Marcus welcomes former Episcopal priest Fr. Eric Bergman, currently a Catholic priest in the Diocese of Scranton, PA. Marcus and Fr. Eric discuss the Sacrament of Marriage as a model of the Church, as well as the roles of husbands and wives and Christ and His Mystical Body, the Church. Often a controversial set of verses, Fr. Eric discusses why the awesome unfolding of this verse was pivotal to strength of his marriage, his rejection of contraception, and, ultimately, his conversion to the Catholic Church.
Text of the Scripture verses: Ephesians 5:1-2, 21-33
***Note: On May 8, 2012, the St. Thomas More Society purchased its own property and became St. Thomas More Catholic Parish, the first Parish of the Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of Saint Peter, with Fr. Bergman as the U.S. Ordinariate’s first Priest, under the auspices of the Apostolic Constitution “Anglicanorum Coetibus.” The new website is now www.stmscranton.org, and details about the congregation’s journey into the Catholic Church are available at these two pages on the parish website:
Resources mentioned:
Fr. Eric Bergman
Fr. Bergman was born in Tennessee and raised as an Episcopalian in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. He studied German and International Affairs at James Madison University, and after graduation in 1991 he was briefly employed by a law firm in London, England. Upon returning to Pennsylvania he worked with mentally handicapped adults, with the urban elderly as a local coordinator for Project CARE, and finally as Youth Director at the Episcopal Cathedral in Bethlehem. In 1994 he began studies at Yale Divinity School, where he received his Master of Divinity in 1997 and was ordained to the Episcopal priesthood the same year. He served as curate at St. Luke’s Episcopal Church in downtown Scranton until 1999, and then as rector of the Episcopal Church of the Good Shepherd until the end of 2004. Perceiving a call to be reconciled to the Catholic Church, in consultation with Bishop Joseph Martino and Auxiliary Bishop John Dougherty, Fr. Bergman renounced his Episcopal priesthood and founded the St. Thomas More Society in January 2005, whereby he and half of his former parishioners at Good Shepherd were received into the Catholic Church as an intact congregation, under the care of Msgr. William Feldcamp at St. Clare Catholic Church. Fr. Bergman was ordained to the Catholic Priesthood under the Pastoral Provision of Pope John Paul II on April 21, 2007. In accordance with Pope Benedict XVI’s apostolic constitution Anglicanorum Coetibus in 2009, Fr. Bergman became the first Priest incardinated in the Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter in May 2012, concurrently with the St. Thomas More Society’s erection as St. Thomas More Catholic Parish. As a former Anglican clergyman with special dispensation according to the Pastoral Provision, Fr. Bergman is married; he and his wife, Kristina, have eight children.
