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(For the record… I wrote this last Thursday with the intention of posting it for my Thursday column. But I was in my parents’ house, away from my computer, and couldn’t remember how to log into the back end of our website. So you’re getting it a bit late, but this is the post written on, and intended for, Thursday, June 7.)
With all the frivolity that’s been posted on this blog lately I think it’s high time we had a discussion of one of those serious, hard-hitting issues that always generate some good discussion. Therefore, I propose to say a few words on a sobering subject: the Catholicity of athletes. More specifically, I want to consider whether it’s a good thing when basketball
players cross themselves before shooting foul shots, or when baseball players do it before stepping up to the plate.
The question was raised the other night when I went to a Major League baseball game with my family. In the middle of the game my mother turned to me and said, “That batter must be Catholic, do you think?”
Huh?
“He just crossed himself.”
I fear I can’t remember the player’s name (he was a Dodger, but I’m not familiar with their players), but the blessing evidently didn’t do him any harm. He tripled, and was the beneficiary of the game’s only error. Even though I was rooting against the Dodgers, I was somewhat pleased.
As I see it, there are two ways to look at the question. On the one hand, when players bless themselves before hitting or shooting, they are praying for something that might be regarded as frivolous or even vain. Essentially, they want victory in a sporting competition, and what is
more, they want to be the agents who play a significant role in bringing victory, which would mean money and accolades for themselves personally. That hardly seems like a noble thing for which to pray. It might be distasteful to some to think of God in connection with this kind of casual entertainment; we might also ask why the athletes should suppose that God favors their own team over the other. There might be Catholics on the other side praying for the same thing, and they can’t all win.
This last problem is, of course, non-unique to sporting competitions. When a man prays for a job or a promotion, he’s asking for something that is in limited demand, and there are countless other examples in which prayer probably doesn’t seem inappropriate to us. Still, there’s something odd about casting the quest for victory in a light we normally associate with moral accomplishments. This is one possible argument against athletes
crossing themselves.
On the other side, you might say a couple of things. First of all, for a player, or for a true fan, sporting competitions do tend to take on the proportions of an epic drama, that does almost seem to have a moral dimension. I won’t comment here on whether or not this is a good thing, but insofar as it happens, isn’t it good that this aspect of life should not be “secularized” in the minds of faithful observers? The Catholic athlete may, like all good Catholics, simply wish to implore divine help in what he deems a time of great need.
But also: isn’t it nice, in a world that is not overly friendly to Catholicism, to see the occasional visual display of someone’s Catholicity? Professional athletes aren’t the greatest role models on the planet, but they’re still in the public eye. It’s refreshing to see that some people are not ashamed to be visibly Catholic, even when thousands of fans are watching. And who can say how often a little Catholic boy might notice one of his favorite players crossing himself? For a child particularly, this could provide a healthy reinforcement of his love of anything Catholic. It’s a trivial thing in the grand scheme, but it’s something.
My tentative conclusion is: it’s pleasing to see an athlete cross himself, as it’s pleasing to see almost anyone demonstrating his Catholicity without shame. However, there is a catch. Any Catholic who has a high public profile is under a particularly strong obligation to live an upright Catholic lifestyle by staying true to the faith and avoiding unworthy associations. When the world knows that you’re Catholic, you have great potential to cause scandal, and this is a danger of which professional athletes must be particularly aware.
What do our readers think? Are you pleased to see athletes crossing themselves, or do you roll your eyes?
St. Louis-Marie de Montfort,
Pope St. Pius X,
St. Joseph,
St. Ambrose of Milan,
St. Thomas Aquinas,
St. Francis (and St. Clare),
St. Catherine of Siena,
St. Alphonsus Ligouri,
St. John Chrysostom,
These guys are paid hundreds, maybe thousands of dollars per time at bat. If I had that much money riding on my performance, I’d deem it worth a prayer, too. This is their job. I pray before exams, for instance. I can’t see how vainglory is involved — much of life *is* about our performance. And we need all the divine help we can get. They were given a great physical talent, and it is good to give God credit for that.
I agree with Tobias Petrus - it’s their job to hit the baseball, so it makes sense for them to pray that they do their job well.
Clara, at this point I have given up expecting to find a formal invitation in the mailbox but don’t worry, I understand. …I know that you would like to see some hard-hitting discussion take place here but I can’t offer much. You know that I shy away from controversy. Anyway, it’s hard to start a rally in the late innings. Besides, most of your fans have left the stadium, thinking the game was called off due to your no-show last Thursday.
To me any sign of religion in the world of sports is a good thing. Give me medals or scapulars falling from around the neck rather than dreadlocks and earrings hanging from football players. Signs of the cross are good too, but falling on the knees to say a prayer after a touchdown is a little much. No one would appreciate a baseball player on his knees before stepping up to the plate. Although it may sound great when someone mentions a “Hail Mary Pass” there are other terms that should not be used out of respect.
Good example is what I look for most in an athlete. How they live and what they say during interviews are very powerful especially for the youth as you mentioned. There is a popular football player who had it all as far as ability, popularity, etc., but most importantly he is Catholic from a good family, was an altar boy, and seemed an ideal role model—even made headline news when he met the Pope. Then Delilah cut his hair, if you know what I mean, and now all has changed as far as being a role model. It’s hard to manage with so much money and fame coming your way—let me tell you.
I received flyer at the Right to Life March this year that a group of Catholic athletes are putting out a movie about living the Faith. It should be out soon and if it does, I’ll let you know. The Born Againers have it all over us as far as witnessing goes. I remember watching Evander Hollyfield in an interview after he beat Mike Tyson in a championship-boxing match. The interviewer was having a hard time keeping Hollyfield on the subject of the fight, he was going on so about how good the Lord was. The Lord, He is this…and knows how to guard and protect us…etc. “That’s great, Evander, but what about that uppercut you landed in the third round?” Hollyfield immediately shot back, “Yea, that was a shear inspiration from the Holy Ghost.” They couldn’t side track him; It was great.
Speaking of boxing there is a good movie about James J. Braddock, one time heavy weight champion of the world. He was fighting during the Great Depression and was a hard working, Church-going, Catholic Family Man. The climax was his big fight with Max Baer who had a big Star of David sewn on his boxing trunks. The movie didn’t show that but they portrayed Max as the complete opposite of Braddock. During the fight they show Braddock’s wife going to say a private prayer at the parish church only to find it packed with others doing the same. The movie portrays the pastor bringing in the radio but that’s not true. In real life a group of men listened in the rectory. I won’t tell who won, if you haven’t seen it.
There are a number of great Catholic stories in the Sports world but they are much fewer today, most likely due to high salaries and of course the decline of the Church. So next time you’re watching the Dodgers, if you see someone bless himself and hit a home run, that’s me.
At the Catholic high school I attended if you look in the trophy cases you will see rosaries over the football trophies. I asked why that was. It turns out that the rosaries were buried behind the goal posts before championship games. People would even sneak onto opponents fields in the dark of night and do the same. Some “do gooder” eventually called this tradition into question and it stopped.
Maybe it borders on superstition, but I think it smells more like Catholic culture. People always want to take away the fun part of being a Catholic.
I think its OK if you are asking not to be plunked in the head with a fastball — which could kill you — or possibly if you are asking not to be hit on the hand or knee — which could injure you enough to miss time — but not if you are asking for success at the plate.
Ah, so we have at least one who seems to think that praying for athletic success involves vainglory. I think Tobias Petrus is quite right that a lot of our life involves performance. I also think he’s right that crossing yourself at the plate or behind the foul line is pretty equivalent to crossing yourself or whispering a prayer before a big test. But I, in my fastidiousness, have sometimes wondered about that too. Is it okay to pray for a high score on the SAT or a good grade on a project? These seem like somewhat worldly goals; on the other hand, if we don’t ever appeal to God for help in things that we care about, we tend to lose a sense of his divine care. Every night I could get away with a quick whispered “thy will be done” and then climb into bed. That doesn’t seem quite right.
So I guess my tentative conclusion is that it’s probably okay to pray for help in hitting one out of the park… provided you’re humble about accepting whatever comes as coming from God. Think of it like a child telling his parents what he really wants for Christmas. It’s probably okay to tell them, as long as it’s not something the child himself knows to be bad for him. But he should be humble and obedient if his elders decide it would be better for him not to get his wish. We might be a little like that.
Discipule, I would have been delighted to have you as a wedding guest, but I thought it was a post card from our exotic honeymoon that you wanted? And that you can still have, if you’ll trust me enough to supply your real name and address to me. (Of course you can email it privately; I wouldn’t want you to post personal information here where anybody could read it.) I couldn’t agree more about the need for Catholic athletes to be good role models. The Doctor and I did see Cinderella Man and enjoyed it quite a lot.
To my shame, I missed my Thursday column again this week (I wasn’t near a computer for a few days, so it couldn’t be helped) but I’ll be making up for that soon. I plan to be more active on the blog in the near future, as soon as all this silly wedding and honeymoon business is out of the way… :-)
“We don’t pray to win. We pray to play the best we can, and to keep us free from injury. And the prayer we say after the game is one of thanksgiving.” Vince Lombardi
Also: “I derived my strength from daily Mass and Communion.”
According to his son, on the inside of Lombardi’s championship rings are two etchings. One is the Sacred Heart of Jesus; the other is the Blessed Mother holding the infant Jesus.
Clara, I sent a separate message to you via Contacts. Thanks.