Catholic Athletes for Christ (CAC) was formed as a non-profit organization in 2006 with a straight-forward mission: “to serve Catholic athletes and share the Gospel of Christ in and through athletics.” CAC originally served players and coaches in Major League Baseball, but quickly expanded to serve those in the National Football League, and other professional and Olympic athletes and coaches. Some of the current members of the Athlete Advisory Board include former MLB catcher Mike Piazza, former MLB players Mike Sweeney and Jeff Suppan, current NFL Raiders head coach Jack Del Rio, Eddie Gavin of the MLS Columbus Crew, and former Philadelphia Eagles Offensive Coordinator Pat Shurmur.
When Bishop O’Connell was the President of Catholic University, he formed the first college/university chapter of CAC. It has expanded to nearly a dozen other Catholic colleges and universities. And, when he became the Bishop of Trenton, Bishop O’Connell started the first high school chapters of CAC. Called “Cathletes,” there is a CAC chapter in every Catholic High School in the Diocese of Trenton, and now in those in Springfield, IL.
Catholic Athletes for Christ further their ministry of developing Catholic role models by focusing on their seven core virtues:
Charity: the virtue of putting others before ourselves.
Honesty: virtue of being conformed and dedicated to the Truth.
Humility: the virtue of being aware that God is the author of all good, and the realization that we are not God.
Meekness: in athletic competition is not capitulation or timidity; it is the spiritual strength to help your competitors over the bar that you raise by winning.
Moderation: the virtue of being in control of our passions and having self-mastery.
Purity: the virtue of being clean in mind and body, as well as modest in our dress and speech.
Sportsmanship: the virtue of treating others with dignity and respect in sporting events; winning with graciousness and losing with dignity and honor.
Now, you may be wondering why am I talking about the CAC. When I was a high school chaplain, I first learned about the CAC, and was very impressed by how they integrated sports and Bible stories and lessons together to encourage teenagers to apply those lessons to their lives. As pastor here at Resurrection, I thought how could we bring the CAC program to the parish. Apparently the CAC national leadership was also looking to bring their program to parishes so that Catholic, high school athletes in public schools could also benefit.
So we are planning on starting the first parish-based “Cathletes” program. Some of the details still need to be worked out, but basically one evening, every-other-week, high school students will be invited to play some type of sport in our gym. We have kicked around ideas like a 3-on-3 basketball program, futsal (indoor soccer), volleyball. We would play for 30-45 minutes and then “take a knee,” to go over one of the CAC lessons, which focus on the core virtues and other aspects of the Church’s teaching. This would also last about 30 minutes, then we would play the second half of whatever game we are playing.
What do we need to get started? First, we need some volunteer leadership -- both adults and students. We need to hear which nights and what sports would we like play. So if you are interested in helping us start the “Cathletes” program here, please contact Rich Scanlon, [email protected] or myself, [email protected].