As I write this, the Green Bay Packers are leading the Denver Broncos 13-7 (we’ll see if that sticks!). Brett Favre, the quarterback of the Packers, has always impressed me with his resolve, durability, class and passion. I was privileged to attend the game in which he played the day after the death of his father. It was in December 2003 against the Oakland Raiders, and Favre statistically had the greatest game of his long career (399 yards, 4 TDs). Even the typically hostile Oakland could do nothing but cheer for what was simultaneously a sorrowful and exhilarating event for Favre. After the game, Favre–often terse in his Southern drawl–spoke:
“I knew that my dad would have wanted me to play,” Favre said. “I love him so much, and I love this game. It’s meant a great deal to me, to my dad, to my family, and I didn’t expect this kind of performance. But I know he was watching tonight.”
Favre has gone through a series of tragedies in recent years: the death of his father, the death of his brother-in-law, and his wife, Deanna, being diagnosed with breast cancer (a battle she has subsequently won). I had known that both Brett and Deanna were Catholic, but I did not know that they relied so heavily on their faith to get them through their dark times. In a recent article from Catholic News Service, which was copied at Catholic Online, I read that their faith has indeed seen them through several difficult times in their lives.
Deanna attributes to her Catholic faith her choice not to have an abortion when she was pregnant with their child during college:
Their Catholic faith was a key factor in Brett and Deanna’s decision not to have an abortion when she became pregnant out of wedlock following her second year of college.”We were always totally against (abortion),” she said, adding that putting their baby up for adoption was also not a consideration.
Deanna said she “knew premarital sex was wrong, but for whatever reason” did it anyway. “I knew I would keep the baby,” she said. Having Brittany meant that Deanna had to put her career goals on hold, but she said she was determined to do whatever she could to bring her up.
During Deanna and Brett’s on-again, off-again relationship during college and his early NFL career, Deanna said she often turned to prayer. The couple married in July 1996.
—
“Brett is a completely different person and I can see the power of prayer in just that. It’s changed our lives, our family.”
They are members of two parishes:
The Favres are members of St. Agnes Parish in Green Bay during football season and St. Thomas Aquinas Parish in Hattiesburg, Miss., during the off-season.
Since overcoming breast cancer, Deanna Favre has started a foundation that raises awareness, and she has written an autobiographical account of her struggle with cancer in order to inform women about breast cancer and to encourage women who are battling the disease.
It always amazes me the manner in which the Catholic faith–even when it is not always embraced and explicitly lived–is a profound force in our lives. This is why we can never succumb to the temptation to sell other Catholics out on account of their not living up to some paradigmatic standard of what we think a “real” Catholic is. The journey of faith, a trite expression but apropos, is not static, uniform, monolithic or predictable. As long as some semblance of faith subsists in the heart, that journey is meaningful. Only God shall judge the heart, and he shall show favor to whom He chooses.
Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In