A Fitchburg native, who, at this time of year, plays Santa Claus, and all year long cares for the poor in Japan, has been named a bishop there.
Pope Francis, on Dec. 9, appointed Franciscan Father Wayne Berndt, 63, bishop of the Diocese of Naha, in the Okinawa Prefecture. His ordination is scheduled for February.
The bishop-elect, a missionary in the Order of Friars Minor Capuchin, succeeds Bishop Berard Toshio Oshikawa, of the Order of Friars Minor Conventual.
In a letter to Bishop McManus and the people of the Worcester Diocese, Father Berndt gave thanks for the prayers and best wishes he has received on his appointment. He asked for continued prayers for himself and his people, offered his prayers to the diocese and expressed gratitude for people here who fostered his vocation.
“In the name of the diocese, I want to thank the bishop-elect for this wonderful letter,” Bishop McManus said. “He can be assured of our best wishes and prayers. … It’s a proud day for the Diocese of Worcester.”
Bishop McManus said that the divine gift of a vocation is fostered in the local Catholic community, especially by priests and religious, as Father Berndt noted in his letter. The bishop spoke of the need for missionaries to present Christ, especially in a culture where Catholicism is seen as Western.
Father Berndt, son of Simone (Jacques) Berndt and the late Francis Berndt, was born May 15, 1954, in Fitchburg and grew up at St. Joseph Parish there. He attended St. Joseph Elementary School and St. Bernard Central Catholic
High School, and Fitchburg State College (now University).
He entered the Order of Friars Minor Capuchin of New York, making his first profession on Aug. 16, 1976 and his perpetual profession on June 28, 1980, according to the Vatican posting about his appointment. After arriving in Japan in 1981, he studied Japanese in Tokyo until 1983. He was ordained a priest on May 21, 1983 in Yonkers, N.Y.
Since then he has been serving in the Naha and Saitama dioceses in Japan, as a parish priest, an adjunct lecturer at the University of Riukyus, and in ministry to migrants and his order.
“I’m happy and humbled,” Father Berndt’s mother said of his appointment. She said he comes home to visit every few years. They used to use email and now they use Skype to communicate.
“He’s very concerned about poor people,” Donna Theirrien, of St. Ann Parish in North Oxford, said of her brother, the bishop-elect.
She and her mother recalled how, in grammar school, he once gave his coat to a child who he said didn’t have one.
“I wasn’t too happy,” Mrs. Berndt said. “I had to buy him another one.”
Her other son, Bruce Berndt, of St. Patrick Parish in Rutland, said his brother borrowed his car once when they were in college, then lent it to someone who supposedly needed it more.
“Possessions mean nothing to him,” Mr. Berndt said. “He didn’t think anything of it. I was furious.”
Father James A. Houston, who served at the Newman Center at Fitchburg State when Father Berndt was a student there, recalls that “he loved to sit and open his heart to people and listen to their hearts.” Now pastor of St. Rose of Lima Parish in Northborough, Father Houston called the appointment as bishop “wonderful for Fitchburg.”
Father Donald C. Ouellette, a student at Fitchburg State with Father Berndt, called him “one of the kindest people … very compassionate. He was very pastoral, even as a student.” Father Ouellette, now associate pastor of St. Joseph Parish in North Brookfield and St. John the Baptist Parish in East Brookfield, said no one was surprised that Father Berndt joined the Franciscans.
Father Louis J. Gould, a retired priest of the diocese who served at St. Joseph Parish in Fitchburg, recalled that they “loaded the rectory with Capuchin Fathers” for Father Berndt’s first Mass there. He called Father Berndt a nice, polite, intelligent person.
Father Berndt’s brother said he “never shied away from controversy.” As a student speaker one Veterans Day, his brother included people who moved to Canada to avoid participating in war as casualties of war.
“It did not win him a lot of fans with the veterans,” Mr. Berndt recalled. “He was never afraid to attack an issue head on. He would listen to opposing positions,” but defend his own.
Mrs. Theirrien said Father Berndt has mixed feelings about being a bishop.
“He doesn’t like to be the center of attention,” she said, but he hopes he can help people.
In a Dec. 11 letter to his provincial and Capuchin brothers in New York-New England, Father Berndt wrote about the poverty and lack of self-determination of his people.
“Okinawa is not the name of a war; it is not the name of a military base,” he wrote. “It is the name of a people; it is the name of families and descendants of a unique and irreplaceable culture. … Our people only want the same respect and to be treated in the same way as other free people around the world.”
Father Berndt hinted at this in reflections about playing Santa Claus for the families.
“The children believe with all their heart that this old man … gives the toys out regardless of nationality, income, color of one’s skin,” he wrote. “The children want to believe that such a person exists. He does in fact exist, in each of us, if we chose to be him for each other. …
“Now I will be putting on new clothes. I will have a miter, staff and ring etc. … But underneath I will always know that I am just a Capuchin brother … a sinner in need of conversion and God’s mercy. … There is a bishop in each of us… A bishop is a servant. He loves his people. He speaks out for the injustices that they suffer … he washes the feet of those who are tired … with the living water of new life offered by Christ.
“Pray for me that I will … be putting on Christ … that I will be a real bishop, servant for the people of Okinawa.”