c. 2007 Religion News Service

VATICAN CITY _ If there is a training ground for leaders of the Roman Catholic Church in America, it is the Pontifical North American College in Rome.

Every year, bishops from across the U.S. send their most promising candidates for the priesthood to study at the college; active alumni include 120 bishops and archbishops and nine of the 13 American cardinals.

Now the college is an athletic powerhouse, too _ at least within the limited ranks of clergy and clergy-to-be in the Eternal City. Since late February, 20 of its 172 seminarians have taken several hours a week from their heavy schedules to practice and play as the “North American Martyrs” in a Vatican-sponsored soccer tournament called the Clericus Cup.

Several members of the NAC team had never played the game before this year. Yet going up against experienced natives of soccer-crazed nations like Italy and Brazil, the Martyrs have racked up four wins and two losses, ensuring them a spot in May’s playoffs.

Their winning season has boosted college morale.

At a recent game, several dozen seminarians in polo shirts watched the action from a viewing stand festooned with two American flags, singing doo-wop and Motown tunes and chanting “Come on, all you NACkers, let’s kick some caboose!”

The cheering section for their opponents, an all-Brazilian squad of priests representing the Pontifical Gregorian University, consisted of a single benched player performing on a pair of samba drums.

The relative youth of the Martyrs, who are all in their 20s, no doubt helps explain their success. American organizational flair and love of competition surely have something to do with it, too. But players and others at the college insist that their will to win, while abundant and passionately expressed, is not their primary motivation.

“I think the biggest thing for me has been watching our guys grow in fellowship together,” says Daniel P. O’Mullane, 25, a first-year student from the Diocese of Paterson, N.J., who is the team’s coach and manager. “The diocesan priest is a collaborator. In studying theology there aren’t a lot of group projects. This gives us an opportunity to do some real collaboration.”

Playing soccer has also fostered a feeling of unity with the seminarians’ peers from around the world.

“Here in Rome there are so many people doing the same thing from so many different cultures,” says goalkeeper Andrew J. Roza, 26, a fourth-year student from the Archdiocese of Omaha, Neb. “Being able to do this with those guys is a unique aspect of being able to study here.”

As much as the players and their classmates enjoy the action on the field, they say the games are not merely for their own benefit, but also for the edification of spectators.

“The real drive behind the Clericus Cup has been evangelization,” says Gregory T. Rannazzisi, 24, a second-year student from the Diocese of Rockville Centre, N.Y., who acts as the team’s trainer. “It’s taking something that’s rather ordinary and applying Christian fundamentals to it _ sportsmanship and teamwork _ and playing it for the love of the game, and not looking to win in Machiavellian ways.”

When a player for the Gregorian team, which does not have its own trainer, suffered a bloody nose during their match, Rannazzisi was one of the first on the field attending to the injured.

Such generosity extends to spiritual care as well. The Rev. James F. Quigley, who runs the homiletics program at the college and leads the Martyrs in prayer before and after every match, was recently asked to bless an opposing team without its own chaplain. He was glad to oblige _ until the other team went on to win.

“I’ll never do that again,” Quigley says.

A kinder, gentler style of play is very much in the spirit of the tournament.

Its most conspicuous innovation is the “blue card.” While referees in normal soccer games have yellow and red cards to warn and disqualify offending players, officials supervising Clericus Cup matches can flash blue to bench an offending player just long enough to reflect on his foul.

While the “NACkers” clearly share the values that animate the Cup’s other 15 teams, they are also striving for a particular goal, one that reflects recent experiences of the American church.

The sex abuse crisis in the U.S. has seriously undermined the public’s image of priests, turning them into figures of suspicion even for many Catholics. The men at the NAC hope the example of future clerics playing clean and hard on the soccer field can dispel unfavorable prejudices, especially in the minds of young men considering the priesthood.

“This a great demonstration that the overwhelming majority of priests are good, holy men,” Rannazzisi says. “We’re regular guys who enjoy sports.”

DSB/LF END ROCCA

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