Columban Mission Magazine editor: Until the end of 2021, you were the Regional Director of the Columbans in the United States and well-known to our readers. What have you been doing since?
JOHN BURGER: My term of office as regional director finished on November 23, 2021 and that same week, I turned 75. It seemed a good time to hand over the director’s office and responsibilities to someone else. The members saw that Fr Chris Saenz was a good choice to succeed me. When I mentioned to a Sister in Philadelphia that my term was ending, she told me that Camilla Hall was looking for a chaplain. Camilla Hall is both a convent and a healthcare centre for the Servants of the Immaculate Heart of Mary. I was taught by these Sisters in grade school and am originally from the Philadelphia area, so I applied for the position. It has been a homecoming for me.
CM: HOW DID YOU DECIDE TO ENTER THE COLUMBAN SEMINARY?
JB: During high school, we had a series of religion textbooks that captured my imagination. It was quite a different approach from the catechism question-and-answer format I was used to. I also had a pen pal in Japan and had discovered an interest in Asia.
At the same time, I was reading books that inspired me, such as Deliver Us from Evil by Doctor Tom Dooley. But I knew I would never be a medical doctor.
During those years, I met my first Columban priest, a friend of my mother’s family, who had spent 25 years in Burma (now Myanmar) and he was quite an interesting character! I also had a couple of uncles and other relatives who were missionary priests. But I shied away from applying to that community. At that time, they did not have a mission in Asia. Also, I did not want to go through life as “Fr Bill’s nephew”.
CM: HOW LONG HAVE YOU BEEN A COLUMBAN PRIEST?
JB: I entered the Columban seminary right after graduation from high school in 1964. I became a temporary member of the Columbans in 1968 and was ordained in 1973. A friend who knew that I had spent my whole adult life as a Columban remarked, “You have been doing the same thing for fifty years!” But that is not how it has felt to me.
Over the years of my life as a priest, I have been a student priest, a parish priest, a teacher, a seminary rector, a counsellor, an editor, an administrator and now a chaplain. Each assignment brought with it its own requirements for skills and even virtues.
Besides living in several states from New England to the Great Plains, I have lived outside the United States - in Japan, Ireland and Hong Kong. And for various reasons, I have visited many other countries. It has not been a boring life.
CM: DO YOU HAVE ANY ACHIEVEMENTS THAT YOU ARE MOST PROUD OF?
JB: There is a Japanese proverb that says, “You are a fool if you never climb Mount Fuji and a fool if you climb it twice.” I am a fool who climbed it twice. But not in recent years! I have a couple of master’s degrees, but I consider my diploma from a Japanese language school my top academic accomplishment.
It was such an important key to functioning as a missionary over there. It is not that I mastered the language, but I never gave up.
And I once had a hole-in-one while on the golf course, but it was more good luck than skill. Or perhaps catching sight of a little sign that read “rattlesnakes in the rough” helped my concentration!
CM: WHAT TALENTS DO YOU WISH YOU HAD?
JB: Maybe in the next life I will have a good singing voice! And it would not be bad to be better at sports. It would be great to have sufficient golf skills not to spoil a good walk with friends.
More seriously, as I mentioned above, each assignment for a priest demands a variety of different talents. As a chaplain in a nursing home, being present to the dying and responsive to their needs, is certainly important.
Bringing confidence in God and accompaniment in life’s final journey makes for a demanding job description.
Columban Fr John Burger lives and works in the United States.
Listen to "Still on Mission: An Interview with Columban Fr John Burger"
Related links
- Read more from The Far East - January/February 2026
