With Los Angeles set to host the Summer Olympics and Paralympics in 2028, the Catholic Church in the U.S. is “in the quad” — a four-year-period of training between the global competitions — to hone its evangelization game, a priest and former Olympian told OSV News.
“Let’s spiritually respond, pray and have a presence; let’s be on every corner (in Los Angeles) so that if someone is looking for a connection with God, we’re there,” said Father Joseph Fitzgerald, pastor of St. William the Abbot in Seaford, New York, and former vocations director for the Diocese of Rockville Centre, New York.
Father Fitzgerald spoke with OSV News shortly after serving as a chaplain at both the Paris Games and the Holy Games, the Catholic Church in France’s Olympic-related initiative. During both events, he sported not only his “clerical blacks,” but his credentials as a past Olympian, having played on the U.S. handball team in 1996.