Hour-long line gives congratulations to Fr. Berardi

Fr. Berardi spent more than an hour greeting guests in this long line

The Rev. Fr. James Berardi celebrated his Golden Jubilee –50 years as a priest–on Sunday at an altar just about 25 feet east of the altar where he celebrated his first Mass.

When the new church was constructed at St. Paul, parishioners wanted to retain something of the old church. The altar of the old church thus remains behind the new altar, separated only by a glass wall.

Fr. Berardi, a native son of St. Paul, said his first Mass at the old altar on Trinity Sunday in 1959.

It is not often that a parish is given the honor of producing a priest of the Catholic faith. It is rarer still to have him still celebrating Mass there almost every Sunday.

James Joseph Berardi was born in St. Thomas Hospital on March 16, 1933, to Marie and Joseph Berardi. He was the second of two children.

He and his family were members of St. Paul parish where Father attended grade school for all eight years. In the fall of 1947, Father began as a freshman at St. Vincent High School. He was one of only three students from his eighth grade class at St. Paul's to attend St. Vincent that year. He had no choice in the matter. His father had graduated from St. Vincent High School in 1921 and his grandfather, Frank Berardi, had been the janitor at St. Vincent for many years. Father was told by his dad, "You are going to St. Vincent! Period!" And that he did. While there, he was a member of the National Honor Society, a Latin scholar, a member of the Classical Latin League, Scholarship Team, and an acolyte for four years. Father was also an accomplished banjo player and enjoyed singing and ballroom dancing.

For more than half of his years as a priest --25 plus years– Father Berardi was chaplain of Akron City Hospital until December 2007 when he was forced to retire because of an immune deficiency.

He celebrates one of the Masses each Sunday at St. Paul.

During his homily on Sunday, Fr. Berardi recalled his years as a priest and as chaplain adt City Hospital.

Father Berardi has had the privilege of serving under three distinguished priests. His first assignment was as an assistant at St. Rose in Cleveland under Fr. Edmund Kirby from 1959 to 1964. Fr. Kirby was responsible for building churches in three different parishes, Fr. Berardi also served from 1969 to 1975 under Fr. John J. Hilkert at St. Mary in Akron and from 1975 to 1982 under Fr. Thomas H. Corrigan at St. Vincent. He served from 1982 to 1984 at Annunciation where Fr. Ray J. Horley asked him to become chaplain at City Hospital.

Fr. Berardi incidentally was named St. Mary / St. Vincent Alumni of the Year in 2007,

Fr. Berardi spent more than an hour greeting guests at a reception for him in Boeke Hall following the Mass.

Assisting at the Mass were the pastor, the Rev. Fr. Ralph Thomas, and Deacon Frank Lonteen.Joint choirs from St. Paul and Annunciation sang for the Mass with Adult Choir director Jin Yu and organist Karyn Lintner. Lector was Jamie Dean and altar servers were Jacqueline Wammes and Paige Harbarger.

A poem, “The Old Violin” was read by Jerry Kelly who has been part of Fr. Berardi's drama group which staged a number of programs including skits and songs for a show March 30,2008 celebrating the centennial of Annunciation Church. See th epoem below.

Click on the headline to see more photos from the reception..

A version of this story also appears in the Upublish section of Ohio.com, the Beacon Journal website.