Pope Leo XIV loves baseball: Will he appoint his patron saint?

Baseball does not have an official pattern, that is, a holy man or woman recognized by the Catholic Church as an especially powerful intercessor for a particular place, group or activity.

But Pope Leo XIV, a lifelong fan of the Chicago White Sox, who, as Pope, has worn the characteristic white and black cap of the South Side club and has joined a song of “White Sox” in the Plaza de San Pedro, could have the opportunity to “beat” on this subject.

Because in the “Blessed” list to which Pope León will pay attention to a possible canonization is another American Catholic associated with baseball: Blessed P. Michael McGivney.

The Blessed McGivney (1852-1890) is better known as the founder of the Knights of Colón, the Catholic Fraternal Organization that began in New Haven, Connecticut (United States), in 1882. But the priest, who was beatified on October 31, 2020, is also closely linked to baseball, both as a player as a promoter.

Although there are several bases to travel before Blessed McGivney can become the official intercessor of the Church in the outfieldpeople close to the game, such as the veteran lying chaplain of the major baseball leagues, Ray McKenna, are promoting that it is recognized as the spiritual pattern of sport.

“(It would be) a very welcome blessing for baseball and all its players, coaches and fans – pests, present and future -,” said McKenna, president and founder of Catholic Athlets for Christ.

Baseball and bliss

The Blessed McGivney association with baseball has a lot to do with the place and time when it grew. The future priest was born in 1852 in Connecticut (United States), only seven years after the Knickerbocker Base Ball Club encoded the modern form of sport in neighboring New York.

Like many other young people of his age, Blessed McGivney played baseball while growing. Not only that, but it would have been quite good. Historian Douglas Brinkley, principal author of the biography of the founder of the Knights of Colón, Parish Priesthe described him as “a naturally talented baseball player.”

Blessed’s talent in the country He started in a match between Seminarians of Connecticut and New York. He played in the left garden, hit the room and scored three times in a victory for the Charter Oaks club, where he also served as vice president.

As a pastor in St. Mary’s in New Haven and St. Thomas in Thomston, Connecticut, Blessed McGivney organized baseball matches in the parish picnics. His biography also suggests that he could have been the third -base coach of the team of the Columbus Knights Council in St. Thomas.

“It is sure to say that baseball followed the Blessed McGivney, and that it was not simply a casual observer, but that it could have seen a deeper value in the game,” said Andrew Fowler, a communications specialist at the Yankee Institute for public policy, based in Connecticut, who He has written on the connection of the American blessed with baseball.

Fowler said that Blessed McGivney saw baseball as “a means to build fraternity and community”, so, perhaps not surprising, the organization he founded continued involved in baseball even after his death.

Like Fowler He has previously reportedThe Knights of Columbus formed clubs and leagues throughout the country in the 1890s. At the beginning of the twentieth century, the Chicago League was recognized as the largest, with 42 teams and five divisions.

In addition, the gentlemen used baseball to support their charity works. In the 1920s and 1930s, they resorted to the major league player and member of the Council, Babe Ruth, to hold exhibition matches throughout the country, whose income was destined for those in need. More recently, the Councils of the Knights of Columbus in the Archdiocese of Detroit raised around $ 65,000 in June 2024 to build a small leagues for athletes with special needs, appropriately called “McGivney field.”

The Knights of Columbus, main promoters of the cause of canonization of Blessed McGivney, declined to comment for this story.

Fowler wrote that the organization founded by Blessed McGivney promoted baseball in part because the game helped the immigrant Catholic population to assimilate life in the United States.

“It made Catholics part of the American patriotic experience,” Fowler wrote. “In addition, as Father McGivney saw, it was also fun.”

Becoming the saint patron of baseball

Blessed Michael McGivney can have baseball credentials to be the patron saint of the game. But to get to hometwo things must happen.

First, it must be canonized. On that front, the American baseball player is “in turn”: Blessed McGivney needs a miracle more attributed to his intercession that is approved by the Vatican before he can be declared holy.

Secondly, after being canonized, then San Michael McGivney would have to be officially recognized by the Church as a patron saint in relation to sport.

According to Katherine Sprows Cumming, historian at the University of Notre Dame and author of A Saint of Our Own: How the Quest for a Holy Hero Helped Catholics Become Americanthere are three typical ways that a saint becomes a pattern.

The first is a “base” approach, since devotion to a specific saint for a particular need becomes so extended that it becomes a patron in fact. For example, San José is recognized as the patron saint of carpenters, although the Church has never made an official statement in this regard.

An intermediate option is that the sponsorship of a saint is promoted by the authorities of the home of the saint, typically bishops, but sometimes government figures. This happened, for example, in Spain in the seventeenth century, when King Felipe III successfully asked the Vatican to officially recognize Santa Teresa de Ávila as Copatrona in the country, along with Santiago el Mayor.

Finally, the Pope himself can simply declare a saint as a patron. Examples of this include the statement of Pope Pius XII in 1950 of Santa Francisca Javiera Cabrini as patron saint of immigrants, or the recognition of Pope San Juan Paul II in 1999 of Santa Edith Stein as Copatrona de Europe.

Cumming pointed out that the Vatican department that supervises the consideration of patterns saints is not the dicastery for the causes of the saints, but the dicastery for the divine cult and the discipline of the sacraments. As explained by the author of A Saint of Our Owncanonization and sponsorship are “two completely separate processes.”

According to Cummings, sponsorship does not change anything about the saint. Instead, the relationship between him or her and the faithful changes, giving the people of God “another intercessor, another person to imitate, another connection point.”

“The purpose of the saints is to bring the faithful to God, and sponsorship is another way to do so,” he said, describing being recognized as a pattern as a “amplification” of the visibility that a saint receives when he is canonized.

A shocking pattern

Having a dedicated pattern for a single sport like baseball may seem too specific, but it is not something unprecedented. San Luigi Scrosoppi, a nineteenth -century Italian priest who encouraged children in schools and orphanages who founded sports, was appointed patron saint of football in 2010 by two European bishops, with the support of a Vatican congregation.

If Pope Leo XIV seeks a possible patron saint of baseball, who According to Worldatlas It has 500 million fans concentrated in North America, Central America and Oriental Asia, there may be other candidates.

Santa Rita de Casia is considered by some as an unofficial patron, based on her role in the 2002 film The rookiewhich tells the real story of a 35 -year -old launcher who starts a professional career and arrives at the big leagues trusting his intercession.

Besides, Rumors have circulated that the player of the MLB Hall of Fame and Catholic devout Roberto Clemente could someday be considered for holiness. If Pittsburgh’s veteran pirate, who used his fame to help the poor and died in a plane crash in 1972 while he was helping victims of an earthquake in Nicaragua, once he became holy, he would apparently be the ideal candidate for the position.

But Fowler believes that Blessed McGivney is the clear favorite, since, unlike Santa Rita, he played baseball and, unlike Clemente, he already has an active cause of canonization.

And he thinks that, as a patron saint of baseball, Blessed McGivney could serve as “a channel of grace in the dugout”.

For example, he pointed out that having a spiritual pattern like Blessed McGivney to whom baseball players can go could help counteract the prevalence of superstition in sport.

“Why, instead of players finding strength in a fate rabbit leg or using the same socks, the church does not give players, young and old, a model of holy life, of someone who gave himself fully to God?” He rhetorically asked.

Cumming added that having a possible patron saint like Blessed McGivney so that fans and players invoke it could help Catholics see a deeper connection between holiness and all aspects of their lives.

“It shows that everything can be sanctified. Even going to a baseball game.”

Translated and adapted by the ACI Press team. Originally published in the National Catholic Register.