On a puck and a prayer

I like this piece on the “holy goalie,” Bishop Thomas Paprocki of the Archdiocese of Chicago.

Paprocki, a Chicago native, started playing hockey at a young age in the basement of his father’s drugstore.

“I am the third oldest of nine,” he says. “I have six brothers. There was a long narrow hallway in the basement of the store, and we used it to play floor hockey.”

The bishop, now 53, caught the hockey bug as a child from his father who was a Blackhawks and Canadiens fanatic.
“Some of my earliest memories are of going to the old Chicago stadium with my dad to see the Blackhawks play. I remember when they won the Stanley Cup in 1961. I really didn’t think I’d have to wait this long to see them win it again,” he laughs.

[…] The last five years have been busy ones for him off the ice as well. He was ordained bishop in 2003, and is in charge of overseeing 59 parishes in the Chicago area. Add a hockey net to that list of responsibilities, and that’s a lot of pressure, even for someone with divine inspiration. Paprocki doesn’t mind. He takes lessons from both arenas.

“I think sports in general are a good training ground for whatever you do in life,” he says. “And I do think there are similarities between being in goal and being a bishop. In both situations you are at the center of the action and people are counting on you. Both are really intense games mentally.

“Being a goalie requires concentration and confidence, which are attributes I need as a bishop, and in everyday life.”

[…]On one wall is a framed poster of the Chicago skyline with the image of Paprocki in full action stopping a shot, superimposed over Lake Michigan.

It’s the other wall that’s more telling though. Next to a framed shot of his league’s all-star team, with Paprocki front and center, is a cartoon drawing of Jesus playing hockey.

Kind of a nice, old-fashioned story. You’ll want to read it all.