On his journey to the priesthood, Deacon Joe Bergida often
was inspired by the clergy around him. At a young age, he
would watch priests celebrate liturgies, then would go home
and “play Mass.” As he grew, he witnessed the camaraderie and
the holiness exhibited by young priests at the parishes he
attended. And while many future priests grow up not
automatically gravitating toward the priesthood, Deacon
Bergida was different: From a young age he ached for the
sacrament of holy orders.
“There came a point in high school when I thought that maybe
the Lord wasn’t calling me to it, but I still wanted it,”
Deacon Bergida said in a recent interview from Rome, where he
attends the Pontifical North American College. “I was trying
to release that desire. Then the Lord gave it back to me.”
It wasn’t that he didn’t want marriage or a family, Deacon
Bergida said, rather, “I always kind of thought it was a
greater good to be able to serve all families and to be able
to give myself fully to Christ and His bride the Church.”
“Seeing the beauty of family life actually strengthened my
desire to be a priest,” he added. “I saw what beautiful
families were like, and I wanted that, yet at the same time I
knew in my heart that God was calling me to be a priest.”
Deacon Bergida, who is scheduled to be ordained to the
priesthood June 9 at the Cathedral of St. Thomas More in
Arlington, was born Sept. 28, 1983, in Minneapolis/St. Paul,
Minn., to Michael and Theresa Bergida. The family, which
later would have seven children, of whom Deacon Bergida is
the oldest, moved to Virginia when he was 2.They lived in
both Herndon and Centreville before settling in Front Royal
during the deacon’s high-school years.
Growing up, Deacon Bergida said his family did its best to
get to daily Mass, outings that had a “huge impact” on his
faith.
“The first thing I remember is going home and setting up and
playing Mass,” he said. “That was where the first intuitions
or movements of grace began.”
As he got older, Deacon Bergida joined the Junior Legion of
Mary, an organization that helped him to seek God’s will and
holiness in his life. As the family moved around Northern
Virginia, Deacon Bergida got to know many priests on whom he
began to model his life, he said, including Fathers John H.
Melmer, Matthew H. Zuberbueler, Cornelius O’Brien, Alexander
R. Drummond, Brian G. Bashista and the late William Ruehl.
“Here they were, young men, and they were giving their lives
to the Church, to Christ and they had this great joy about
them,” he said. “They were funny and you could interact with
them … and at the same time they had a great respect
for the Eucharist.”
Deacon Bergida was homeschooled through high school, after
which he attended Franciscan University in Steubenville,
Ohio, from 2002-06, where he participated in a pre-theology
program. After much discernment, he applied to the seminary
his senior year and was accepted, entering St. Charles
Borromeo Seminary in Wynnewood, Pa., in the fall of 2006.
In 2008, Deacon Bergida transferred to Rome, where he has
studied for the last four years.
“It’s been great,” Deacon Bergida said. “You really get an
experience of the Church universal because there are students
from all over not only Europe, but Asia, Africa. And the
ability to be so close to the Holy Father and the martyrs who
gave their lives for the faith here in Rome … has been
great.”
As a seminarian, Deacon Bergida served at St. Philip Church
in Falls Church, St. Teresa Parish in Ashburn and All Saints
Parish in Manassas. After his ordination, Deacon Bergida will
return to Rome to finish up a degree in liturgy, but for the
summer he’ll be home at St. John the Baptist Church in Front
Royal.
Now, almost a priest himself, Deacon Bergida looks back on
the clergy who influenced his life in the hopes of someday
having that same influence on others.
Being a priest “really is bringing people to Christ,” Deacon
Bergida said. And, after all, who would know better than him?
