Beschter's ministerial work was punctuated by a time as master of novices at the new Jesuit novitiate at White Marsh Manor, as well as a brief term as president of Georgetown College in 1829.

While in Maryland, he aligned himself with the Continental European Jesuits in the United States, who endorsed a monarchist view of ecclesiastical leadership.

Johann Wilhelm Beschter was born on May 20, 1763,[1] in the Duchy of Luxembourg,[a][3] located in the Austrian Netherlands, a part of the Holy Roman Empire.

[4] While little is known about his early life, Archbishop John Carroll reported that, before sailing for the New World from Amsterdam in 1807, Beschter was a pastor and dean in Luxembourg.

[5] After arriving in the United States, he was admitted to the Society of Jesus on October 10, 1807,[6] and anglicized his name as John William Beschter.

[8] Though assigned to St. Mary's, he drew the praise of Archbishop Carroll for simultaneously ministering to three congregations in the area, which comprised American, German, and Irish parishioners.

[12] Presiding over the ceremony, he preached in both English and German to a congregation of Catholics and Protestants,[13] which included one Moravian, three Lutheran and three Reformed pastors.

[9] Though successful as a pastor and a "very holy man", Carroll found Beschter in "want of a better education in the Society", as with many of the other foreign Jesuit missionaries in America.

[15] Beschter then became involved in the establishment of the Jesuit novitiate at White Marsh Manor in Prince George's County, Maryland.

[21] By 1818, Beschter had fallen ill and became involved in disagreements with Bishop Michael Egan of Philadelphia,[9] and so left for Georgetown in Washington, D.C.[1] To mark the tercentenary of Martin Luther's writing of the Ninety-five Theses, a pamphlet was published in Philadelphia under Beschter's name titled "The Blessed Reformation – Martin Luther portrayed by himself".

Likewise, nativist Jesuits opposed the leadership of Georgetown by such foreigners as Anthony Kohlmann, Stephen Dubuisson, and Beschter.