New Bishop for St. Catharines

Tuesday, September 14 2010

His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI today appointed the Most Rev. Gerard Bergie, presently Auxiliary Bishop and Vicar General of the Diocese of Hamilton, as Bishop of St. Catharines in Ontario. The See of St. Catharines had been vacant since the resignation earlier this year of the Most Rev. James Wingle for health reasons.

Bishop Gerard Paul Bergie was born on January 4, 1959 in Hamilton, Ontario. He was ordained to the priesthood on May 12, 1984 for the Diocese of Hamilton, and named Auxiliary Bishop of Hamilton in July 2005.

He studied at St. Jerome’s College, the University of Waterloo and St. Peter’s Seminary, London, Ontario. He received a master’s degree in Divinity from the University of Western Ontario in 1983 and a licentiate in Canon Law from the University of Saint Thomas Aquinas (the Angelicum) in Rome in 1991.

Bishop Bergie is currently a member of the English Sector Episcopal Commission for Catechesis of the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops (CCCB) and a member of the Catholic-United Church of Canada Theological Dialogue.

The Diocese of St. Catharines has a Catholic population of 153,565 in 46 parishes and missions, served by 56 diocesan priests, 32 priests who are members of religious orders, ten permanent deacons and 43 religious Brothers and Sisters.