hours to work on something. But with a parish priest, it's very difficult to organize one's time. You try to sit down and prepare something and phone calls happen and they're important. It may be less structured than academic life, but I have the privilege of responding to others in a more immediate way.

"Studying in Rome really makes you appreciate the universality of The Church. At the Gregorian University, there are priests, religious, nuns from 115 different countries. It's a wonderful gift to be able to study with students from all over the world who bring different views to their studies. Things that may be a big deal in America may have very little meaning for somebody in a country in Africa. For example, in some African countries, they are dealing with the difficulty of voodoo ... some people don't recognize that as superstitious and think it can be compatible with being a practicing Catholic. Whereas they probably can't fathom what 'inclusive language' means."

For those who think they may have a religious vocation, Father Berg offers this advice: "I think it's important to hang on to the call or inclination--whatever it may be and nurture it to the point where one feels ready to make a mature decision. It's important to be open and make a definite decision to make a decision. I think we live in an age where it's very difficult for people to commit themselves. People are marrying later too. The fact that we have a crisis in vocations doesn't mean that God is calling fewer men to be priests or religious or fewer women to be religious. It's more likely that we're not responding as well as we could be. And the same goes for marriage. There's a crisis in married life as well, so they kind of go hand in hand."

"I've heard that sometimes parents discourage the children from considering vocations but I've also met parents in this parish at this school who have encouraged that. That's very promising to me that they're not afraid to teach their children about the two states of life. The Holy Father has said that that should be part of their education. The chastity movement plays a important role in that too. Young adults who are committed to living chastely are going to have an easier time discerning how God is calling them."

Parental approval was no obstacle for Father Berg. "They've always been very encouraging. They're very supportive. I think they were surprised because I was leaning more toward the family business, working with my father on the managerial staff."

Now that he's graduated to the parish's managerial staff, Father Berg is pleased to work at what he has spent years preparing for. "I lived with 70 priests in Rome in what is the biggest study house of American priests in one place. It was unusual to have somebody there like me who was just ordained and had no parish experience. Most of the guys there had at least three to five years of parish experience. They told me that working in a parish was one of the most rewarding experiences of their priesthood and I've certainly come to see that in the short time I've been here. I'm just very happy to be here in this parish and have this experience."

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