The body of a young seminarian, who drowned on July 9 while rescuing a fellow kayaker, has been found.CNA/EWTN News is reporting on an announcement by Wichita police that the body of 24 year-old Brian Bergkamp, a third year-seminary student at Mt. St. Mary’s seminary in Emmitsburg, Maryland, was discovered on July 28 on a sandbar in the Arkansas River.
Bergkamp, a native of Kansas who was scheduled to be ordained a priest in 2018, was kayaking with four friends on July 9 when they hit rough water. One of the women in their group fell out of her kayak and Bergkamp jumped in the water to help her to safety. Unfortunately, he was pulled underwater by the strong current and hasn’t been seen or heard from since.
More than 1,000 people attended a July 18 memorial Mass at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Wichita, Kansas to pray for his soul.
Afterward, friends and family said they weren’t surprised by his final act of self-sacrifice.
“He would go out of his way to help someone and forget about his own, probably, self in the process. So what he did was a very natural thing for him,” said Mt. St. Mary’s University Vice Rector, Father Kenneth Brighenti, to KSN News.
“He said he just had a desire to help people, to save people. He thought about being a fireman or a paramedic or a policeman, but decided the priesthood was what he wanted to do,” added Jan Haberly, who serves at the Lord’s Diner, which provides meals to the poor. Bergkamp had been an intern at the diner this summer.
“He was never about himself, always looking to do something for others, never thinking of himself,” said Jimmy Schibi, a fellow seminarian, to the Wichita Eagle. “He cared. He totally cared about each little individual job he was doing.”
“He gave up his life to be a priest, but before he could do that, he gave up his life for another,” Schibi said. “Probably one of the most selfless individuals that I’d ever met.”
As Bishop Carl Kemme of the Diocese of Wichita said in his homily, “He may not have been a priest, but he lived and died in a most priestly way.”
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