Holy Orders and Home Runs

PHOTO | THE TABLET, NEWSPAPER OF THE BROOKLYN DIOCESE

A HOME RUN FOR THE PATERSON DIOCESE  Bishop-elect Kevin Sweeney dons his New York Yankees apparel. The Queens-born priest is a lifelong Yankees fan. During his youth, he played baseball and dreamed of one day playing professionally for his beloved Yankees. At Cathedral Prep, he was an infielder, outfielder and pitcher. He was inducted into Cathedral Prep’s Athletic Hall of Fame in 2013.

PATERSON  For Bishop-elect Kevin Sweeney, his vocational call could be summed up by this choice — home runs or Holy Orders?

As a child, the Bishop-elect recalled dreaming of being a Major League baseball player and playing for the New York Yankees. Eventually, he traded in his baseball cards for holy cards and answered his call to the priesthood. The first seed of his vocation to the priesthood was planted when he was in seventh grade at St. Luke School in the Whitestone neighborhood of Queens in New York City. Bishop-elect Sweeney said, “It was the first time I can remember thinking about a vocation that maybe God was calling me to be a priest. Our homeroom teacher Sister Mary Margaret asked us whether we thought about what Jesus wanted us to be when we grew up.”

He went on to attended Cathedral Prep School and Seminary in Elmhurst, Queens, continuing his passion for the game of baseball playing as an infielder, outfielder and pitcher on its baseball team. For his prowess on the diamond there, he was inducted into the Athletic Hall of Fame at his alma mater in 2013.

Even though Bishop-elect Sweeney followed his call to the priesthood, he still has his passion for America’s pastime. Like many in the Paterson Diocese, he is a lifelong New York Yankees fan. While he grew up in Queens, his dad was a bus driver in the Bronx. He said, “I was 7 and 8 years old when the Yanks won back to back World Series in 1977 and 1978. The 80’s were another story for the Yankees but I remained faithful. Rooting for the team for me was more about the players and the team and ‘once a fan, always a fan.’ ”

Growing up in Queens did connect him with the other New York baseball team — the New York Mets. “I needed a job the summer after I graduated high school and my brother and a bunch of friends from my block got jobs at Shea Stadium reluctantly. I applied as well and ended up working there for the next nine years/seasons up until a month or so before I was ordained to the priesthood. I worked in the concession stands,” he said.

While being a professional baseball player is very different from being a priest, Bishop-elect Sweeney does see a great connection with baseball and faith. “I remember, as a teenager in the early/mid 80s, hearing Don Mattingly's ‘leadership skills’ described as, ‘he leads by example quietly, and outworks everyone.’ I think baseball and team sports, in general, can teach humility, respect for others, what it means to lead by example and learn from mistakes and the value of hard work and dedication,” he said.

He also thinks Baseball Hall of Famer Yogi Berra’s famous quote, “It ain’t over till it’s over,” has great relevance to faith as well as the quote “You Gotta Believe,” which is associated with the Mets and their 1973 season when Berra was manager for the team. He said, “Baseball and other sports can help us learn the value of ‘natural faith’ believing in one’s self, one’s team that ‘anything is possible’ and I believe that can have a positive impact on ‘true faith.’ ”

In addition to baseball, Bishop-elect Sweeney enjoys other sports and he has used sports references in his homilies. “In my current parish and especially our youth, but many of the dads as well, their favorite sport would be soccer or in Spanish, ‘futbol.’ I am a basketball fan as well, and the tragic death of Kobe Bryant this past February and some publicity after his death about him being a practicing Catholic and relying on his faith in tough times and raising his daughters in the Catholic faith was something that I did use in preaching,” he said.

These days, the ball Bishop-elect Sweeney mostly picks up is a golf ball but he has played for the past two summers with priests and Catholic school teachers in the Brooklyn Diocese softball game, called the Collars vs. Scholars, played in Coney Island at the Cyclones Minor League Stadium. The Bishop-elect said, “It turned out to be a lot of fun and it supported a good cause — Catholic schools. I would definitely welcome a softball game of diocesan priests and maybe, seminarians vs. laypersons or any group, especially if it could benefit a good cause.”