User:Nosaelg/Gerard Paul Bergie

Gerard Paul Bergie is the fifth Bishop of our Diocese succeeding Bishop James M. Wingle who resigned on April 7, 2010.

At noon on September 14, 2010, on the Feast of the Triumph of the Cross, it was announced in Rome that Pope Benedict XVI had appointed Most Reverend Gerard Paul Bergie, Auxiliary Bishop of the Diocese of Hamilton, as the new Bishop of the Diocese of St. Catharines.

Born in Hamilton, Ontario, on January 4, 1959, Bishop Bergie was raised and educated in Hamilton. He studied at St. Jerome's College; the University of Waterloo; and St. Peter's Seminary in London, Ontario. He received a Master's degree of Divinity from the University of Western Ontario in 1983 and a Licentiate in Canon Law from the University of St. Thomas Aquinas (the Angelicum) in Rome in 1991.

Bishop Bergie was ordained to the priesthood on May 12, 1984. He served in parishes of Our Lady of Lourdes (Hamilton), St. Francis Xavier (Stoney Creek), and St. Margaret Mary (Hamilton) where he was pastor at the time of his nomination to the episcopacy. He has occupied various positions within the Diocese of Hamilton, including Chancellor. He was ordained to the episcopacy on August 24, 2005 at the Cathedral of Christ the King in Hamilton by Bishop Anthony Tonnos, Bishop of Hamilton.

Bishop Bergie was the first Canadian Bishop appointed by Pope Benedict XVI in 2005.

Bishop Bergie was installed November 9, 2010, on the Feast of the Dedication of Saint John Lateran and the fifty-second anniversary of the establishment of the Diocese of St. Catharines.

Bishop Bergie is President of the Assembly of Catholic Bishops of Ontario (ACBO), Co-Treasurer of the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops (CCCB) Executive Committee and a member of the CCCB Permanent Council. He is currently a delegate for the CCCB on the Governing Board of the Canadian Council of Churches (CCC), CCCB delegate on the International Committee of Migrants and Refugees, member of the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Episcopal Commission for Liturgy and the Sacraments and member of the Lutheran Church-Canada Roman Catholic Theological Dialogue.