Home / News & Publications / Michigan Catholic News / 2008 / Long-time seminary prof, coach honored at 60-year jubilee 'social'
Long-time seminary prof, coach honored at 60-year jubilee 'social'
by Joe Kohn of The Michigan Catholic
Published June 13, 2008
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Joe Kohn | The Michigan Catholic
Fr. Paul Berg talks to the children at St. Kenneth Parish at the close of Mass June 8. Hundreds turned up for the Mass and a subsequent ice cream social at the parish hall to commemorate Fr. Berg’s 60th anniversary of priesthood. |
Detroit — He notoriously shies from attention, but last Sunday Fr. Paul Berg — who for decades has taught philosophy at Sacred Heart Major Seminary — was the center of it.
Fr. Berg marked his 60-year jubilee with a 12:30 p.m. Mass on June 8 at St. Kenneth Church in Plymouth, where he regularly assists, and a jam-packed ice cream social in the parish hall. The event was open-invitation, the jubilarian said, because there were so many people he'd gotten to know in his life and priesthood that he didn't want to leave anyone out.
"How could one possibly remember all they ministered to over the years?" Fr. Berg said in his homily, explaining why he "cast a net over the whole lake" with the open invitation.
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Joe Kohn | The Michigan Catholic
Fr. Paul Berg poses for a photograph while being hugged by a friend at the ice cream social. |
In his homily, Fr. Berg, 86, joked about the second name that priests receive when they get older — "Fr. Don't Get Up." He went on to name a couple dozen of his "heroes" — public figures from poet Maya Angelou to labor activist Cesar Chavez, and contemporaries such as Retired Detroit Auxiliary Bishop Thomas Gumbleton and the late Fr. William Cunningham, co-founder of Focus-HOPE.
After flipping through a stack of papers to name his heroes, he told the congregation why he limited it to public figures and not the people he knew in day-to-day life.
"I, who have endeavored with good family and personal friends," he said. "I just thought I couldn't be sure that I had enough pages." After Mass, it was apparent, too, that he didn't have enough hot dogs at the ice cream social. The 720 that were ordered for the event lasted not one hour into it, as people crowded into the hall to congratulate Fr. Berg, and also enjoy music and Irish dancing.
"He's just such a joy to be around," said Mary Rich, who with her husband, Bob, is a member of the Ancient Order of Hibernians. "He's very positive about everything. That's the one thing — he just brings joy to everyone."
Fr. Berg serves as a chaplain for a local chapter of the Ancient Order of Hibernians, an Irish Catholic lay organization. Many members were on hand to celebrate with him.
But Fr. Berg's legacy is the largest at Sacred Heart Major Seminary, where he's taught since the 1950s, and where he's also coached basketball and golf. Fr. Robert Singelyn — himself now a senior priest — was one of Fr. Berg's first students at the seminary.
"I've known Fr. Berg since 1956, or thereabouts, when he came from Rome with his Ph.D. and taught me in his first year of professorship at Sacred Heart Seminary," Fr. Singelyn recalled.
He said the wisdom his former instructor has brought to the seminary over the years has been a great blessing. He added that Fr. Berg's attention to the poor, and people "on the margins" of society was admirable.
Fr. Singelyn also could attest to Fr. Berg's longevity. While ministering at an Archdiocese of Detroit-run mission in Recife, Brazil, Fr. Singelyn lobbied to have seminarians from Sacred Heart visit the mission.
"Paul was my best advocate in the seminary," he recalled. "And the first group of four seminarians who came down to spend a month with us stayed with Paul Berg. At that time he was about 70. Ten years later, he came back with another group."
Fr. John Michael McDermott, a priest from the Bronx, N.Y., who has taught at Sacred Heart the past two years, says it's easy to see the influence he has on seminarians.
"The students love him," Fr. McDermott said. "He seems to get their mindset pretty well, and he's just a good priest. You find him very often in the chapel, praying, and the students see that. He's a good spiritual father to them, as well as being a very good professor of philosophy."
Many St. Kenneth parishioners spoke to Fr. Berg's ministry at the parish, too — especially his love for the children. At the end of Mass, he brought a group of children to the altar and gave them a toy, which had become a tradition at the parish.
Family members and old friends also were part of the celebration.
"I've known him for close to 70 years. We were neighbors," said Lew Bartlett, who recalls living a few houses down from Fr. Paul Berg while growing up at St. Mary of Redford Parish on Detroit's west side.
Like many others, Bartlett talked about Fr. Berg's sincerity and prayerfulness, as well as his quick wit. And while Fr. Berg was able to list many of his own influences during the homily at Mass, Bartlett said that people at the celebration had plenty of reasons to pay a similar tribute to Fr. Berg.
"He's is a marvelous man," Bartlett said. "He talked about heroes today in his sermon — he's been my hero for a long, long time."
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