Welcome to the Berlin Mission for the English speaking Roman Catholic faithful!

Our Mission activities are focused on the Church of St Bernhard in Dahlem, in Berlin's leafy western suburbs. It is there that our Mission Office is based, as is our principal priest, Father Herbert Gillessen. Father Gillessen was appointed to lead our Mission in autumn 2003. In this endeavour, he is ably assisted by Fathers Ide and Adonis, and, from time to time, other Berlin based Diocesan priests or members of the Society of Jesus who celebrate Holy Mass at our churches. While St Bernhard may be the focus of the Mission's work, we have a network of three supporting churches, all in the west of the city. You will find full details elsewhere on this website.

We look forward to having you join us for Holy Mass or in other liturgies. We offer a full range of religious education, preparation for marriage (in English of course!), and a number of social events. For more information, please contact Father Gillessen or our Mission Secretary, Sibylle Reed-Robie (who can be reached in our Mission Office at St Bernhard, usually open mornings only from Monday to Thursday).

Berlin benefits from a rich network of foreign language Missions that serve the city's migrant communities. Well over twenty per cent of the city's active Catholics are members of these various foreign missions: French, Italian, Vietnamese, Slovene, Ukrainian, etc. Our own English Mission may not have the numbers of the very large Missions (eg. those that serve the Polish or Croatian communities), but we are an energetic and devout community of Catholics from over two dozen countries.


The late Pope, speaking on World Migration Day in 2003, emphasised that foreign language Missions are valued places where "....the cultures of migrants and their special gifts are sincerely appreciated, and in which manifestations of racism, xenophobia and exaggerated nationalism are prophetically opposed". Our Mission tries to be just that: a place where people from many countries join together in a spirituality that transcends nationalism. And as to language... well, mainly English, but not exclusively so. We do add in a small dose of German and Latin from time to time.

The late Roman Pontiff, Pope John Paul II, consistently emphasised the importance of attending to the pastoral care of migrants - those who, for whatever reason, find themselves away from the homes and hearths of their childhood and origins, and seeking to make a new life in foreign fields. We, the Roman Catholic faithful of Berlin, who elect to come together as an English speaking Mission of the Church, are for the most part migrants. We can and should celebrate our diversity, as a truly exceptional community, one where ambassadors and asylum seekers join hands together in prayer and praise.

Ours are often worlds of echoing light where the threads of old places and peoples are woven into the textured fabric of our new lives here in the German capital. For many of us, life is scarcely easy. Reticence over language may breed social and cultural isolation. Livelihoods may be tenuous, our futures uncertain, and always there is the tug of the past... but always, always there is that immortality of the moment when, however far we may be from home, however foreign the people or place, we can join in confidence with our brothers and sisters and say Credo in unum Deum.

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