Print Issue: May 2, 2002

Soccer Game Between Priests, Teens Furthers Vocations Awareness

By Erika Anderson, Staff Writer

FAIRBURN-With the score 5-5, the soccer game ended in a tie.

But in the match between Our Lady of Mercy High School students and The Padres, a soccer team made up of archdiocesan priests, everyone won.

Father Kevin Peek, with arms extended, offers his Padre teammates some strategies to employ for the second half of the soccer game against Our Lady of Mercy High School students. Father Peek is parochial vicar at Holy Trinity Church, Peachtree City. (Photos by Michael Alexander)

At the beginning of the match, held at OLM April 22, each team bent down silently to huddle and pray as Father Paul Burke, chaplain of OLM, opened the game in prayer.

"I'll be available for anointing of the sick and dying or for confession, whatever the case may be," Father Burke joked.

The match was competitive, but friendly.

The Padres were formed two years ago by captain Father Kevin Peek, parochial vicar at Holy Trinity Church, Peachtree City, and Holy Trinity parishioner Marian Spencer.

"The whole main reason for forming this team was to promote vocations," Spencer said. "We want the kids to see that these priests are regular guys."

And though a shortage of priest players forced the team to use substitutes such as Mercy students and even Mercy principal John Cobis, both sides seemed to enjoy the camaraderie.

"I think for old men we did pretty well," joked Father Scott Reilly, LC, chaplain at St. Pius X High School, Atlanta.

Josh Flores, a 10th grade player from OLM, agreed.

"They were tough. I thought they'd be slower than they were, but they really held their own," he said.

Father Scott Reilly, LC, center, chaplain at St. Pius X High School, Atlanta, waits for the opposing team to put the ball back into play during a soccer game against high students from Our Lady of Mercy High School, Fairburn, April 22.

Padres player Father Tom Hennessy, pastor of Sacred Heart Church in Griffin, said that he enjoys not only the fellowship with his brother priests, but also the fellowship with the teens.

"It's a chance for us to show them that the priesthood is a great way of life," he said. "Just because you become a priest doesn't mean you change much. You just live life a different way. You can still have fun and have a life dedicated to God."

That's exactly what the priests proved to Stephen Lenahan, who played with the Mercy students.

"There is not a better way they could have advertised 'vocations week' than by coming out here and showing us how fun the priesthood could be," he said.

Seminarian Anil Pereira splits two defenders as he moves the ball down field, lines up a kick and scores a goal for the Padres. The game ended in a 5-5 tie.

The Padres are just one way that the archdiocese is reaching out to high school students and encouraging them to think about vocations.

This year, Archbishop John F. Donoghue celebrated special vocations Masses at the archdiocesan high schools in honor of Vocations Awareness Week in the archdiocese.

In the OLM auditorium April 16, the archbishop encouraged the students to think about their futures. He said that most of them would probably marry and raise a family, while others were called to be single. But he hoped that others would consider "the vocation that involves giving everything you have away, and then, day by day, and for your whole life, following the Lord in His ministry."

"The priesthood and the Religious life are the ways to do this. Young women who decide to give their lives to God can become sisters. Sisters belong to Religious families, called Orders-they give their hearts, minds and bodies to Jesus Christ, and then try to help His Church in whatever work they are called to do," the archbishop said, adding that men could also become deacons or brothers.

"But most special, and perhaps in a way that captures as closely as possible the third answer of our Lord, young men can become priests," he said. "Priests are under attack right now, as you all know-but these attacks are because a few priests have been very bad, have forgotten the holiness of their vocation, the holiness of sharing the life of Jesus Christ, and their badness is causing problems for all the rest. But I can tell you, with no doubt in my heart, that the priesthood was created by Jesus Christ, and it will last until the end of time."

The archbishop concluded by telling the students that it was not necessary to immediately decide their future.

"But it is the time, because you are Christian, because you are Catholic, and because you are on the threshold of your futures-it is the time to let into your minds the possibility that God might be calling you to the priesthood or Religious life," he said. "All I ask, all the Lord asks, is that you stay open to the possibility."

Father Brian Higgins, vocations director, addressed the students. He told them that they would find joy in following God.

"You need to open up your hearts and listen to where God is leading you," he said. "When you follow that call, when you open up and do what God is calling you to, you'll find true happiness. Y'all have to make your decision right now. Who are you going to follow?"

Father Higgins said he "loves being a priest."

"It's the greatest thing God has ever called me to, and I am humbled every day," he said. "I love leading other people closer to Christ."