Associate Professor of Theology Sr. Mary Kate Birge has been named chair of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops’ (USCCB) Board of Control. Birge was appointed by Archbishop for the Military Services Timothy Broglio, who is the president of the USCCB. She is the first woman to be appointed to the role.
"I am honored and grateful to Archbishop Broglio for this appointment. It is, of course, exciting to be the first woman named as chair,” shared Birge.
The Board of Control is a five-person board on the USCCB that is dedicated to approving corrections to the translation of the New American Bible, Revised Edition (NABRE). The Board recommends revisions to the translation or footnotes, and oversese scholarly use of the NABRE. The NABRE is the standard translation of the Bible in the American Catholic Church, used for liturgies and often for theological scholarship.
A member of the Board of Control since 2013, Birge was first told of the opportunity to join the Board by Mary Sperry, then associate director of the USCCB’s publishing arm and a former classmate of Birge’s from the Catholic University of America (CUA).
“I have been doing this work with wonderful scholar colleagues since 2013 when [Archbishop of New York and then-president of the USCCB] Cardinal [Timothy] Dolan appointed me to my first term as a Board member, so not much will change for any of us on the Board as we continue working together for the sake of all who pray, worship, read and study with the New American Bible, Revised Edition."
Birge obtained her doctorate from CUA in Biblical Studies, with a concentration in the New Testament, in 2001. She has been a professor at the Mount for 25 years.