Peter Berger, SJ, was born in Sunnyside, Washington, in 1983 to Deacon Duane and Carol Berger, the fifth of seven children. He graduated high school in 2002 and did several years of full-time volunteer work with Reach Youth Ministries, a traveling retreat ministry for mostly high school-aged youth. These were very formative years of active ministry, prayer and community life for him. It was also when Peter began to discern the possibility of a vocation to the priesthood. Before and between volunteer years, he worked and put himself through community college in Yakima, Washington. In the fall of 2008, he began seminary formation for the Diocese of Yakima and studied at Mount Angel Seminary near Portland, Oregon. After completing the undergraduate portion of the seminary formation with a bachelor’s degree in philosophy, Peter withdrew from the seminary. During a couple quiet years of prayer and discernment, he did the Spiritual Exercises in Everyday Life, which inspired his discernment with the Jesuits.
Peter entered the Novitiate of the Three Companions in 2014 in Culver City, California, and took first vows in 2016 at the Chapel of the Sacred Heart at Loyola Marymount University. He then completed a master’s degree in philosophy at Saint Louis University. In 2019, he did regency at Bellarmine College Preparatory in San Jose, California, where he taught religion and Christian ethics to sophomores and juniors. In 2022, Peter moved to Toronto for theology studies at Regis College, where he completed a Master of Divinity degree. After ordination, he will serve as associate pastor at St. Aloysius Parish in Spokane, Washington.
