The following story first appeared in the Winter 1999 issue of Glenmary Challenge.  
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Father Robert Berson
50 Years of Priesthood
By Jean Bach

In the past half century, Father Robert Berson's name appears prominently throughout the leadership files of the Glenmary community. He spent 14 years leading Glenmary first as superior general (1965-71) and then as president (1975-83), a change in name following Vatican II.

It was during his leadership that the present Glenmary headquarters building was completed. It was also during his leadership that the reforms implemented by the Second Vatican Council took shape. Changes, he says, which "made a big change in Glenmary and throughout the Church."

"All that was accomplished in the years I was in leadership was made possible because of the cooperation of the men," Father Bob says. "Following Vatican II, two special chapters were held to determine the direction of the community. There was no precedent for what to do or how to best implement the mandates of Vatican II," he explained. "It took a lot of thought and input from all the men."

The mentality of administration underwent a transition in the 1970s, also. "We went from an expantionist mentality to consolidation mentality," Father Bob says. When he was elected superior general in 1965, "we had over 100 men and 40 in training. In the early 1970s, the vocation numbers dropped."

But, he added, it wasn't all a dark cloud "because, in part, that's when the emergence of the laity began, which is a blessing."

While he enjoyed his years in administration, his heart, as is the case with other Glenmarians, is in the missions. Following his ordination, he spent 11 years in the mountains of Virginia where, in addition to his pastoral assignment, he worked with  "the poorest of the poor."

"That work is a big part of me. It's what I joined the Glenmary community to do. There wasn't success in founding a church, but there was much success in ministering to the poor," he says.

That ministering took the form of doing a lot of "sitting on porches, passing the time of day with these people and spending a lot of time with them," he says. "They live very unregimented lives and, in order to find out how best to assist them, you have to go slow, spend time with them."

The joy Father Bob gets out of "getting to know people" was an asset to him during the time he spent as a representative of the U.S. Bishop's Committee on Ecumenism and Interreligious Affairs to the Southern Baptist Convention from 1971-74. His responsibilities in the position were to set up meetings between Baptists and Catholics "in order to break down stereotypes," he says. "It was a time when there was a good deal of openness in both churches and the situation was ripe for dialogue."

That dialogue resulted in a better understanding of the history and practice of the two faith traditions.

"It was a successful time and I met a lot of excellent pastors," he says. Some went out of their way to reach out to him. He remembers one Baptist minister in particular who "went out on a limb" while both were in Dallas to hear the Rev. Billy Graham. Father Bob, the only attendee wearing a Roman collar, walked into the auditorium and looked around for a seat. The Baptist minister stood up and motioned Father Bob to an empty seat next to him.

"That was very impressive to me," Father Bob says, "because some of his more conservative brethren would look askance at that, but he did it anyway."

While he enjoyed all his assignments in the field, there was a great contrast from his first assignment in Virginia to the nine years he spent in Alabama from the late 1980s to the mid-1990s. A good contrast. In 1949-Virginia, clergy "didn't receive much in the way of acceptance. We had to prove ourselves as human beings."

But in 1986-Alabama, it was an "open door. People were very receptive to what we are and what we do." That's what Father Bishop [Glenmary's founder] would term "success," he says.