The Many Talents of Father Christopher Berlo, C.P.
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Father Christopher Berlo, C.P. was a priest. He was also an expert in Gregorian music, a translator, a construction engineer, a weatherman, and an Army chaplain and hero.
As a theology student, Christopher Berlo was sent to Germany to study in 1927. He was ordained there that year. He remained there where he renovated a two hundred year old church and monastery. He designed and built the new Passionist monastery on Miesberg, Schwarzenfeld in Palatinate, Germany and was elected the first superior in the 1930s. He was a preacher of missions and retreats in Germany.
From 1931 to 1932 there was a short break from his time in Germany while he studied Gregorian Music in Rome. In 1931 Passionist General Titus Fenocchi, C.P. assigned Fathers Christopher Berlo and Vincent Mary Oberhauser, living in Austria at the time, the task of revising the 1889 "Promptuarium Chorale," a special musical text of chants. The book contained over 1300 pages and was published in 1937.
In 1942 Father Berlo translated from German into English the ten-chapter book, Kurze Geshicte der St. Michael's Gemeinde written by Philip Birk, C.P. in 1886 about St. Michael's Church in Pittsburgh.
In May 1943 Father Berlo became a military chaplain. He became a captain and served in the South Pacific with the United States infantry. He retired from the Army in 1958
In this 1948 article he tells a little of his years in Germany, including his dramatic escape from Germany back to the U.S. in 1940. He also describes his time in the Army during the war: "For the next two years I followed the course of the fighting from Australia to Japan, first on New Guinea at Milne Bay and Finschafen, then with the 40th Division in New Britain and then with the 19th Infantry Regiment of the 24th Hawaiian Division. With these experienced jungle fighters I made the initial invasion of the Philippines on the left flank of Red Beach at Leyte and within the first week of that important campaign, hand buried 151 of my men, every one of them a hero." Father Berlo doesn't mention a close call that was in the newpaper where his life was saved by jumping into one of those graves when a sniper fired at him. He received a Purple Heart for injury and an Oak Leaf Cluster which is added for each subsequent award, meaning he was injured twice.
After he retired from the Army, Father Berlo was again involved in building (1958-1969). He was construction engineer for the building of the Passionist monasteries in North Palm Beach, Florida (dedicated in 1962); Riverdale, New York (dedicated in 1967); and Shrewsbury, Massachusetts (dedicated in 1969). He also directed construction of the new Retreat House in Pittsburgh (1961), addition to the Holy Family Monastery (1963), and a radio television facility (1963) in West Springfield where the Passionist Fathers' "Hour of the Crucified" and "Chalice of Salvation" programs originated.
Through self-education, Father Berlo was able to do his own weather forcasting. He felt it was important to know what the weather would be in the exact location where work such as pouring concrete was to be done rather than relying on a report for an area several miles away.
Summary of Fr. Berlo's Obituary
Autobiographical article written in 1948
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