Deacon Steve Javie is a retired NBA referee with 25 years of experience and is currently an analyst with ESPN. He was ordained a deacon in 2019, and he and his wife, Maryellen, live in Newtown, Pa., where he is assigned to St. Andrew Parish. Deacon Steve drove up to join Bishop Kevin Sweeney and co-host Jai Agnish of the Diocese of Paterson for a fun episode about all of this and more!
Show Notes:
From NBA ref to permanent deacon, Steve Javie’s keeping his whistle
An Evening With Jay Wright
Welcome Home To Healing
Email questions and topic ideas to Bishop Kevin at beyond@patersondiocese.org.
Produced by Jai Agnish and Bishop Kevin J. Sweeney for the Diocese of Paterson. Engineered, edited, and theme song by Jai Agnish. Illustrations by Dennis Dalelio.
Beyond The Beacon on Instagram and Facebook. Bishop Kevin on Instagram. The Diocese of Paterson on Instagram, Facebook (English) / Facebook (Spanish).
Every three years, each Diocese in the USA has the graced opportunity to make a scheduled pilgrimage as one Diocesan family with their Bishop to the National Shrine in the nation's capital. 2026 is once again "our year!" Please note the two-day and one-day options: Oct. 16, Friday, and Oct. 17, Saturday. Visit the Diocese of Paterson website here to learn more!
On Coffee with Kupke, we have a cup of coffee and sit down with diocesan archivist, Monsignor Raymond Kupke Ph.D., to delve into the history of Catholicism in the Diocese of Paterson, N.J. Hosted by Father Paul Manning and Msgr. Kupke. Listen to Coffee with Kupke wherever you get your podcasts, or watch it on the St. Paul Inside the Walls YouTube channel here: https://www.youtube.com/@stpaulinsidethewalls.
Listen
Watch
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
SPEAKER_01 (00:07):
Welcome to Beyond the Beacon with Bishop Kevin
Sweeney, a podcast of theDiocese of Patterson, New
Jersey.
Join us for conversations aboutour Catholic faith, and
together, let's strive to live alife of faith, hope, and love.
Thank you for joining us.
I'm Jay Agnis.
With me is Bishop Kevin Sweeney,and our guest today, Deacon
Steve Javi.
(00:28):
Welcome.
Hi.
Thanks, thanks for having me.
Thank you.
How are you doing?
Thanks for having me on thisthing.
SPEAKER_00 (00:32):
Happy day after St.
Patrick's Day.
That's right.
We're recording this on uh uhMarch 18th, um, which is the
feast of St.
Cyril of Jerusalem, um, who getsthe shorts uh uh shifts shrift
sometimes because everybody sayshappy St.
Patrick's Day, everybody sayshappy St.
Joseph's Day.
Nobody says happy St.
Cyril's Day.
Happy St.
(00:52):
Cyril's Day, yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (00:55):
And how and how was New York City yesterday at the
St.
SPEAKER_00 (00:59):
Patrick's at the Mass before the parade.
Um, and Archbishop Hicks, hisfirst uh time is uh um so uh do
they celebrate much in uh inPhilly for St.
Patrick's Day?
SPEAKER_03 (01:09):
Every Irish person celebrates, whether it be
Philly, New York, Boston,doesn't matter.
They all celebrate.
And in the hell to that's right.
SPEAKER_00 (01:16):
Yeah, Bishop Hicks talked about that.
He said we're gonna sell twice,he said, we're gonna celebrate
in the morning, we're gonnacelebrate in the afternoon, in
the evening, and all day.
So pretty good.
Uh but uh he did a I think hedid a good job.
And uh so in it was a littlechilly, but it wasn't cold and
it was sunny, so um uh littlebit of a parade and went to uh
uh uh lunch and uh so it wasgreat.
(01:36):
And then uh I make an a uh uhannual stop in recent years at
um Murph's in Totowa.
There's a local place where theyuh so I was uh glad to know.
It had to be hopping yesterday.
It was, yes, yes, yes, yes.
SPEAKER_01 (01:50):
And we had thanks for sending your photos from
yesterday, they're up on yourInstagram account.
SPEAKER_00 (01:55):
Um and we are in now the fourth week of Lent, so um
it's uh amazing how quickly itgoes.
And um and um we're starting umthe uh NCAA uh basketball
tournament, so being with DeaconSteve uh can give us a little
chance to uh talk about maybethe intersection of uh sports.
(02:17):
There'll be a lot of attentionuh on uh March Madness, as they
say.
Um but uh hopefully we'd hopefor as much attention sometimes
on Lent and Holy Week.
Uh but uh but but we can uhJesus talked about what people
knew, right?
So uh exactly right.
Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (02:33):
Good.
So a little more about DeaconSteve.
So Deacon Steve Javi is aretired NBA referee of 25 years
and currently an analyst withESBN.
He is among a handful of refereereferees to officiate a thousand
games, actually 1,780 in total,including playoffs and NBA final
games.
(02:53):
He was a highly respectedofficial and one of the league's
toughest, known for having aquick whistle and temper in his
early days.
Among his legendary moments wasejecting not just Portland's
play-by-play announcer onenight, but tossing then
Washington Bullets mascot fromthe game.
As far as we know, Deacon Steveis the only permanent deacon who
(03:16):
is a former NBA official, and hedrove up from the Philadelphia
area to tell us all about it.
SPEAKER_00 (03:21):
So I think he did too much research, but I learned
a little bit.
Holy moly.
I uh I uh watching the Knicksand the Pacers and the Bulls and
uh over in the uh 90s, I guessthose um Riley Van Gundy teams
uh uh often saw Steve uh uhflying his trade uh trying to
(03:42):
keep the guys apart at time.
SPEAKER_03 (03:44):
That was there, they were tough games to work.
You talk about the three teamsright there in Chicago, right?
Yeah, go everybody's gone afterJordan with the Knicks, you
know, and the Bulls, and then ofcourse the pistons you throw in
there.
That that was not an easy time.
SPEAKER_00 (03:56):
Did you do any uh Chicago, Detroit, the bad boys,
uh when they wouldn't let Pippenget to the rim?
SPEAKER_03 (04:01):
Oh my gosh, I know.
I I did a number of those games,but not that game in particular.
But yeah, there was always umAnd then there was the heat too.
SPEAKER_00 (04:07):
There was the when when uh Riley went to the to the
heat in Van Gundy, uh I thinkthat was the leg incident,
right?
SPEAKER_03 (04:13):
Where the morning went down to the heat there and
then that's right, yeah.
It was uh it was a physicaltime.
I mean it's funny because evennow when I'm at the replay
center doing my job for ESPN andthe announcers start going,
well, this is really physicalout there, and then we're going
to be compared to Ewing andMason and Oakley and uh Ewing,
(04:33):
Mason, Oakley, John Starks, andum Rolando Blackman, I think.
SPEAKER_00 (04:37):
No, um no, uh Derek uh no.
Yeah, the point carrier.
The point Derek Harper, right.
I felt uh Detroit, those wouldhave had five that have given I
said they weren't the mosttalented or the highest scoring,
but they I think they might havewon the uh award for the team
that you don't want to meet inan alley.
That's redundant.
With the the the the twoWilliams on the um um uh who
(04:58):
were the Detroit teams werepretty tough as well.
Um so um but um uh uh Oh theIndiana team was tough.
SPEAKER_03 (05:05):
Right.
SPEAKER_00 (05:05):
Dick Smith's and the two brothers, uh the two guys
with the same last name.
Sure.
Uh Dale Davis.
Davis, and Dale Davis.
Yeah, right, right.
And Miller.
SPEAKER_03 (05:12):
Uh that was the Eastern Conference was tough
back then.
I speaking of like the um uh thethe Knicks and the Bulls, I did
have unfortunately unfortunatetime of being at a game in
Chicago Stadium where the fightgot into like the third or
fourth row into the stands, andwe're trying to break it up with
Starks and all these guys.
(05:33):
And you look two rows up,there's the commissioner, David
Stern, looking down, and you satthere and go, oh boy.
SPEAKER_00 (05:39):
That wasn't the uh run of a test game, was it?
No, that was the one.
I saw that on TV, thank God.
I wasn't there.
Oh my god.
SPEAKER_01 (05:46):
So we we're talking a lot of sports.
We still have to open up inprayer, Benjamin.
SPEAKER_00 (05:52):
Yes, yes, yes.
And we're gonna um uh ask theLord to to guide us and um
giving thanks for the blessingsthat we share and the recreation
sometimes that we need.
And um, so let us placeourselves in God's presence in
the name of the Father and ofthe Son and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
Amen.
Giving thanks to God for thegifts and blessings of each and
every day.
(06:13):
For those who are called andrespond to the call to serve the
Lord, praying for Deacon Steveand his ministry, and asking the
Lord to continue to bless ourdiocese, the archives of
Philadelphia, and the churchthroughout the world, continuing
to pray for peace.
We join our prayers together asone as we pray, as Jesus has
taught us.
Our Father, who art in heaven,hallowed be thy name, thy
(06:36):
kingdom come, thy will be doneon earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our dailybread, and forgive us our
trespasses, as we forgive thosewho trespass against us, and
lead us not into temptation, butdeliver us from evil.
Amen.
Our Lady Seat of Wisdom, Motherof the Church, pray for us.
Saint Joseph, pray for us, SaintCyril of Jerusalem, pray for us,
(06:58):
Saint Sebastian, pray for us.
All holy men and women, pray forus.
Name of the Father, the Son, andof the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
I believe Saint Sebastian is thepatron saint of athletes, I
think.
I don't know if there's a patronsaint of referees.
Oh, I gotta I gotta I don't knowwhat that one is.
I gotta find out, yeah.
Um well thank you, Deacon Steve,for taking the trip and uh and
joining us uh again as a treatfor me as a as a sports fan, but
(07:20):
as a bishop, um uh and as a as aCatholic um to see um someone
who's you know really had a veryhigh profile on the public uh
arena, let's say, and uh um uhrecognizable to any NBA fans.
But to I was uh I guess it wasabout a year ago when you were
on the Jesuitical podcast, anduh I was really grateful to hear
(07:41):
that conversation.
Um but um maybe you can justtell us a little bit about uh
your faith growing up and um anduh was it towards the end of the
your career where you and Ithink it was you really when we
talk about hearing the call, umuh something about the the
deacon and c the the acne cameinto your mind or heart.
(08:02):
Is that right and pray?
SPEAKER_03 (08:03):
Yeah, Bishop, it's it's it's a long story, but I'll
I'll try to keep it, you know,where it's okay.
Um but first of all, I justpraise God because I never
thought I'd ever be sitting inthis situation.
I every day I mean when I lookin the mirror and I put my
collar on before I go to mass, Istill can't believe that he's
called me to serve him and hischurch.
And it's just I just thank him.
It's all gratitude.
In my age and what he's done forme in my life, it's all
(08:25):
gratitude.
It really is.
Um but I I you know I givecredit to um obviously the Lord,
but I give credit to my parents.
My parents were um the firstones to raise me.
They were Catholic.
I was a cradle Catholic.
My my dad's brother, my uncleTony, was a priest in the
Archdiocese of Philadelphia foralmost 70 years.
One of my not because he was apriest, but he was like one of
(08:48):
my favorite uncles, just a coolguy.
Like you and I, we'd love heloved sports.
So it was like to me, ithumanized him more because
priests sometimes can be likepeople are they're over here.
Right, right.
But it's like, no.
Bishop Kevin loves sports, myuncle Tony loves sports, I love
sports, and it's like theCatholic faith, both and, not
either or.
Exactly.
And that's what I try to tellguys.
(09:09):
So we'll get into that a littlelater.
But my faith growing up, my dadbeing, of course, the brother of
a priest, we went to confessionevery two weeks.
Sat in the second row at churchevery Sunday.
St.
Philip, as a matter of fact.
Oh, look at that.
That's what I was talking to Jayabout earlier.
So St.
Philip when I was growing up.
And I can remember going tochurch every, you know, every
Sunday and confession every umevery two weeks.
(09:31):
And so they brought me up theright way.
They gave me the foundation, andI'm glad they did, because
obviously I didn't always followthat as I got older.
I got my independence, as I say.
It seems like once I got mydriver's license, um, it would
be like, okay, mom and dad, I'mnot going to mass with you at
eight.
I'll take the car and I'll go to12 o'clock mass.
But I wasn't going to St.
(09:52):
Philip's, I'd go to St.
Skipp's.
You know what I mean?
So uh unfortunately.
Luckily I can laugh about itnow, um, and I'm not telling
anybody to do that or anybodywho has a driver's license
because I wish that I had thefaith I have now back then.
But it's all in God's time, andI realize that.
So Catholic High School.
Catholic High School, LaSalle uhhigh school in Philadelphia, and
(10:14):
went on to Temple University inPhiladelphia also.
So I was raised by the Christianbrothers too.
Um it was a great time to go,you know, go through LaSalle.
They were just wonderful theretoo.
But the faith growing up, Imean, uh, it was all right
there.
Um unfortunately, uh, BishopKevin is that I I left the faith
when I got my independencebecause I thought I knew better.
You know, it's like I thought,you know, the world revolved
(10:36):
around me and my talents, notthe talents that the Lord gave
me.
And uh unfortunately I carriedthat through my young adults in
my in my uh college into mytwenties and so on and so forth.
SPEAKER_00 (10:47):
And we know sometimes it uh takes time to uh
uh appreciate uh our prioritiesand uh you know living in the
world that we live, and Jesuscalled us to be in the world but
not of the world.
Um but uh and and we can find alot of um similarities and and
intersection between faith anduh St.
Paul speaks about the athleteand uh running the race.
(11:08):
Um but um uh it it can also be adistraction and we you know we
face challenges of uh uh sportson Sunday mornings, uh competing
uh literally with with mass.
Um but um uh in terms of theinterest in sports, uh which
again I don't think it's ascommon today.
I read uh was it in high school,I think, um football, baseball,
(11:30):
and basketball.
Yeah, right.
SPEAKER_03 (11:32):
Yeah, played all three there.
Um I I played only two years offootball, but I played like four
years of uh you know baseballand basketball there.
My first love, just like yours,was baseball.
And I think you were a pitchertoo, right, Bishop.
At the end, at the end.
Yeah, yeah.
So I was a pitcher also.
Um and I I just loved it.
I love you know playingbaseball.
Did you play at Temple?
I did.
Um I always I always like totell the story about the um the
(11:56):
impact that I had.
Now, the older we get, we canstart talking about ourselves a
little older.
But the impact I had on Templebaseball.
At the time in the 70s, St.
John's was really good too.
Always very good.
Uh Seton Hall was very good,yeah, Frank Seton Hall was very
good.
Rick Saron was a catcher at thetime from Seton Hall.
So we had some good robberiesthere.
But the Temple was one of thetop teams in the East.
(12:17):
And the year before I got toTemple University, they went to
the College World Series.
Wow.
The year after I left Temple,they went to the College World
Series.
So that's the impact I had onthose four years.
They had a drought for fouryears when I was there.
But I enjoyed it.
It was really a lot of fun.
SPEAKER_00 (12:32):
And um and some minor league baseball.
SPEAKER_03 (12:34):
Minor league baseball, I signed with the
Orioles, um, pitched in thesingle A baseball for just about
just a year.
Next year at spring training, Igot released.
So my dream, as some of ourdreams are, right, um, it just
like went up in smoke.
And I was like, oh my gosh.
And Jay and I were talkingearlier about um, you know, if
my dream, if my plans camethrough instead of the Lord's
(12:56):
plans, what would it look like?
And I know one thing, itcouldn't be any better than what
the Lord has planned for me.
And that's what I try to tellpeople because the fact that
sometimes we think when we don'treach that one goal or we don't
reach that one dream, that ourlife, oh my gosh, what's what's
the Lord's got better plans foryou.
If you think you have goodplans, just wait.
He's gonna have better plans,and that's what he's done for me
too.
SPEAKER_00 (13:56):
And um so I think uh did you look into baseball
umpiring, but uh saw a little uhuh uh basketball became a little
bit more attractive from therefereeing uh um side.
Uh and then uh we can long MBAcareer, but at some point you
came back to the faith.
Uh yeah where take us maybe tothe sure yeah I'll try to take
(14:17):
you there.
SPEAKER_03 (14:17):
Like my first um I got in the MBA at the age of 30,
30, turning 31, so I did myfirst year.
SPEAKER_00 (14:23):
And CBA, Continental Basketball League.
I had learned about that.
Oh my gosh, yeah.
SPEAKER_03 (14:27):
I know Jay and I were talking about the CBA.
My gosh, Phil Jackson, we werejust telling some stories
earlier about Phil Jackson.
He and I came up together in theCBA.
Was he refined?
No, he was coaching.
SPEAKER_00 (14:38):
Oh, okay.
SPEAKER_03 (14:38):
He was coaching there, and we had we had some
run-ins back then too.
You know, so by the time we gotto the NBA, we really respected
each other.
And I liked Phil.
Phil was a good guy, I reallydid.
I respect his ability to coach.
But um my first like four yearsin the league, I was single.
Um, and still faith-wise, uh, Icall myself a creester, right?
Christmas and Easter I'd go to.
(14:59):
And even then, I always thoughtthe church had it wrong, right?
I had it right.
You know, the the uh the schoolof uh Steve was right, uh,
little did I know.
But I met my wife at theairport, going in and out of
Philadelphia Airport because wetraveled a lot.
My wife was a teacher by trade,but she worked part-time at U.S.
Airways in Philadelphia as agate agent.
And I would run into her.
(15:21):
And beautiful woman, and youknow, talking to people, and we
got to know the supervisorsthere because you need their
help when you've flights canceland so on as you're traveling
that much.
So Mary Allen uh I met, wouldtalk to her.
We flirt back and forth.
She would say she flirted a lotmore with me when I was like
kind of a chicken to ask her outbecause as guys, I don't know
(15:42):
about anybody else here, but wedon't like rejection.
And so I sit there and said,this beautiful girl who wouldn't
say yes to go out with me, but Ifinally got the um finally got
the guts to ask her out.
But the one thing, even prior tothat, this is before social
media.
Um, no Instagram, no Facebook.
You had to ask other peopleabout somebody else to find out.
(16:04):
Now it's not that now you goonline, you find out about
everybody, right?
So I would go up to everybody atU.S.
Airways, and what I did, MaryEllen, her big name was Kennedy,
right?
Yeah, what's your story?
What's going on?
And everyone, besides saying,oh, she's a very nice woman, and
blah, everyone says she's reallyCatholic.
Everyone.
I said, how cool is that?
I mean, now that I look back, Ihope someday that somebody can
(16:25):
sit there and say, Steve Javiwas really Catholic.
That's what a testimony to yourfaith.
Well, of course, I hear that,hear that me kind of like pushed
my faith away for a number ofyears, going like, well, I'm
Catholic.
Well, we have something incommon, right?
So after the first date, afterthe first date, we went out to
an Italian restaurant in SouthPhilly, enjoyed each other's
(16:48):
company, and I said, Okay, Igotta try to impress this girl.
Because guys are as a guy, youalways have to try to outdo it.
And they said the girls arelike, oh, okay, it's great.
Halfway through the week, I callher up.
I said, Mary Ellen, you have agood time?
Yes, we did.
But well, are you free for thisweekend?
Maybe you can go out again.
She goes, I'd love to.
What would you like to do?
I go, how about we go to massand brunch afterwards?
(17:10):
I hadn't been to mass, I don'tknow how long.
And but I just figured it's agood way of getting in good with
this pretty girl, right?
So you're gonna appreciate thislittle story here, uh, Bishop
Kevin.
So we pick her up, go to Mass,and all I'm thinking about is
brunch afterwards.
I'm not thinking about the mass.
And Mary Allen, like my parents,like to sit up front, you know.
So we're up front, okay, we'resitting there and they go, all
(17:31):
right, I can put up 45 minutesan hour, I can do that for her.
Come on.
Well, then now the priest, youknow, starts, and now he's now
he's gonna give his homily.
And I have to be careful, right?
Because I give homilies now.
So I'm not gonna be throwingthe.
Little did I know that peoplewould be critiquing me as I
(17:51):
critiqued, unfortunately, thispriest.
Uh and I critiqued him, and Iand obviously I wasn't
listening.
It was it didn't really resonatewith me.
I'm like talking about hardnessof heart, right?
And that's what it was.
So, but I kept thinking aboutthat's okay.
Once I'm out of here, it's likewe're going to brunch.
So finally the mass is over.
Marielle and I were walking downto the restaurant for brunch in
(18:11):
Philly.
And we start talking about themass for some reason.
She goes, Oh, that was really agood mass.
I went, What?
She goes, Well, yeah.
I said, Did you hear thatpriest?
I nothing he said reallyresonated with me.
And she said, Well, it didn'tresonate.
She goes, Well, do you haveanybody you could pray for?
I said, What do you mean?
She goes, Your family, yourfriends.
(18:32):
Couldn't you have just said alittle prayer at that time for
them?
Or couldn't you have prayed tothe Holy Spirit and said, you
know, touch me with somethingthat this priest is saying?
She goes, basically, she goes,Well, you you said you got
nothing out of it.
What did you put into it?
And she stopped me in my tracks,Bishop Kevin.
She was right.
I expected to get something forgiving nothing.
(18:53):
And that that changed my I mean,we still, my wife and I still
talk about it.
It's over 35 years now, and westill remember stopping on the
sidewalk and those exact words.
And it resonates with me, notonly just through my my Catholic
faith life, but in all life.
We get out of something what weput into it.
And and it's so true.
From that day on, I just said Ijust saw the kind of person she
(19:15):
was, the joy that she had, andshe's the one that brought me
back to my faith.
SPEAKER_00 (19:19):
Yeah.
So it's and she had been raisedCatholic herself, uh, Catholic
her whole life, went to St.
SPEAKER_03 (19:24):
Joe's University in Philly, never uh never left the
church at all, like me, and alot of people my age left and
came back.
She never she never leftwhatsoever.
Very I don't think anybody lovesthe Lord more than my wife.
We were sitting there thismorning in prayer because we
sing morning prayer together.
SPEAKER_00 (19:41):
Beautiful.
SPEAKER_03 (19:41):
And this is what I I invite all the men out there,
you know.
Of course, at my age I go off ontangents.
But I remember when we first gotmarried, Mary Ellen and I, and
this obviously way before I wasthinking of the call for a
deacon, she'd be praying.
She goes, You want to pray withme?
And I go, Nah, not me.
You got your thing, I got mything.
That's how guys are.
SPEAKER_02 (20:00):
Right, right.
SPEAKER_03 (20:00):
And then now being you know in the formation,
become a deacon, we startpraying together.
It's the best thing in theworld.
Because I tell guys, guess what?
We all can wake up on that leftside of the bed, and sometimes
both of us do at the same time.
Well, when you say, Can we saymorning prayer?
All of a sudden you forget allabout that.
That five and seven minutes ofmorning prayer, the liturgy of
the hours, all of a sudden, onceyou're done, you forget about
(20:22):
what you're arguing about.
And I tell guys, drop your ego,drop your pride, like I had.
I had that ego and pride, like,no, guys, we we real men don't
do that.
No, real men do that.
Right.
And I just encourage every guyto pray with their wives because
it'll make your relationshipthat much better, and you're
getting closer to the Lord, too.
SPEAKER_01 (20:39):
Yeah, my wife and I try to pray together.
Um, so can we pivot back tobasketball?
So so now this was you wereabout four to five years into
officiating, right, when youcame back to the to the faith.
Yes.
How did uh maybe you could tiethe faith into your your day
job?
So how did it impact uh your dayjob and and what you were doing
(21:00):
on the court there?
Or maybe your interior.
SPEAKER_03 (21:03):
Yeah, Jay, you know, I always um I always prayed
before a game.
It sounds kind of weird, eventhough I wasn't going to church
or something.
I bet I would pray before thegame.
I just say, uh, give me thestrength, courage, and the
stamina, Lord, to do you know beable to do my job tonight.
SPEAKER_00 (21:15):
So sorry to interrupt, but just because uh
uh I Jen, I just listened to thebook written by Jay Wright, um,
and uh he speaks so highly ofhis priest chaplain.
Amongst athletes, there is anopenness to prayer, right?
I mean, uh and you're saying asa ref, even though you weren't
practicing your faith, you'd saya prayer before the game.
Absolutely.
But I I uh whether it'sfootball, basketball, maybe less
(21:37):
so in baseball, although with uhseveral Latino Hispanic players,
I think you say it.
Um but um but uh so um I I thinkthat's something that's that's
uh an area we could it'scertainly hearing Jay Wright
talk about the the impact ofpriest chaplain and and faith on
uh he said whatever you know umreligion the players were, um we
were we were sharing values andand and asked him just to be
(21:59):
open and he talked about uh youknow how it helped them as a
team.
But um, but go ahead.
I'm sorry, you were saying youprayed before games and Jay was
asking about uh you know uh howit affected your day job in
terms of Yeah, I mean I how itaffected I you know may maybe I
think what it what it is too,Jay, is that sometimes I think
we get wrapped up in ourselves.
SPEAKER_03 (22:17):
I think when I got into my faith more and so it was
it was more about not just aboutme, because I have two other
partners on the floor.
It's all about them too.
Whereas some people can getwrapped up that if you're the
crew chief on the game and youwant people to know who you are
and so on and so.
SPEAKER_00 (22:33):
How about getting to mess?
Um, over the years did it becomesomething that uh because you
were traveling a lot, right?
SPEAKER_03 (22:38):
Yeah.
Interesting.
That's a great question.
I um once once I my wife helpedme, you know, get back to my
faith, I started going to massevery Sunday on the road.
I had some favorite churches,and then when I started going to
daily mass, which has been over25 years ago, um, there was
some, especially when you'restaying in major cities, you can
you can get the mass, there's anoontime mass at the cathedrals
(23:00):
or downtown churches.
So it's not you don't have to bethere at seven or eight in the
morning, you can go at noontime.
So I mean, the one in Portland,we did the Mariette right there,
walk right up the hill, andthere's a church for noontime
mass.
SPEAKER_00 (23:10):
Uh uh.
Sometimes it's about what we putinto it, right?
When where there's a will,there's a way, if you want to.
Uh and maybe uh I try to um,even though we're getting
towards the end of Lent, it'snot too um uh I think daily mass
is one of the um unsung or bestkept spiritual secrets, right?
If uh if you want to grow in aspiritual life, uh would you say
(23:32):
that that was the absolutely I Ithink that helped me.
SPEAKER_03 (23:35):
I I went through a really, really difficult time,
uh Bishop.
I won't get I we we can get intosome other time or today, but um
had to do with the NBA referees.
You could look this up probably.
The NBA referees and um uh theIRS came after the NBA referees
with expense money.
And it was had nothing to do,they didn't they didn't want to
s settle it civilly.
They charged me, I was indictedby the United States government.
(23:58):
Uh for for they said I owed overthree years, three years, they
said I owed thirteen thousanddollars.
Oh, jeez.
Now I'm I was paying five timesmore than that in taxes, and
they said, well, you did thisfraudulently, so and so.
So it was a very difficult timein my life, and that's when I
started going to Daily Mass.
The the times when you sitthere, you've heard people say
(24:19):
that you had to give it over.
I had to give it over.
When you read an indictment thatsays United States of America
versus Steve Jabby, that'spretty serious.
And there's no deal making rightthere.
SPEAKER_00 (24:29):
Uh and and you were ended up being acquitted, is
that right?
Yes, right.
I ended up being acquitted.
SPEAKER_03 (24:34):
Uh and so those two weeks of the year.
SPEAKER_00 (24:35):
But they were really trying to for$13,000, you
couldn't.
SPEAKER_03 (24:40):
It wasn't like I can go in and say, well, I I didn't
know I did wrong.
Right.
I'll write the check to you.
Right, right.
And and then they said, nope, wethink you guys were doing this
as a conspiracy, and theycharged so many guys, and so
many guys pleaded guilty to afelony, which is a shame.
It really is.
But um, that was the time that Istarted going to daily mass, and
I just realized the power ofgiving it over to the Lord.
(25:01):
Not that doesn't mean we shouldsit home and just say, okay,
let's see what happens.
SPEAKER_00 (25:04):
Right, right, right.
SPEAKER_03 (25:05):
No, you just do what you have to do, and wherever
it's gonna take you, the Lord'sgonna help you.
He's gonna put you in the spot.
I still remember, Bishop Kevin,right before the jury, we found
out that the jury made theirdecision.
It was on four different counts.
And I remember sitting at thetable with my lawyer, and my
lawyer, this is un courtrooms inin real life aren't like TV.
(25:25):
My my um my attorney says, BringMary in, I'll have her sit here,
you know, right next to youduring the time that they're
gonna read the jury the verdict.
And she did, and we sat there.
And I remember right before theycame, the jury came out, looking
up and just praying to the Lordand praying to Mother Mary, and
just saying, Whatever you haveplanned for me, I can handle.
If that means I have to go awayto uh prison or something, I'm
(25:48):
doing it because you know, I'lldo it because you want me to.
And whatever it is, I I acceptedwhatever my outcome would be.
And I just put it in his hands.
And I think that daily mass,when we, as this society
nowadays, everybody's got stuffgoing on.
Bishop Kevin, when you preachevery you know, every week, when
you look out there, if you wereto ask somebody who doesn't have
stuff going on, there wouldn'tbe a hand raise.
(26:09):
Daily mass, again back to yourquestion, daily mass to me helps
you trust the Lord, helps youhand things over for that day,
even, you know, or maybe thatweek, and just say, Lord, I
can't handle this.
SPEAKER_00 (26:20):
And receiving communion every day, how it
strengthens us, right?
I mean, uh, you know, uh, yeah,right.
And and also listening to God'sword and whether it's the most
inspiring or most exciting, it'sstill in the background, right?
Allowing the Lord to speak tous.
SPEAKER_03 (26:31):
Absolutely.
I know at the times when I don'tgo to I miss daily mass a couple
of times, not receiving theEucharist, I can f physically
almost feel it, mentally feelit.
So it has something to do.
SPEAKER_01 (26:42):
So what about tell us about your preaching now?
So you you mentioned that priestwho was giving that homily back
at that mass with your wife.
Uh what's what's that like foryou?
SPEAKER_03 (26:53):
I think it's the most challenging thing for me.
I can sit and talk to you aboutsports.
I can stand up in front of agroup of referees and you know
hold a clinic if you want to.
You're talking about people'seternal souls.
I mean, that's intimidating.
I still remember, and I'm gonnaget back, again, tangents,
right?
I still remember when we werepracticing my class, who were
gonna be ordained like threedays later, went to the
(27:14):
cathedral to practice.
We all knew we were gonna haveto preach that Sunday because
our after being ordainedSaturday, Sunday's our first
mass and we're gonna preach.
Every guy we came into thecathedral that Thursday, all the
women are going, isn't thisexciting?
And every guy's got that look ontheir face going, exciting, I
can't preach on Sunday.
And we knew we knew what thegospel reading was you know
(27:37):
months ago, but we it's justthat, oh my gosh, I have to do
what?
Um it, Jay, it is the mostchallenging.
Um, but he's never failed.
He's never failed me.
SPEAKER_00 (27:48):
Did I read correctly that you were in formation seven
years?
SPEAKER_03 (27:50):
Yeah, in Philly, it was seven years when I started.
Wow.
Now they put it down to six.
Wow.
So uh for us it's four?
SPEAKER_00 (27:56):
Uh five.
Five, yeah.
Yeah, it's five and all.
Um uh we'll have to share thiswith um our deacons.
Uh um, we actually I'm gonna beshortly meeting with uh we're
gonna have about eight guysordained at at the end of May.
Um how did uh formation prepareyou uh for preaching but also
for for ministry?
(28:17):
Um and and maybe um how did itimpact uh you know your living
out of your faith now that you Ithink you said you it just kind
of came into your mind the worddeacon, right?
SPEAKER_03 (28:26):
Or the possibility and and you spoke to your pastor
and yeah what happened was umafter I retired, uh which I
couldn't referee anymore becausemy knees were bad, um the Lord
blessed me with 25 years ofsomething that I just had so
much fun.
I enjoyed it, you know, I reallydid.
But I also knew I mean it well,I had a couple knee surgeries
during my career, and I knewthere was something else I was
(28:47):
gonna do in life because I wasnot fulfilled, Bishop.
I mean, it was I had fun, Iwouldn't change it.
Right because you mean you lovesports, I love sports, I made a
living in sports, still do,right?
And I love it.
But I remember sitting there attimes during lunch by myself and
just saying, you know, likethere's gotta be more to this.
I mean, I have to leave thisworld, not being I I blow a
whistle and call fouls onbasketball players, and that's
(29:09):
supposed to be important?
No.
Um and I just knew this had tobe something else.
So when I retired, I just prayedto the Lord.
I said, I want to serve you.
I said, because you've blessedme in my life so much with
everything.
Family, friends, vocal I mean,uh my my yeah, my my
professionally knows.
And it was just amazing.
So I said, Lord, I just want toserve you.
Jeff Cavins came to our parish,all right, given a talk.
(29:33):
And this is I retired in the endof June of one year of 2011.
This is now December.
So I've been praying, and likethe word, I think it's a bad
meaning, sometimes the meaningof the word discernment.
I think people think discernyou're on your knees 24-7
praying.
No.
Discerning is uh recognizingthat the Lord's gonna have
something for you.
Playing.
SPEAKER_00 (29:53):
Show me, show me, show me.
SPEAKER_03 (29:54):
Show me exactly, show me what it is, please.
You know, every day I'd sit inmy prayer chair and go, like,
Lord, I'm I'm open to it.
Show me.
Well, months go by and nothing.
Jeff Kavan speaks at our parishand he starts talking about how
God speaks to you.
And I remember looking at himgoing, like, he might be
speaking to you, but he hasn'tbeen speaking to me.
I mean, help me here.
(30:14):
Well, during the course he'stalking about how God does speak
to us, whether it be withputting thoughts in our mind,
whether it be putting people inour lives, or putting us all in
situations.
And then we just have to be opento recognizing it.
And at that moment, when he wasdescribing that, the word deacon
came into my mind.
And I'm like, wait a second.
Are you kidding?
I mean, I really didn't knowmuch about deacons.
(30:35):
We had a couple of our parish,wonderful guys.
Um but I said, Is this what hewants?
And I couldn't get it out of mymind.
My wife and I go out to dinnerafter this presentation, and I
said, Marion, you're not gonnabelieve.
Here's what happened.
She's like, Wow.
She goes, You better go seeMonsignor.
Monsignor Bricard, my dearfriend, who just you know
retired, been there for 35years.
I go knocking on his door thenext morning, I go, Hey
(30:56):
Monsignor, you got a fewmoments?
Yeah, what's up, Steve?
So I tell him the story, and hestarted laughing.
He goes, Tell what works,brother.
I said, What do you mean?
He goes, No, he says, if youcame in here with a Bible
underneath your arm, sayingyou're he said, I would have
thrown you out of here.
He said, the Lord works thatway.
But Steve, he's working on yourheart.
That doesn't mean you're goingto become a deacon, but he's
(31:17):
calling you to something.
Something's going on.
Let's just take it just step bystep, one foot in front of the
other.
Don't get ahead of ourselves andsee what happens.
SPEAKER_00 (31:24):
One one example that is Jeff Cavins himself, uh, that
was uh, you know, Bible in ayear.
I mean, when you think of whatthe Lord did through him and and
and Father Mike Schmidt's interms of how many people have,
you know, come.
And now, I don't know if you'refamiliar with the Hallow app,
but he's uh very much and he'sthe every day there, um, you
know, uh uh so yeah, um, and uhI mean I think he's been a
(31:46):
scripture scholar for manyyears, but to think how, again,
the Lord um used uh someone touh uh give a higher profile to
to to the word of God and andand to the and to the the
spiritual life.
And uh, you know, uh I I thinkthere's some we've been looking
at and hearing some reports onhow the church is growing, and
there seems to be uh a return ofeven young adults to the church,
(32:08):
and I think there's gonna be ayou know a larger number of um
adults coming in to receive thesacraments um at Easter.
So um I and many have said withthe craziness uh that we're
seeing in our world, uh uh Ithink people are gonna are st
are starting to see more andmore a need for something.
SPEAKER_03 (32:23):
Yeah, no, no doubt, no doubt.
SPEAKER_01 (32:25):
So um can we talk a little more about your NBA?
Absolutely, fun.
I although you know what struckme with the Jesuit Whittlecool
interview that you gave uh wasthe kind was the idea of
humility.
Um maybe maybe we can talk aboutthat a little a little bit.
Um like so here's here's refereeSteve Jaffey Javi who uh I mean
(32:50):
you're constantly being screwyou know, you're making these
tough plays that are impacting agame situation that you could
rejecting players occasionallyand uh mascots occasionally.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
So what and it's all on nationaltelevision, international
television.
Um and you're being screamed atby the coaches occasionally.
(33:13):
So but you're calling theseplays and and they're right, but
maybe sometimes they're wrong.
As like what's going throughyour mind about are you
second-guessing yourself?
I know there's a review processin between uh how it's now.
Yeah, no, yeah.
Yeah.
And then there's yeah, replay,instant replay.
SPEAKER_03 (33:31):
So I thought I'm gonna answer that in a second
with you.
It's funny, this reminded me ofsomething I would say to a
coach, because you say coach isyelling at you know, and I tell
the coach, only two people canyell at me, my boss and my wife.
You don't look like either oneof them, you know.
But no.
Um I I when I when I speak aboutmy faith, and I try to relate it
to everyday life too, is the theword, and humility can be in
(33:55):
with this, is called beingobjective.
SPEAKER_02 (33:57):
Okay.
SPEAKER_03 (33:57):
Being objective with yourself.
And as a referee, in order foryou to improve, you have to
really be objective of when youare wrong.
And whether that's admitting toa coach that you're wrong, a lot
of times uh uh, you know, as wewatch games on TV, we see the
replay.
The referee hasn't seen it yet,so he doesn't know he's wrong.
He now players and coaches aretrying to tell him he's wrong,
(34:18):
right?
As we talked about, but hedoesn't personally know he's
wrong.
But later on, when you watch thefilm, you have to be objective
and say, you know, Jane, Imissed that call.
Why now why did you miss it?
Were you out of position?
Was somebody block you out?
Did you anticipate the call?
There's so many reasons that youcould so you learn from your
mistakes.
Same way with our spirituallife, and I think he related.
(34:40):
We have to be objective.
Nowadays, I have plenty of mybuddies who I play golf with and
so on to go, well, I'm a goodperson.
I'm a good guy.
I'm gonna where in the Bible didJesus say about good guy?
You know, he likes you being agood guy, but he didn't say
that's you know, to get intoheaven, right?
But um, but I just reallybelieve being objective about
our shortcomings or our sins.
(35:01):
And nowadays we compare toomuch, whether it be on Instagram
or social media, well, I'm notas bad as that person.
I'm not as bad.
We should look at our own ownreplay.
How was our how did our day gotoday?
How who did I treat poorlytoday?
Um did I have an argument withmy wife, which I should have had
more patience with?
That kind of stuff.
SPEAKER_01 (35:19):
Examination of conscience.
Right.
Amen.
You're right.
SPEAKER_03 (35:22):
And then that's why we have the you know the
sacrament of reconciliation togo and say, hey, uh, you know, I
need your mercy and your love,your forgiveness.
SPEAKER_00 (35:28):
How many years are you working now with ESPN in
your current uh Yeah, that's agreat yeah.
SPEAKER_03 (35:32):
My wife, I was trying to figure that out.
The year I retired in 2011,which I can't believe is 15
years ago.
Time just flies.
I th I think that the followingyear they got out, I think it
was about 14 years.
Wow.
And this is before the ReplayCenter.
SPEAKER_00 (35:45):
Uh Right, Seucaucus, right.
Right.
SPEAKER_03 (35:47):
I used to I used to go up to uh before the Replay
Center was in Secaucus, I usedto go up to Bristol,
Connecticut, and before the atESPN.
You know, on the on the set.
That was kind of cool for aperson who loves sports to be on
the set with those guys.
Right.
That's really neat.
SPEAKER_00 (36:02):
Yeah, right.
SPEAKER_03 (36:02):
And they're and what?
And they're all really goodguys.
Right.
SPEAKER_01 (36:05):
So you're driving up to Secaucus now?
SPEAKER_03 (36:07):
Now from my uh my home to Secaucus, yeah, from
Bucks County in Pennsylvania upto Certain Cascadics.
Are there games where you're noton at all?
Yes.
Oh matter of fact, I'd saythat's more than more likely
than not.
Okay.
Uh but they just have me therein certain games.
Like right now I'm workingmainly Saturday nights at 8 30,
the ABC uh primetime game, andthen Sunday afternoon games.
(36:28):
But it's just with the ESPN orABC, not the other networks.
SPEAKER_00 (36:31):
Right, right.
SPEAKER_03 (36:32):
Um but it's uh I'd say probably 65-70 percent of
the time, I really don't get onto comment just when they feel
they needed to be.
Right, right.
SPEAKER_00 (36:41):
When they go yeah to the uh to the expert, yeah,
right, right, right.
Uh but it's really cool.
SPEAKER_03 (36:45):
It keeps my keeps my hand in it a little bit too, and
I see the referees because I'mat the replay center, and there
are always active referees therehelping uh referees at other
games too.
So I see the guys come throughthe replay center.
SPEAKER_00 (36:56):
Uh you know, when we think whether family are
relationships or parish, um uhthere is um, you know, we look
at a at a team, right?
And you what makes the teamsuccessful, whether that be uh a
basketball team or a refereeingteam, right?
Uh um uh and those relationshipswith um with colleagues and um
uh and and I think being uhinspired and others who can uh
(37:19):
you know the a player might makeother team players better,
right?
That's what we would want to be,right?
Uh a good teammate.
Um but uh um uh and and maybe uhuh you talked about that
relationship when you werereffing with the two other guys
and and how you have to be, andyou really have to have each
other's back.
You do, yeah.
Um but um uh I I think some ofour deacons, and it's certainly
(37:41):
in the priesthood uh um uh uhyour classmates um uh uh how was
that experience in terms ofcoming into formation and and
getting a new group of guys thatyou got to know at a deeper
level, no?
SPEAKER_03 (37:52):
Amazing, amazing.
And I think you know what I'mgonna say right now.
In that class, we had we hadseven of us, all right, and
seven of us ordained.
SPEAKER_00 (38:01):
2019, you ordained, right?
SPEAKER_03 (38:02):
2019, yes.
Everyone's so different.
Everyone, and then you startthinking about the apostles.
I think of the chosen, much ofthe chosen.
You know that?
Because I love that.
Love it, love it.
But I think if we're all sodifferent, and probably would
never have been come together inlife except for the diaconent
formation.
So we do stay in touch, there'sno doubt.
But also forming bonds, BishopKevin, within your parish.
(38:26):
Um, I have a parish, St.
Andrew, in Newtown.
It's the largest one in theArchdiocese of Philadelphia.
We have almost 7,000 families inthe St.
Andrew.
SPEAKER_00 (38:36):
Um You're already a pastoral hub, right?
Archbishop Perez is talkingabout like.
Yes, yes, but you guys got yourown little diocese that way.
SPEAKER_03 (38:43):
I know, we really do.
But uh it's amazing.
The men, the men in St.
Andrew, I think the men havesuch a big have had a big part
of me in my ministry, but also abig part of me of spiritually
coming alive because when I gotthere, they have a small faith
group, small faith group, 40 to50 men every every other
Saturday praying the rosary,breaking open the gospel,
(39:04):
breaking into groups.
You don't have to talk, youdon't want to talk.
People talk, they do talk.
I saw guys here when I firstwent to the men's group, and I
didn't say a word.
I mean, I'm gone way backbefore, and I come home and I
said to my wife, go, Mary Ellen,oh my gosh, these guys are
incredible.
And the the beautiful thing,hearing like 40-50 guys, which
now swells to about 70 in Lent,40-50 guys pray in the rosary.
(39:27):
Just men praying the rosary andand and offering up our
intentions to the Lord everyother Saturday and every
Saturday in Lent.
Um, the men are incredible.
So to the deacons also who aregoing to be ordained, the men in
your parish get to know themmore.
I I sit there, my best friendsright now are men of the parish.
We and they they love sports.
(39:48):
I love to play golf.
We go on golf trips together.
We take a couple of our priestfriends, we play golf.
My one buddy goes, wait asecond, this is like the
starting of a joke.
Two priests and a deacon, twopriests and a deacon, and
another guy walk into a bar,right?
Or something like that.
I said, Yeah, but it's amazing.
I just, again, the Lord hasblessed me by putting people in
my life, Jay, that I couldn'teven imagine.
(40:10):
And I couldn't imagine, I can'timagine my life without them.
I really can't.
SPEAKER_00 (40:14):
Well, if you're looking for a new golf partner,
you can have two priests, adeacon, and a bishop.
Amen.
But uh and uh you so youmentioned to your wife after the
(40:34):
Caven's talk um that you thishow has the experience been for
her um through formation and nowum that that you're in ministry?
Um uh uh there are wives thatembrace it.
Uh for some it's a bit of achallenge.
Um uh uh is is your wife alsoinvolved in the in the parish?
Uh what's the experience beenlike for her?
SPEAKER_03 (40:54):
It's it's a that's a great question too, because even
like with your uh deacons aregonna be ordained, I'm sure
their wives are thinking what'swhat's happening, what's going
on.
Um I think just from MaryEllen's experience, is she
involved in a parish?
Yes.
To the extent that people wouldthink, no, because she has her
other things that she does too.
Um Mary Ellen was president of aum uh a pregnancy center for a
(41:17):
number of years, president ofthe board and so on and so
forth.
So she has her own littleministries outside of our parish
that she she does.
But um I I think what happens issometimes the women feel
pressured that they think, oh,my w my husband, you know, is a
deacon.
I have to do this.
You don't have to do that.
Just your presence alone ofworking together with your
(41:39):
husband is is great is a greatthing.
Um but during formation, MaryAllen felt so I mean she loved
going to classes.
She really did.
At the time in Philadelphia,they had they had asked the the
women, they they said, you know,we really prefer you come to
class, barring any littlechildren or whatever, whatever
work, whatever it may be.
And I'll tell you, we would wehad some of the best
(42:00):
conversations, my wife and I,during formation.
Coming home after classes withthese brilliant professors, I
mean, our faith is so deep asyou guys know, and you sit there
and go, Can you believe they'retalking about this?
Can you believe they're talkingabout that?
The next morning our cup ofcoffee.
What did you get in your notesabout that?
And we go and it made us closertoo.
But as far as the women, I mean,I think the women, whatever they
(42:21):
feel they want to do or theyfeel called to do, almost like
their husbands, but don't feelpressure that you you have to do
this.
SPEAKER_01 (42:26):
You really don't.
Now, uh if I understoodcorrectly, so your wife's family
was very involved in thepro-life movement in
Philadelphia?
Yeah, Jay.
SPEAKER_03 (42:35):
Um her mom started the uh one of the first uh
pro-life, I should say,pregnancy centers in Bucks
County.
And that was, oh my gosh, beforeI even met Mary Ellen, probably
50 years ago.
And she and her sister, uh my mymother-in-law's sister, which
would be Mary Ellen's aunt, theywould work together uh helping
people in Christ uh the women incrisis pregnancies.
(42:57):
And from there, this same uh,this same pregnancy center,
there's one, two, three centersnow, and they they have saved, I
think last year they saved uhalmost almost 400 babies.
Whoa.
But here's the other thing too,Jay, is that it's not just about
the baby, it's about the mother.
SPEAKER_00 (43:16):
Walking with moms in need, right?
We've been doing it for a longtime.
We finally put a name on it, andyes.
But yeah, not only up untilbirth, but after a couple of
years afterwards, whatever theyneed.
SPEAKER_03 (43:26):
It's it's it's grown to incredible and incredible
proportions.
And I just think of her mom, howproud she must be.
God rest herself if she's inheaven looking down, you know,
saying, like, look what lookwhat I started.
SPEAKER_00 (43:36):
There was a great testimony on the Halo app, um, I
think the week before lastduring Lent.
They're doing the BrothersKyramatsov Monday, Tuesday,
Wednesday, then Thursday.
They have a story about somebodykind of coming back to the
church and uh current sister oflife.
Um, she was uh in college and uhuh her roommate got pregnant,
and um she was supportive of theroommate.
Uh the roommate ended up withthe sister of life um and had
(44:00):
the child and uh uh and gave thechild up for adoption.
Um and then wanted to keep goingback to visit the sister of
life, and she was saying to herroommate, her friend, why don't
you come visit?
Why don't you come?
Uh and next thing she wanted tosermon treat, and she um well uh
20 plus years later, the childwanted to meet her birth mom.
And the birth mom calls thesister, the sister, can you end?
(44:23):
Um uh I I think the the the thechild stayed with the daughter
stayed with the sisters in theconvent while she was visiting
her birth mom, and the sisterwas driving her back.
And in the car, the sister said,you know, you're really the
reason um when she was in thewomb.
Um What a great story that is.
How beautiful.
Oh my goodness.
SPEAKER_01 (44:45):
Well, what did what did we miss?
SPEAKER_00 (44:49):
Give me uh uh a couple of names that come to
mind.
Phil Jackson, uh uh character orguys that you interacted with,
players or coaches, or maybe aguy that was impressive for his
uh uh I'm sure there's been afew that had model
sportsmanship, right?
That were general uh uh uh uhanybody or even guys that you
worked with uh um uh names thatcome to mind that um that made
(45:09):
an impact in one way or positiveor negative.
No, no, you're a challenge.
SPEAKER_03 (45:13):
I won't I won't name the negative.
We're in the Lenten season andI'd have to go to impression
tomorrow.
Or maybe right outside today,right?
But um the guy the one guy, it'sfunny, the it always keeps
coming to my mind a lot of Dukeguys for some reason.
I guess Coach Kay Mess Mold'sguy.
SPEAKER_00 (45:29):
Coach K was Deli Mes.
SPEAKER_03 (45:31):
Yeah, so uh Grant Hill.
Grant Hill comes to mind as aguy who um just was such a class
guy, uh treated youprofessionally, you know.
Um He was a coach?
Grant Hill was a player.
Grant Hill was just great.
Mark Price, remember the mostprice?
Yeah, Cleveland's.
If if Grant Hill or Mark Priceargued with you, they were
(45:53):
probably right.
You were wrong.
Whereas some other guys arguedwith the ego.
SPEAKER_00 (45:57):
I think with Grant Hill, from what I know, uh, you
know, it's something that standsout.
He during his years it got someattention.
You know, so often when you seeuh someone who's raised the
right way, so much of the creditgoes to the parents, as you say.
Um, you know, even when we lookback on our faith, it's God
bless uh parents.
And uh, you know, Derek Jeter,his his mom and dad were always
there on the stand, but theywould say, you know, that uh he
was raised the right way.
(46:18):
And I I think with Grant Hill,uh his his dad, I think, was a
running back for the DallasCowboys.
Yeah, right, right, right.
Calvin Hill.
Right, right.
SPEAKER_03 (46:25):
I mean, he used to kill the Eagles.
I'm the Eagles for you.
He used to kill the Eagles.
I actually ran into Calvin Hillum when I was refereeing.
Uh he was working for theCowboys, I guess, uh in a in
some capacity, and he'd come inand out of town and he'd stay at
the same hotel the referees did.
And I ran into him and Iintroduced myself to him, and he
looked like he could still run.
(46:46):
The guy was just a class man.
And we talked a lot, I gave himcompliments about his son.
And his mom, I think, I thinkMrs.
Hill is an attorney.
I met her one time.
And uh, but you're right, justgreat parents.
Right.
And Derek Jeter, even though I'mnot a Yankee fan, I love Derek
Jeter.
How do you not like Dark Jeter?
SPEAKER_00 (47:03):
Yeah, right.
SPEAKER_03 (47:05):
Even on the ones of the WBC, the baseball, he's just
wonderful.
SPEAKER_00 (47:08):
Oh, right, right.
SPEAKER_03 (47:09):
I love his analysis and so on.
He's just a normal guy.
SPEAKER_00 (47:13):
Uh it's something to see uh him, Big Poppy, and Arod
behind the diocese.
SPEAKER_03 (47:18):
I know.
SPEAKER_01 (47:19):
The competing all in life, right?
I know.
He he has a connection to myhometown, West Milford, which is
in our diocese.
Uh huh.
Yeah, definitely.
SPEAKER_00 (47:28):
Derek Jeta does?
Yeah.
Um I think his mom went to umPope John, uh, the Catholic high
school in Susse County.
Yeah.
Yeah, yeah.
So I love it.
Um anybody else that stands out?
How about a particular coachthat uh uh made an impact on the
case?
SPEAKER_03 (47:41):
You know what?
There's there's a couple a guyby the name of Paul Silas.
SPEAKER_00 (47:44):
Oh, sure.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_03 (47:45):
You know, he was a big guy.
Yeah, yeah.
And he looked like he could bereally intimidating, right?
Finest gentleman in the world.
I mean, there really are.
I mean, there there are some outthere.
I know that they have pressureon them.
Right, right.
They have to, you know, becausetheir jobs are on the line and
all that stuff.
But all we ask is referees, justlike anything Jay and I were
talking to a head time, justtreat us prof treat as you want
to be treated.
SPEAKER_00 (48:04):
Right, right?
The golden rule.
There you go, right?
SPEAKER_03 (48:06):
And they were players.
Well, why, Steve, why are youyelling at me?
Oh, that's what you're yellingat me.
You know?
But if like I give you MichaelJordan was always professional.
Always professional.
Doesn't mean he agreed with meall the time, but he would do it
in a way that he wouldn't bringthe whole crowd down on you.
You can handle that.
SPEAKER_02 (48:22):
Right.
SPEAKER_03 (48:22):
Nowadays, everybody's like, uh, you know,
screaming up and down.
It's like, just walk, the guy'sa human being.
You know, we're human beings.
SPEAKER_00 (48:29):
Replay has changed things as well, right?
I mean, now it it in the pastthey'd be arguing and arguing,
and there wasn't much that wasgoing to happen or change, but
they would still press it.
But now um if the if and and Ithink it's a good thing that,
you know, if references arehuman beings, if they miss a
call, then you can go back andsay sometimes it takes too long
to but uh but they're working onthat too, I think.
Uh yeah, they are.
SPEAKER_03 (48:49):
And I think you're right.
I think uh the replay has helpedbecause we want to get plays
right.
I mean the name of a referee isto try to get as many plays
right as you can.
And if you do miss one and theychallenge it, well it's good
because if it's gonna cost someof the game in, right.
But I I I I love like if I wasrefereeing now, because it seems
like every whistle they want tochallenge.
Bishop Kevin.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
They twirl it off.
(49:09):
And if I know I'm right, I'lljust get the and the coach
starts to argue, I'll go,challenge it then.
Right, right.
Challenge, don't argue with it.
Just challenge it.
That's right.
SPEAKER_00 (49:18):
Then we're gonna see who's right.
Um I won't mention names, butthere's a few nicks over the
years that come to mind.
Uh uh every time the guy fouls,he it's it's it's uh he he's
arguing with the ref.
It's incredible.
A couple of guys, and it's like,come on, you've got to be
kidding me.
SPEAKER_03 (49:33):
I know, it's not like it's not like they're
making this foul up.
But I would I told Jaybeforehand, we the referees in a
locker room, and even aftergames, we watch a lot of video.
And that's the way you becomebetter.
You're objective, you becomebetter.
And at halftime, it's alwaysgood because players and coaches
are always trying to put doubtin your mind by saying certain
things, uh, every plane, andit's like, am I missing
(49:53):
everything?
It's like it can't be.
So you go back to the lockerroom, you look at it, and you
know that you're right 90-somepercent of the time.
So you you have to watch filmbecause they would just tear you
apart mentally and your ego,we'd be torn apart.
But you have to you needsomething to build you back up.
And and film does that forreferees.
SPEAKER_01 (50:10):
Favorite game or favorite series you've ever
officiated?
SPEAKER_03 (50:13):
Okay, uh, favorite game.
Uh uh.
There's two favorite games, andit's my first finals game and my
last finals game.
The first finals game, thereason why it's my favorite,
because I reached the epitome ofour profession and I worked with
my main main mentor, JoeCrawford.
And Joe and I were we still aredear friends to this day.
We vacation together with ourwives and all.
(50:35):
And so that was an experiencethat I never had before.
Then my last finals game wasgreat because I knew that it was
going to be my last game of mycareer because my knees weren't
holding up anymore.
I was happy to get through my25th year.
And I still remember a quickquick thing on the last finals
game.
Um my family was there becausethey knew it was my last game.
Mary Allen was there, and someother of my friends, and so on.
(50:57):
Um and I remember very rarely inthe finals game, especially as
this was a game six, this thisended the series.
Dallas beat Miami in Miami ingame six.
Yeah, Novitsky, uh Jason Kidd.
Oh yeah, right, right.
Um there's a good guy, JasonKidd.
There's a good guy.
Um and I remember, like I said,very rarely do you do you have
the ch the luxury of lettingyour concentration come down in
(51:20):
the finals game, especially inthe last minute of play.
But it it was like Dallas isgonna win.
So they're up like eight or sixor eight, they're gonna win.
And I just remember sitting backand this I caught my wife's eyes
in the stands and saying, Iwonder what the Lord has planned
for me now.
Because we knew something wasgonna happen.
We didn't know what it was.
We had no idea that the acnewould be in my the cards for me.
(51:42):
But I just knew that somewhere,and we had talked about this
prior to the game.
My wife said, Steve, we've had agreat life doing this.
Traveled around, traveled aroundthe world in China and in Europe
and so on, just we're doinggames.
And and she says, It's exciting,but I'm look I'm looking forward
to the next chapter of our life.
Little little did she know thatshe'd be pulled into this too,
but she wants she'll you you askher, she'll tell you too.
(52:03):
This is the best part of herlife, and this is the best part
of my life right now.
That's great.
That's great.
SPEAKER_00 (52:08):
Maybe we'll close on uh speaking of uh relationships
and teamwork, um, you know, ourunderstanding of the Sacrament
of Orders.
Uh there's uh Bishop Priest andDeacon.
Um uh maybe uh what is what it'sbeen like what you mentioned,
your pastor, and and the I thinkyou said your current pastor is
is great.
And uh have you had much contactwith uh Archbishop Perez or uh
(52:28):
No, not what he's a busy man,right?
Right, right, right.
Yeah, he's a busy man.
But uh but working with um as aas a deacon working with
priests, how's how's thatexperience been?
SPEAKER_03 (52:36):
Uh it's well I've been I I told you, Bishop Kevin,
I I've been blessed to have twopastors that are just amazing.
And they're I don't justconsider them my pastor, my
brothers in Christ, but Iconsider them friends too.
And um and I just I just say tothe deacons, just you know,
you're we're here to serve.
That's what we do.
We serve.
Um we serve the service, right?
(52:56):
Yeah, I mean we serve we servewhatever the bishop tells us, we
go, we serve.
And I just think we just keepthat in mind.
It's not about us.
It's about when you're on thealtar, it's serving, it's about
you know doing the best you canto bring people closer to the
Lord and so on.
And y your your parish priest isjust an you know, your pastor is
he's a normal man like me andyou, and talk to him like that.
(53:18):
I mean, just have it have arespectful conversation.
If for some reason you don't getalong, let's sit down and talk.
I mean, we all want to get we'rewe're brothers in Christ
together.
If I'm doing something thatBishop Kevin doesn't like, I
want you to tell me because Iwhat the one thing I don't want
to do is something wrong.
Something that you know but Iknow what I too do love too, I
love the the younger prieststhat are coming out now from
(53:39):
seminary.
These guys are phenomenal inthis day and age to be in
formation and to become apriest.
I love serving these youngerpriests too.
I do, and I have a bunch of themwho are friends of mine because
you know they like to play golf,they like the sports and all.
I'll do anything for them.
I I I really will.
And I just um yeah, I just Ijust I just just love to serve.
I really do.
SPEAKER_00 (53:59):
Yeah, um it's it's really a blessing.
And as you said, gratitude, uhuh um we're it's a response to a
call and uh and all of us sharethat call from baptism and uh
trying to uh know what the Lordis asking and trying to do it as
best we can, right?
Day by day uh asking his help inprayer.
SPEAKER_03 (54:15):
That's true.
And not everybody's called to bea priest or a deacon, right?
But they're called to dosomething maybe you're doing
right now, Jay.
Or they're called to be the bestfather and husband they can be.
The Lord's calling to each oneof us to get closer to him.
And like you said, during thisLenten season, and even though
it's halfway through Lent, and II I m some of us have broken
their Lenten, but we can getback on the back on the bike
(54:36):
again.
Yeah, back on track again.
And maybe if you haven't, and Iused to do this years ago.
I'll get to it on the AshWednesday, and I don't.
Well, maybe now's the time we'rehalfway through.
It's not too late.
We got time between now andEaster.
If somebody out there whohasn't, or they're afraid to do
something or haven't or forgotto do something, start now.
SPEAKER_00 (54:54):
Start now.
SPEAKER_01 (54:55):
Exactly.
And get to confession, right?
SPEAKER_03 (54:56):
Amen.
SPEAKER_00 (54:57):
Yes, sacrament of healing.
Monday's uh welcome home forhealing here in the diocese.
We have every Monday at everyparish from 7 to 8:30 confession
that is available.
So we thank our priests and weencourage uh as many as possible
to take advantage of that.
SPEAKER_01 (55:10):
Um you mentioned Coach Jay Wright.
SPEAKER_00 (55:13):
Can you tell us uh about that?
I think it's Wednesday, May 6th,we'll put it up, but uh you're
welcome to come back up if youlike.
And uh you said you've had uh uhsome contact with them over
here.
SPEAKER_03 (55:22):
Great guy.
He's he's worth going to thelisten to.
A man of faith.
A man of faith, he really is.
SPEAKER_00 (55:27):
So yeah, Coach Wright is gonna be with us at
St.
Paul's Inside the Walls, ourEvangelization Center.
I think it's Wednesday, May 6th.
And uh check the show notes.
Um you can register.
Um and uh for young people andcoaches, uh he'll be in the
afternoon speaking to studentathletes and and coaches, so
that's a that's a possibility.
And then in the evening, seveno'clock, uh we're gonna we're
(55:50):
asking parishes to encourageparish leaders to go.
But there's uh an openregistration if there might be
some Villanova alums out there.
We want to uh given that theHoly Father is an uh an alum, we
have to uh be uh supportive ofVillanova's so uh so uh and the
Augustinians.
But uh um look look forward tothat and uh um we'll um keep
(56:11):
each other in prayer.
And Deacon Steve, thanks so muchfor coming.
And uh thank you so much for bepraying for you and please pray
for us and uh thank you verymuch.
We uh we continue in our seasonof Lent.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (56:21):
Okay, and thank you all for joining us.
Please subscribe, comment, andleave a positive rating.
Get to know us better byfollowing Bishop Kevin's
Instagram and beyond the beaconon social media.
Read the bishop's weekly columnon beaconnj.org and get in touch
if you have a question for thebishop or a podcast topic idea,
and discover our other podcasts.
(56:42):
See you next time.
SPEAKER_00 (56:43):
Thanks, everybody.
God bless.
God bless.
Have a great land.
Welcome to Beyond the Beacon with Bishop Kevin
Sweeney, a podcast of theDiocese of Patterson, New
Jersey.
Join us for conversations aboutour Catholic faith, and
together, let's strive to live alife of faith, hope, and love.
Thank you for joining us.
I'm Jay Agnis.
With me is Bishop Kevin Sweeney,and our guest today, Deacon
Steve Javi.
(00:28):
Welcome.
Hi.
Thanks, thanks for having me.
Thank you.
How are you doing?
Thanks for having me on thisthing.
SPEAKER_00 (00:32):
Happy day after St.
Patrick's Day.
That's right.
We're recording this on uh uhMarch 18th, um, which is the
feast of St.
Cyril of Jerusalem, um, who getsthe shorts uh uh shifts shrift
sometimes because everybody sayshappy St.
Patrick's Day, everybody sayshappy St.
Joseph's Day.
Nobody says happy St.
Cyril's Day.
Happy St.
(00:52):
Cyril's Day, yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (00:55):
And how and how was New York City yesterday at the
St.
SPEAKER_00 (00:59):
Patrick's at the Mass before the parade.
Um, and Archbishop Hicks, hisfirst uh time is uh um so uh do
they celebrate much in uh inPhilly for St.
Patrick's Day?
SPEAKER_03 (01:09):
Every Irish person celebrates, whether it be
Philly, New York, Boston,doesn't matter.
They all celebrate.
And in the hell to that's right.
SPEAKER_00 (01:16):
Yeah, Bishop Hicks talked about that.
He said we're gonna sell twice,he said, we're gonna celebrate
in the morning, we're gonnacelebrate in the afternoon, in
the evening, and all day.
So pretty good.
Uh but uh he did a I think hedid a good job.
And uh so in it was a littlechilly, but it wasn't cold and
it was sunny, so um uh littlebit of a parade and went to uh
uh uh lunch and uh so it wasgreat.
(01:36):
And then uh I make an a uh uhannual stop in recent years at
um Murph's in Totowa.
There's a local place where theyuh so I was uh glad to know.
It had to be hopping yesterday.
It was, yes, yes, yes, yes.
SPEAKER_01 (01:50):
And we had thanks for sending your photos from
yesterday, they're up on yourInstagram account.
SPEAKER_00 (01:55):
Um and we are in now the fourth week of Lent, so um
it's uh amazing how quickly itgoes.
And um and um we're starting umthe uh NCAA uh basketball
tournament, so being with DeaconSteve uh can give us a little
chance to uh talk about maybethe intersection of uh sports.
(02:17):
There'll be a lot of attentionuh on uh March Madness, as they
say.
Um but uh hopefully we'd hopefor as much attention sometimes
on Lent and Holy Week.
Uh but uh but but we can uhJesus talked about what people
knew, right?
So uh exactly right.
Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (02:33):
Good.
So a little more about DeaconSteve.
So Deacon Steve Javi is aretired NBA referee of 25 years
and currently an analyst withESBN.
He is among a handful of refereereferees to officiate a thousand
games, actually 1,780 in total,including playoffs and NBA final
games.
(02:53):
He was a highly respectedofficial and one of the league's
toughest, known for having aquick whistle and temper in his
early days.
Among his legendary moments wasejecting not just Portland's
play-by-play announcer onenight, but tossing then
Washington Bullets mascot fromthe game.
As far as we know, Deacon Steveis the only permanent deacon who
(03:16):
is a former NBA official, and hedrove up from the Philadelphia
area to tell us all about it.
SPEAKER_00 (03:21):
So I think he did too much research, but I learned
a little bit.
Holy moly.
I uh I uh watching the Knicksand the Pacers and the Bulls and
uh over in the uh 90s, I guessthose um Riley Van Gundy teams
uh uh often saw Steve uh uhflying his trade uh trying to
(03:42):
keep the guys apart at time.
SPEAKER_03 (03:44):
That was there, they were tough games to work.
You talk about the three teamsright there in Chicago, right?
Yeah, go everybody's gone afterJordan with the Knicks, you
know, and the Bulls, and then ofcourse the pistons you throw in
there.
That that was not an easy time.
SPEAKER_00 (03:56):
Did you do any uh Chicago, Detroit, the bad boys,
uh when they wouldn't let Pippenget to the rim?
SPEAKER_03 (04:01):
Oh my gosh, I know.
I I did a number of those games,but not that game in particular.
But yeah, there was always umAnd then there was the heat too.
SPEAKER_00 (04:07):
There was the when when uh Riley went to the to the
heat in Van Gundy, uh I thinkthat was the leg incident,
right?
SPEAKER_03 (04:13):
Where the morning went down to the heat there and
then that's right, yeah.
It was uh it was a physicaltime.
I mean it's funny because evennow when I'm at the replay
center doing my job for ESPN andthe announcers start going,
well, this is really physicalout there, and then we're going
to be compared to Ewing andMason and Oakley and uh Ewing,
(04:33):
Mason, Oakley, John Starks, andum Rolando Blackman, I think.
SPEAKER_00 (04:37):
No, um no, uh Derek uh no.
Yeah, the point carrier.
The point Derek Harper, right.
I felt uh Detroit, those wouldhave had five that have given I
said they weren't the mosttalented or the highest scoring,
but they I think they might havewon the uh award for the team
that you don't want to meet inan alley.
That's redundant.
With the the the the twoWilliams on the um um uh who
(04:58):
were the Detroit teams werepretty tough as well.
Um so um but um uh uh Oh theIndiana team was tough.
SPEAKER_03 (05:05):
Right.
SPEAKER_00 (05:05):
Dick Smith's and the two brothers, uh the two guys
with the same last name.
Sure.
Uh Dale Davis.
Davis, and Dale Davis.
Yeah, right, right.
And Miller.
SPEAKER_03 (05:12):
Uh that was the Eastern Conference was tough
back then.
I speaking of like the um uh thethe Knicks and the Bulls, I did
have unfortunately unfortunatetime of being at a game in
Chicago Stadium where the fightgot into like the third or
fourth row into the stands, andwe're trying to break it up with
Starks and all these guys.
(05:33):
And you look two rows up,there's the commissioner, David
Stern, looking down, and you satthere and go, oh boy.
SPEAKER_00 (05:39):
That wasn't the uh run of a test game, was it?
No, that was the one.
I saw that on TV, thank God.
I wasn't there.
Oh my god.
SPEAKER_01 (05:46):
So we we're talking a lot of sports.
We still have to open up inprayer, Benjamin.
SPEAKER_00 (05:52):
Yes, yes, yes.
And we're gonna um uh ask theLord to to guide us and um
giving thanks for the blessingsthat we share and the recreation
sometimes that we need.
And um, so let us placeourselves in God's presence in
the name of the Father and ofthe Son and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
Amen.
Giving thanks to God for thegifts and blessings of each and
every day.
(06:13):
For those who are called andrespond to the call to serve the
Lord, praying for Deacon Steveand his ministry, and asking the
Lord to continue to bless ourdiocese, the archives of
Philadelphia, and the churchthroughout the world, continuing
to pray for peace.
We join our prayers together asone as we pray, as Jesus has
taught us.
Our Father, who art in heaven,hallowed be thy name, thy
(06:36):
kingdom come, thy will be doneon earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our dailybread, and forgive us our
trespasses, as we forgive thosewho trespass against us, and
lead us not into temptation, butdeliver us from evil.
Amen.
Our Lady Seat of Wisdom, Motherof the Church, pray for us.
Saint Joseph, pray for us, SaintCyril of Jerusalem, pray for us,
(06:58):
Saint Sebastian, pray for us.
All holy men and women, pray forus.
Name of the Father, the Son, andof the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
I believe Saint Sebastian is thepatron saint of athletes, I
think.
I don't know if there's a patronsaint of referees.
Oh, I gotta I gotta I don't knowwhat that one is.
I gotta find out, yeah.
Um well thank you, Deacon Steve,for taking the trip and uh and
joining us uh again as a treatfor me as a as a sports fan, but
(07:20):
as a bishop, um uh and as a as aCatholic um to see um someone
who's you know really had a veryhigh profile on the public uh
arena, let's say, and uh um uhrecognizable to any NBA fans.
But to I was uh I guess it wasabout a year ago when you were
on the Jesuitical podcast, anduh I was really grateful to hear
(07:41):
that conversation.
Um but um maybe you can justtell us a little bit about uh
your faith growing up and um anduh was it towards the end of the
your career where you and Ithink it was you really when we
talk about hearing the call, umuh something about the the
deacon and c the the acne cameinto your mind or heart.
(08:02):
Is that right and pray?
SPEAKER_03 (08:03):
Yeah, Bishop, it's it's it's a long story, but I'll
I'll try to keep it, you know,where it's okay.
Um but first of all, I justpraise God because I never
thought I'd ever be sitting inthis situation.
I every day I mean when I lookin the mirror and I put my
collar on before I go to mass, Istill can't believe that he's
called me to serve him and hischurch.
And it's just I just thank him.
It's all gratitude.
In my age and what he's done forme in my life, it's all
(08:25):
gratitude.
It really is.
Um but I I you know I givecredit to um obviously the Lord,
but I give credit to my parents.
My parents were um the firstones to raise me.
They were Catholic.
I was a cradle Catholic.
My my dad's brother, my uncleTony, was a priest in the
Archdiocese of Philadelphia foralmost 70 years.
One of my not because he was apriest, but he was like one of
(08:48):
my favorite uncles, just a coolguy.
Like you and I, we'd love heloved sports.
So it was like to me, ithumanized him more because
priests sometimes can be likepeople are they're over here.
Right, right.
But it's like, no.
Bishop Kevin loves sports, myuncle Tony loves sports, I love
sports, and it's like theCatholic faith, both and, not
either or.
Exactly.
And that's what I try to tellguys.
(09:09):
So we'll get into that a littlelater.
But my faith growing up, my dadbeing, of course, the brother of
a priest, we went to confessionevery two weeks.
Sat in the second row at churchevery Sunday.
St.
Philip, as a matter of fact.
Oh, look at that.
That's what I was talking to Jayabout earlier.
So St.
Philip when I was growing up.
And I can remember going tochurch every, you know, every
Sunday and confession every umevery two weeks.
(09:31):
And so they brought me up theright way.
They gave me the foundation, andI'm glad they did, because
obviously I didn't always followthat as I got older.
I got my independence, as I say.
It seems like once I got mydriver's license, um, it would
be like, okay, mom and dad, I'mnot going to mass with you at
eight.
I'll take the car and I'll go to12 o'clock mass.
But I wasn't going to St.
(09:52):
Philip's, I'd go to St.
Skipp's.
You know what I mean?
So uh unfortunately.
Luckily I can laugh about itnow, um, and I'm not telling
anybody to do that or anybodywho has a driver's license
because I wish that I had thefaith I have now back then.
But it's all in God's time, andI realize that.
So Catholic High School.
Catholic High School, LaSalle uhhigh school in Philadelphia, and
(10:14):
went on to Temple University inPhiladelphia also.
So I was raised by the Christianbrothers too.
Um it was a great time to go,you know, go through LaSalle.
They were just wonderful theretoo.
But the faith growing up, Imean, uh, it was all right
there.
Um unfortunately, uh, BishopKevin is that I I left the faith
when I got my independencebecause I thought I knew better.
You know, it's like I thought,you know, the world revolved
(10:36):
around me and my talents, notthe talents that the Lord gave
me.
And uh unfortunately I carriedthat through my young adults in
my in my uh college into mytwenties and so on and so forth.
SPEAKER_00 (10:47):
And we know sometimes it uh takes time to uh
uh appreciate uh our prioritiesand uh you know living in the
world that we live, and Jesuscalled us to be in the world but
not of the world.
Um but uh and and we can find alot of um similarities and and
intersection between faith anduh St.
Paul speaks about the athleteand uh running the race.
(11:08):
Um but um uh it it can also be adistraction and we you know we
face challenges of uh uh sportson Sunday mornings, uh competing
uh literally with with mass.
Um but um uh in terms of theinterest in sports, uh which
again I don't think it's ascommon today.
I read uh was it in high school,I think, um football, baseball,
(11:30):
and basketball.
Yeah, right.
SPEAKER_03 (11:32):
Yeah, played all three there.
Um I I played only two years offootball, but I played like four
years of uh you know baseballand basketball there.
My first love, just like yours,was baseball.
And I think you were a pitchertoo, right, Bishop.
At the end, at the end.
Yeah, yeah.
So I was a pitcher also.
Um and I I just loved it.
I love you know playingbaseball.
Did you play at Temple?
I did.
Um I always I always like totell the story about the um the
(11:56):
impact that I had.
Now, the older we get, we canstart talking about ourselves a
little older.
But the impact I had on Templebaseball.
At the time in the 70s, St.
John's was really good too.
Always very good.
Uh Seton Hall was very good,yeah, Frank Seton Hall was very
good.
Rick Saron was a catcher at thetime from Seton Hall.
So we had some good robberiesthere.
But the Temple was one of thetop teams in the East.
(12:17):
And the year before I got toTemple University, they went to
the College World Series.
Wow.
The year after I left Temple,they went to the College World
Series.
So that's the impact I had onthose four years.
They had a drought for fouryears when I was there.
But I enjoyed it.
It was really a lot of fun.
SPEAKER_00 (12:32):
And um and some minor league baseball.
SPEAKER_03 (12:34):
Minor league baseball, I signed with the
Orioles, um, pitched in thesingle A baseball for just about
just a year.
Next year at spring training, Igot released.
So my dream, as some of ourdreams are, right, um, it just
like went up in smoke.
And I was like, oh my gosh.
And Jay and I were talkingearlier about um, you know, if
my dream, if my plans camethrough instead of the Lord's
(12:56):
plans, what would it look like?
And I know one thing, itcouldn't be any better than what
the Lord has planned for me.
And that's what I try to tellpeople because the fact that
sometimes we think when we don'treach that one goal or we don't
reach that one dream, that ourlife, oh my gosh, what's what's
the Lord's got better plans foryou.
If you think you have goodplans, just wait.
He's gonna have better plans,and that's what he's done for me
too.
SPEAKER_00 (13:56):
And um so I think uh did you look into baseball
umpiring, but uh saw a little uhuh uh basketball became a little
bit more attractive from therefereeing uh um side.
Uh and then uh we can long MBAcareer, but at some point you
came back to the faith.
Uh yeah where take us maybe tothe sure yeah I'll try to take
(14:17):
you there.
SPEAKER_03 (14:17):
Like my first um I got in the MBA at the age of 30,
30, turning 31, so I did myfirst year.
SPEAKER_00 (14:23):
And CBA, Continental Basketball League.
I had learned about that.
Oh my gosh, yeah.
SPEAKER_03 (14:27):
I know Jay and I were talking about the CBA.
My gosh, Phil Jackson, we werejust telling some stories
earlier about Phil Jackson.
He and I came up together in theCBA.
Was he refined?
No, he was coaching.
SPEAKER_00 (14:38):
Oh, okay.
SPEAKER_03 (14:38):
He was coaching there, and we had we had some
run-ins back then too.
You know, so by the time we gotto the NBA, we really respected
each other.
And I liked Phil.
Phil was a good guy, I reallydid.
I respect his ability to coach.
But um my first like four yearsin the league, I was single.
Um, and still faith-wise, uh, Icall myself a creester, right?
Christmas and Easter I'd go to.
(14:59):
And even then, I always thoughtthe church had it wrong, right?
I had it right.
You know, the the uh the schoolof uh Steve was right, uh,
little did I know.
But I met my wife at theairport, going in and out of
Philadelphia Airport because wetraveled a lot.
My wife was a teacher by trade,but she worked part-time at U.S.
Airways in Philadelphia as agate agent.
And I would run into her.
(15:21):
And beautiful woman, and youknow, talking to people, and we
got to know the supervisorsthere because you need their
help when you've flights canceland so on as you're traveling
that much.
So Mary Allen uh I met, wouldtalk to her.
We flirt back and forth.
She would say she flirted a lotmore with me when I was like
kind of a chicken to ask her outbecause as guys, I don't know
(15:42):
about anybody else here, but wedon't like rejection.
And so I sit there and said,this beautiful girl who wouldn't
say yes to go out with me, but Ifinally got the um finally got
the guts to ask her out.
But the one thing, even prior tothat, this is before social
media.
Um, no Instagram, no Facebook.
You had to ask other peopleabout somebody else to find out.
(16:04):
Now it's not that now you goonline, you find out about
everybody, right?
So I would go up to everybody atU.S.
Airways, and what I did, MaryEllen, her big name was Kennedy,
right?
Yeah, what's your story?
What's going on?
And everyone, besides saying,oh, she's a very nice woman, and
blah, everyone says she's reallyCatholic.
Everyone.
I said, how cool is that?
I mean, now that I look back, Ihope someday that somebody can
(16:25):
sit there and say, Steve Javiwas really Catholic.
That's what a testimony to yourfaith.
Well, of course, I hear that,hear that me kind of like pushed
my faith away for a number ofyears, going like, well, I'm
Catholic.
Well, we have something incommon, right?
So after the first date, afterthe first date, we went out to
an Italian restaurant in SouthPhilly, enjoyed each other's
(16:48):
company, and I said, Okay, Igotta try to impress this girl.
Because guys are as a guy, youalways have to try to outdo it.
And they said the girls arelike, oh, okay, it's great.
Halfway through the week, I callher up.
I said, Mary Ellen, you have agood time?
Yes, we did.
But well, are you free for thisweekend?
Maybe you can go out again.
She goes, I'd love to.
What would you like to do?
I go, how about we go to massand brunch afterwards?
(17:10):
I hadn't been to mass, I don'tknow how long.
And but I just figured it's agood way of getting in good with
this pretty girl, right?
So you're gonna appreciate thislittle story here, uh, Bishop
Kevin.
So we pick her up, go to Mass,and all I'm thinking about is
brunch afterwards.
I'm not thinking about the mass.
And Mary Allen, like my parents,like to sit up front, you know.
So we're up front, okay, we'resitting there and they go, all
(17:31):
right, I can put up 45 minutesan hour, I can do that for her.
Come on.
Well, then now the priest, youknow, starts, and now he's now
he's gonna give his homily.
And I have to be careful, right?
Because I give homilies now.
So I'm not gonna be throwingthe.
Little did I know that peoplewould be critiquing me as I
(17:51):
critiqued, unfortunately, thispriest.
Uh and I critiqued him, and Iand obviously I wasn't
listening.
It was it didn't really resonatewith me.
I'm like talking about hardnessof heart, right?
And that's what it was.
So, but I kept thinking aboutthat's okay.
Once I'm out of here, it's likewe're going to brunch.
So finally the mass is over.
Marielle and I were walking downto the restaurant for brunch in
(18:11):
Philly.
And we start talking about themass for some reason.
She goes, Oh, that was really agood mass.
I went, What?
She goes, Well, yeah.
I said, Did you hear thatpriest?
I nothing he said reallyresonated with me.
And she said, Well, it didn'tresonate.
She goes, Well, do you haveanybody you could pray for?
I said, What do you mean?
She goes, Your family, yourfriends.
(18:32):
Couldn't you have just said alittle prayer at that time for
them?
Or couldn't you have prayed tothe Holy Spirit and said, you
know, touch me with somethingthat this priest is saying?
She goes, basically, she goes,Well, you you said you got
nothing out of it.
What did you put into it?
And she stopped me in my tracks,Bishop Kevin.
She was right.
I expected to get something forgiving nothing.
(18:53):
And that that changed my I mean,we still, my wife and I still
talk about it.
It's over 35 years now, and westill remember stopping on the
sidewalk and those exact words.
And it resonates with me, notonly just through my my Catholic
faith life, but in all life.
We get out of something what weput into it.
And and it's so true.
From that day on, I just said Ijust saw the kind of person she
(19:15):
was, the joy that she had, andshe's the one that brought me
back to my faith.
SPEAKER_00 (19:19):
Yeah.
So it's and she had been raisedCatholic herself, uh, Catholic
her whole life, went to St.
SPEAKER_03 (19:24):
Joe's University in Philly, never uh never left the
church at all, like me, and alot of people my age left and
came back.
She never she never leftwhatsoever.
Very I don't think anybody lovesthe Lord more than my wife.
We were sitting there thismorning in prayer because we
sing morning prayer together.
SPEAKER_00 (19:41):
Beautiful.
SPEAKER_03 (19:41):
And this is what I I invite all the men out there,
you know.
Of course, at my age I go off ontangents.
But I remember when we first gotmarried, Mary Ellen and I, and
this obviously way before I wasthinking of the call for a
deacon, she'd be praying.
She goes, You want to pray withme?
And I go, Nah, not me.
You got your thing, I got mything.
That's how guys are.
SPEAKER_02 (20:00):
Right, right.
SPEAKER_03 (20:00):
And then now being you know in the formation,
become a deacon, we startpraying together.
It's the best thing in theworld.
Because I tell guys, guess what?
We all can wake up on that leftside of the bed, and sometimes
both of us do at the same time.
Well, when you say, Can we saymorning prayer?
All of a sudden you forget allabout that.
That five and seven minutes ofmorning prayer, the liturgy of
the hours, all of a sudden, onceyou're done, you forget about
(20:22):
what you're arguing about.
And I tell guys, drop your ego,drop your pride, like I had.
I had that ego and pride, like,no, guys, we we real men don't
do that.
No, real men do that.
Right.
And I just encourage every guyto pray with their wives because
it'll make your relationshipthat much better, and you're
getting closer to the Lord, too.
SPEAKER_01 (20:39):
Yeah, my wife and I try to pray together.
Um, so can we pivot back tobasketball?
So so now this was you wereabout four to five years into
officiating, right, when youcame back to the to the faith.
Yes.
How did uh maybe you could tiethe faith into your your day
job?
So how did it impact uh your dayjob and and what you were doing
(21:00):
on the court there?
Or maybe your interior.
SPEAKER_03 (21:03):
Yeah, Jay, you know, I always um I always prayed
before a game.
It sounds kind of weird, eventhough I wasn't going to church
or something.
I bet I would pray before thegame.
I just say, uh, give me thestrength, courage, and the
stamina, Lord, to do you know beable to do my job tonight.
SPEAKER_00 (21:15):
So sorry to interrupt, but just because uh
uh I Jen, I just listened to thebook written by Jay Wright, um,
and uh he speaks so highly ofhis priest chaplain.
Amongst athletes, there is anopenness to prayer, right?
I mean, uh and you're saying asa ref, even though you weren't
practicing your faith, you'd saya prayer before the game.
Absolutely.
But I I uh whether it'sfootball, basketball, maybe less
(21:37):
so in baseball, although with uhseveral Latino Hispanic players,
I think you say it.
Um but um but uh so um I I thinkthat's something that's that's
uh an area we could it'scertainly hearing Jay Wright
talk about the the impact ofpriest chaplain and and faith on
uh he said whatever you know umreligion the players were, um we
were we were sharing values andand and asked him just to be
(21:59):
open and he talked about uh youknow how it helped them as a
team.
But um, but go ahead.
I'm sorry, you were saying youprayed before games and Jay was
asking about uh you know uh howit affected your day job in
terms of Yeah, I mean I how itaffected I you know may maybe I
think what it what it is too,Jay, is that sometimes I think
we get wrapped up in ourselves.
SPEAKER_03 (22:17):
I think when I got into my faith more and so it was
it was more about not just aboutme, because I have two other
partners on the floor.
It's all about them too.
Whereas some people can getwrapped up that if you're the
crew chief on the game and youwant people to know who you are
and so on and so.
SPEAKER_00 (22:33):
How about getting to mess?
Um, over the years did it becomesomething that uh because you
were traveling a lot, right?
SPEAKER_03 (22:38):
Yeah.
Interesting.
That's a great question.
I um once once I my wife helpedme, you know, get back to my
faith, I started going to massevery Sunday on the road.
I had some favorite churches,and then when I started going to
daily mass, which has been over25 years ago, um, there was
some, especially when you'restaying in major cities, you can
you can get the mass, there's anoontime mass at the cathedrals
(23:00):
or downtown churches.
So it's not you don't have to bethere at seven or eight in the
morning, you can go at noontime.
So I mean, the one in Portland,we did the Mariette right there,
walk right up the hill, andthere's a church for noontime
mass.
SPEAKER_00 (23:10):
Uh uh.
Sometimes it's about what we putinto it, right?
When where there's a will,there's a way, if you want to.
Uh and maybe uh I try to um,even though we're getting
towards the end of Lent, it'snot too um uh I think daily mass
is one of the um unsung or bestkept spiritual secrets, right?
If uh if you want to grow in aspiritual life, uh would you say
(23:32):
that that was the absolutely I Ithink that helped me.
SPEAKER_03 (23:35):
I I went through a really, really difficult time,
uh Bishop.
I won't get I we we can get intosome other time or today, but um
had to do with the NBA referees.
You could look this up probably.
The NBA referees and um uh theIRS came after the NBA referees
with expense money.
And it was had nothing to do,they didn't they didn't want to
s settle it civilly.
They charged me, I was indictedby the United States government.
(23:58):
Uh for for they said I owed overthree years, three years, they
said I owed thirteen thousanddollars.
Oh, jeez.
Now I'm I was paying five timesmore than that in taxes, and
they said, well, you did thisfraudulently, so and so.
So it was a very difficult timein my life, and that's when I
started going to Daily Mass.
The the times when you sitthere, you've heard people say
(24:19):
that you had to give it over.
I had to give it over.
When you read an indictment thatsays United States of America
versus Steve Jabby, that'spretty serious.
And there's no deal making rightthere.
SPEAKER_00 (24:29):
Uh and and you were ended up being acquitted, is
that right?
Yes, right.
I ended up being acquitted.
SPEAKER_03 (24:34):
Uh and so those two weeks of the year.
SPEAKER_00 (24:35):
But they were really trying to for$13,000, you
couldn't.
SPEAKER_03 (24:40):
It wasn't like I can go in and say, well, I I didn't
know I did wrong.
Right.
I'll write the check to you.
Right, right.
And and then they said, nope, wethink you guys were doing this
as a conspiracy, and theycharged so many guys, and so
many guys pleaded guilty to afelony, which is a shame.
It really is.
But um, that was the time that Istarted going to daily mass, and
I just realized the power ofgiving it over to the Lord.
(25:01):
Not that doesn't mean we shouldsit home and just say, okay,
let's see what happens.
SPEAKER_00 (25:04):
Right, right, right.
SPEAKER_03 (25:05):
No, you just do what you have to do, and wherever
it's gonna take you, the Lord'sgonna help you.
He's gonna put you in the spot.
I still remember, Bishop Kevin,right before the jury, we found
out that the jury made theirdecision.
It was on four different counts.
And I remember sitting at thetable with my lawyer, and my
lawyer, this is un courtrooms inin real life aren't like TV.
(25:25):
My my um my attorney says, BringMary in, I'll have her sit here,
you know, right next to youduring the time that they're
gonna read the jury the verdict.
And she did, and we sat there.
And I remember right before theycame, the jury came out, looking
up and just praying to the Lordand praying to Mother Mary, and
just saying, Whatever you haveplanned for me, I can handle.
If that means I have to go awayto uh prison or something, I'm
(25:48):
doing it because you know, I'lldo it because you want me to.
And whatever it is, I I acceptedwhatever my outcome would be.
And I just put it in his hands.
And I think that daily mass,when we, as this society
nowadays, everybody's got stuffgoing on.
Bishop Kevin, when you preachevery you know, every week, when
you look out there, if you wereto ask somebody who doesn't have
stuff going on, there wouldn'tbe a hand raise.
(26:09):
Daily mass, again back to yourquestion, daily mass to me helps
you trust the Lord, helps youhand things over for that day,
even, you know, or maybe thatweek, and just say, Lord, I
can't handle this.
SPEAKER_00 (26:20):
And receiving communion every day, how it
strengthens us, right?
I mean, uh, you know, uh, yeah,right.
And and also listening to God'sword and whether it's the most
inspiring or most exciting, it'sstill in the background, right?
Allowing the Lord to speak tous.
SPEAKER_03 (26:31):
Absolutely.
I know at the times when I don'tgo to I miss daily mass a couple
of times, not receiving theEucharist, I can f physically
almost feel it, mentally feelit.
So it has something to do.
SPEAKER_01 (26:42):
So what about tell us about your preaching now?
So you you mentioned that priestwho was giving that homily back
at that mass with your wife.
Uh what's what's that like foryou?
SPEAKER_03 (26:53):
I think it's the most challenging thing for me.
I can sit and talk to you aboutsports.
I can stand up in front of agroup of referees and you know
hold a clinic if you want to.
You're talking about people'seternal souls.
I mean, that's intimidating.
I still remember, and I'm gonnaget back, again, tangents,
right?
I still remember when we werepracticing my class, who were
gonna be ordained like threedays later, went to the
(27:14):
cathedral to practice.
We all knew we were gonna haveto preach that Sunday because
our after being ordainedSaturday, Sunday's our first
mass and we're gonna preach.
Every guy we came into thecathedral that Thursday, all the
women are going, isn't thisexciting?
And every guy's got that look ontheir face going, exciting, I
can't preach on Sunday.
And we knew we knew what thegospel reading was you know
(27:37):
months ago, but we it's justthat, oh my gosh, I have to do
what?
Um it, Jay, it is the mostchallenging.
Um, but he's never failed.
He's never failed me.
SPEAKER_00 (27:48):
Did I read correctly that you were in formation seven
years?
SPEAKER_03 (27:50):
Yeah, in Philly, it was seven years when I started.
Wow.
Now they put it down to six.
Wow.
So uh for us it's four?
SPEAKER_00 (27:56):
Uh five.
Five, yeah.
Yeah, it's five and all.
Um uh we'll have to share thiswith um our deacons.
Uh um, we actually I'm gonna beshortly meeting with uh we're
gonna have about eight guysordained at at the end of May.
Um how did uh formation prepareyou uh for preaching but also
for for ministry?
(28:17):
Um and and maybe um how did itimpact uh you know your living
out of your faith now that you Ithink you said you it just kind
of came into your mind the worddeacon, right?
SPEAKER_03 (28:26):
Or the possibility and and you spoke to your pastor
and yeah what happened was umafter I retired, uh which I
couldn't referee anymore becausemy knees were bad, um the Lord
blessed me with 25 years ofsomething that I just had so
much fun.
I enjoyed it, you know, I reallydid.
But I also knew I mean it well,I had a couple knee surgeries
during my career, and I knewthere was something else I was
(28:47):
gonna do in life because I wasnot fulfilled, Bishop.
I mean, it was I had fun, Iwouldn't change it.
Right because you mean you lovesports, I love sports, I made a
living in sports, still do,right?
And I love it.
But I remember sitting there attimes during lunch by myself and
just saying, you know, likethere's gotta be more to this.
I mean, I have to leave thisworld, not being I I blow a
whistle and call fouls onbasketball players, and that's
(29:09):
supposed to be important?
No.
Um and I just knew this had tobe something else.
So when I retired, I just prayedto the Lord.
I said, I want to serve you.
I said, because you've blessedme in my life so much with
everything.
Family, friends, vocal I mean,uh my my yeah, my my
professionally knows.
And it was just amazing.
So I said, Lord, I just want toserve you.
Jeff Cavins came to our parish,all right, given a talk.
(29:33):
And this is I retired in the endof June of one year of 2011.
This is now December.
So I've been praying, and likethe word, I think it's a bad
meaning, sometimes the meaningof the word discernment.
I think people think discernyou're on your knees 24-7
praying.
No.
Discerning is uh recognizingthat the Lord's gonna have
something for you.
Playing.
SPEAKER_00 (29:53):
Show me, show me, show me.
SPEAKER_03 (29:54):
Show me exactly, show me what it is, please.
You know, every day I'd sit inmy prayer chair and go, like,
Lord, I'm I'm open to it.
Show me.
Well, months go by and nothing.
Jeff Kavan speaks at our parishand he starts talking about how
God speaks to you.
And I remember looking at himgoing, like, he might be
speaking to you, but he hasn'tbeen speaking to me.
I mean, help me here.
(30:14):
Well, during the course he'stalking about how God does speak
to us, whether it be withputting thoughts in our mind,
whether it be putting people inour lives, or putting us all in
situations.
And then we just have to be opento recognizing it.
And at that moment, when he wasdescribing that, the word deacon
came into my mind.
And I'm like, wait a second.
Are you kidding?
I mean, I really didn't knowmuch about deacons.
(30:35):
We had a couple of our parish,wonderful guys.
Um but I said, Is this what hewants?
And I couldn't get it out of mymind.
My wife and I go out to dinnerafter this presentation, and I
said, Marion, you're not gonnabelieve.
Here's what happened.
She's like, Wow.
She goes, You better go seeMonsignor.
Monsignor Bricard, my dearfriend, who just you know
retired, been there for 35years.
I go knocking on his door thenext morning, I go, Hey
(30:56):
Monsignor, you got a fewmoments?
Yeah, what's up, Steve?
So I tell him the story, and hestarted laughing.
He goes, Tell what works,brother.
I said, What do you mean?
He goes, No, he says, if youcame in here with a Bible
underneath your arm, sayingyou're he said, I would have
thrown you out of here.
He said, the Lord works thatway.
But Steve, he's working on yourheart.
That doesn't mean you're goingto become a deacon, but he's
(31:17):
calling you to something.
Something's going on.
Let's just take it just step bystep, one foot in front of the
other.
Don't get ahead of ourselves andsee what happens.
SPEAKER_00 (31:24):
One one example that is Jeff Cavins himself, uh, that
was uh, you know, Bible in ayear.
I mean, when you think of whatthe Lord did through him and and
and Father Mike Schmidt's interms of how many people have,
you know, come.
And now, I don't know if you'refamiliar with the Hallow app,
but he's uh very much and he'sthe every day there, um, you
know, uh uh so yeah, um, and uhI mean I think he's been a
(31:46):
scripture scholar for manyyears, but to think how, again,
the Lord um used uh someone touh uh give a higher profile to
to to the word of God and andand to the and to the the
spiritual life.
And uh, you know, uh I I thinkthere's some we've been looking
at and hearing some reports onhow the church is growing, and
there seems to be uh a return ofeven young adults to the church,
(32:08):
and I think there's gonna be ayou know a larger number of um
adults coming in to receive thesacraments um at Easter.
So um I and many have said withthe craziness uh that we're
seeing in our world, uh uh Ithink people are gonna are st
are starting to see more andmore a need for something.
SPEAKER_03 (32:23):
Yeah, no, no doubt, no doubt.
SPEAKER_01 (32:25):
So um can we talk a little more about your NBA?
Absolutely, fun.
I although you know what struckme with the Jesuit Whittlecool
interview that you gave uh wasthe kind was the idea of
humility.
Um maybe maybe we can talk aboutthat a little a little bit.
Um like so here's here's refereeSteve Jaffey Javi who uh I mean
(32:50):
you're constantly being screwyou know, you're making these
tough plays that are impacting agame situation that you could
rejecting players occasionallyand uh mascots occasionally.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
So what and it's all on nationaltelevision, international
television.
Um and you're being screamed atby the coaches occasionally.
(33:13):
So but you're calling theseplays and and they're right, but
maybe sometimes they're wrong.
As like what's going throughyour mind about are you
second-guessing yourself?
I know there's a review processin between uh how it's now.
Yeah, no, yeah.
Yeah.
And then there's yeah, replay,instant replay.
SPEAKER_03 (33:31):
So I thought I'm gonna answer that in a second
with you.
It's funny, this reminded me ofsomething I would say to a
coach, because you say coach isyelling at you know, and I tell
the coach, only two people canyell at me, my boss and my wife.
You don't look like either oneof them, you know.
But no.
Um I I when I when I speak aboutmy faith, and I try to relate it
to everyday life too, is the theword, and humility can be in
(33:55):
with this, is called beingobjective.
SPEAKER_02 (33:57):
Okay.
SPEAKER_03 (33:57):
Being objective with yourself.
And as a referee, in order foryou to improve, you have to
really be objective of when youare wrong.
And whether that's admitting toa coach that you're wrong, a lot
of times uh uh, you know, as wewatch games on TV, we see the
replay.
The referee hasn't seen it yet,so he doesn't know he's wrong.
He now players and coaches aretrying to tell him he's wrong,
(34:18):
right?
As we talked about, but hedoesn't personally know he's
wrong.
But later on, when you watch thefilm, you have to be objective
and say, you know, Jane, Imissed that call.
Why now why did you miss it?
Were you out of position?
Was somebody block you out?
Did you anticipate the call?
There's so many reasons that youcould so you learn from your
mistakes.
Same way with our spirituallife, and I think he related.
(34:40):
We have to be objective.
Nowadays, I have plenty of mybuddies who I play golf with and
so on to go, well, I'm a goodperson.
I'm a good guy.
I'm gonna where in the Bible didJesus say about good guy?
You know, he likes you being agood guy, but he didn't say
that's you know, to get intoheaven, right?
But um, but I just reallybelieve being objective about
our shortcomings or our sins.
(35:01):
And nowadays we compare toomuch, whether it be on Instagram
or social media, well, I'm notas bad as that person.
I'm not as bad.
We should look at our own ownreplay.
How was our how did our day gotoday?
How who did I treat poorlytoday?
Um did I have an argument withmy wife, which I should have had
more patience with?
That kind of stuff.
SPEAKER_01 (35:19):
Examination of conscience.
Right.
Amen.
You're right.
SPEAKER_03 (35:22):
And then that's why we have the you know the
sacrament of reconciliation togo and say, hey, uh, you know, I
need your mercy and your love,your forgiveness.
SPEAKER_00 (35:28):
How many years are you working now with ESPN in
your current uh Yeah, that's agreat yeah.
SPEAKER_03 (35:32):
My wife, I was trying to figure that out.
The year I retired in 2011,which I can't believe is 15
years ago.
Time just flies.
I th I think that the followingyear they got out, I think it
was about 14 years.
Wow.
And this is before the ReplayCenter.
SPEAKER_00 (35:45):
Uh Right, Seucaucus, right.
Right.
SPEAKER_03 (35:47):
I used to I used to go up to uh before the Replay
Center was in Secaucus, I usedto go up to Bristol,
Connecticut, and before the atESPN.
You know, on the on the set.
That was kind of cool for aperson who loves sports to be on
the set with those guys.
Right.
That's really neat.
SPEAKER_00 (36:02):
Yeah, right.
SPEAKER_03 (36:02):
And they're and what?
And they're all really goodguys.
Right.
SPEAKER_01 (36:05):
So you're driving up to Secaucus now?
SPEAKER_03 (36:07):
Now from my uh my home to Secaucus, yeah, from
Bucks County in Pennsylvania upto Certain Cascadics.
Are there games where you're noton at all?
Yes.
Oh matter of fact, I'd saythat's more than more likely
than not.
Okay.
Uh but they just have me therein certain games.
Like right now I'm workingmainly Saturday nights at 8 30,
the ABC uh primetime game, andthen Sunday afternoon games.
(36:28):
But it's just with the ESPN orABC, not the other networks.
SPEAKER_00 (36:31):
Right, right.
SPEAKER_03 (36:32):
Um but it's uh I'd say probably 65-70 percent of
the time, I really don't get onto comment just when they feel
they needed to be.
Right, right.
SPEAKER_00 (36:41):
When they go yeah to the uh to the expert, yeah,
right, right, right.
Uh but it's really cool.
SPEAKER_03 (36:45):
It keeps my keeps my hand in it a little bit too, and
I see the referees because I'mat the replay center, and there
are always active referees therehelping uh referees at other
games too.
So I see the guys come throughthe replay center.
SPEAKER_00 (36:56):
Uh you know, when we think whether family are
relationships or parish, um uhthere is um, you know, we look
at a at a team, right?
And you what makes the teamsuccessful, whether that be uh a
basketball team or a refereeingteam, right?
Uh um uh and those relationshipswith um with colleagues and um
uh and and I think being uhinspired and others who can uh
(37:19):
you know the a player might makeother team players better,
right?
That's what we would want to be,right?
Uh a good teammate.
Um but uh um uh and and maybe uhuh you talked about that
relationship when you werereffing with the two other guys
and and how you have to be, andyou really have to have each
other's back.
You do, yeah.
Um but um uh I I think some ofour deacons, and it's certainly
(37:41):
in the priesthood uh um uh uhyour classmates um uh uh how was
that experience in terms ofcoming into formation and and
getting a new group of guys thatyou got to know at a deeper
level, no?
SPEAKER_03 (37:52):
Amazing, amazing.
And I think you know what I'mgonna say right now.
In that class, we had we hadseven of us, all right, and
seven of us ordained.
SPEAKER_00 (38:01):
2019, you ordained, right?
SPEAKER_03 (38:02):
2019, yes.
Everyone's so different.
Everyone, and then you startthinking about the apostles.
I think of the chosen, much ofthe chosen.
You know that?
Because I love that.
Love it, love it.
But I think if we're all sodifferent, and probably would
never have been come together inlife except for the diaconent
formation.
So we do stay in touch, there'sno doubt.
But also forming bonds, BishopKevin, within your parish.
(38:26):
Um, I have a parish, St.
Andrew, in Newtown.
It's the largest one in theArchdiocese of Philadelphia.
We have almost 7,000 families inthe St.
Andrew.
SPEAKER_00 (38:36):
Um You're already a pastoral hub, right?
Archbishop Perez is talkingabout like.
Yes, yes, but you guys got yourown little diocese that way.
SPEAKER_03 (38:43):
I know, we really do.
But uh it's amazing.
The men, the men in St.
Andrew, I think the men havesuch a big have had a big part
of me in my ministry, but also abig part of me of spiritually
coming alive because when I gotthere, they have a small faith
group, small faith group, 40 to50 men every every other
Saturday praying the rosary,breaking open the gospel,
(39:04):
breaking into groups.
You don't have to talk, youdon't want to talk.
People talk, they do talk.
I saw guys here when I firstwent to the men's group, and I
didn't say a word.
I mean, I'm gone way backbefore, and I come home and I
said to my wife, go, Mary Ellen,oh my gosh, these guys are
incredible.
And the the beautiful thing,hearing like 40-50 guys, which
now swells to about 70 in Lent,40-50 guys pray in the rosary.
(39:27):
Just men praying the rosary andand and offering up our
intentions to the Lord everyother Saturday and every
Saturday in Lent.
Um, the men are incredible.
So to the deacons also who aregoing to be ordained, the men in
your parish get to know themmore.
I I sit there, my best friendsright now are men of the parish.
We and they they love sports.
(39:48):
I love to play golf.
We go on golf trips together.
We take a couple of our priestfriends, we play golf.
My one buddy goes, wait asecond, this is like the
starting of a joke.
Two priests and a deacon, twopriests and a deacon, and
another guy walk into a bar,right?
Or something like that.
I said, Yeah, but it's amazing.
I just, again, the Lord hasblessed me by putting people in
my life, Jay, that I couldn'teven imagine.
(40:10):
And I couldn't imagine, I can'timagine my life without them.
I really can't.
SPEAKER_00 (40:14):
Well, if you're looking for a new golf partner,
you can have two priests, adeacon, and a bishop.
Amen.
But uh and uh you so youmentioned to your wife after the
(40:34):
Caven's talk um that you thishow has the experience been for
her um through formation and nowum that that you're in ministry?
Um uh uh there are wives thatembrace it.
Uh for some it's a bit of achallenge.
Um uh uh is is your wife alsoinvolved in the in the parish?
Uh what's the experience beenlike for her?
SPEAKER_03 (40:54):
It's it's a that's a great question too, because even
like with your uh deacons aregonna be ordained, I'm sure
their wives are thinking what'swhat's happening, what's going
on.
Um I think just from MaryEllen's experience, is she
involved in a parish?
Yes.
To the extent that people wouldthink, no, because she has her
other things that she does too.
Um Mary Ellen was president of aum uh a pregnancy center for a
(41:17):
number of years, president ofthe board and so on and so
forth.
So she has her own littleministries outside of our parish
that she she does.
But um I I think what happens issometimes the women feel
pressured that they think, oh,my w my husband, you know, is a
deacon.
I have to do this.
You don't have to do that.
Just your presence alone ofworking together with your
(41:39):
husband is is great is a greatthing.
Um but during formation, MaryAllen felt so I mean she loved
going to classes.
She really did.
At the time in Philadelphia,they had they had asked the the
women, they they said, you know,we really prefer you come to
class, barring any littlechildren or whatever, whatever
work, whatever it may be.
And I'll tell you, we would wehad some of the best
(42:00):
conversations, my wife and I,during formation.
Coming home after classes withthese brilliant professors, I
mean, our faith is so deep asyou guys know, and you sit there
and go, Can you believe they'retalking about this?
Can you believe they're talkingabout that?
The next morning our cup ofcoffee.
What did you get in your notesabout that?
And we go and it made us closertoo.
But as far as the women, I mean,I think the women, whatever they
(42:21):
feel they want to do or theyfeel called to do, almost like
their husbands, but don't feelpressure that you you have to do
this.
SPEAKER_01 (42:26):
You really don't.
Now, uh if I understoodcorrectly, so your wife's family
was very involved in thepro-life movement in
Philadelphia?
Yeah, Jay.
SPEAKER_03 (42:35):
Um her mom started the uh one of the first uh
pro-life, I should say,pregnancy centers in Bucks
County.
And that was, oh my gosh, beforeI even met Mary Ellen, probably
50 years ago.
And she and her sister, uh my mymother-in-law's sister, which
would be Mary Ellen's aunt, theywould work together uh helping
people in Christ uh the women incrisis pregnancies.
(42:57):
And from there, this same uh,this same pregnancy center,
there's one, two, three centersnow, and they they have saved, I
think last year they saved uhalmost almost 400 babies.
Whoa.
But here's the other thing too,Jay, is that it's not just about
the baby, it's about the mother.
SPEAKER_00 (43:16):
Walking with moms in need, right?
We've been doing it for a longtime.
We finally put a name on it, andyes.
But yeah, not only up untilbirth, but after a couple of
years afterwards, whatever theyneed.
SPEAKER_03 (43:26):
It's it's it's grown to incredible and incredible
proportions.
And I just think of her mom, howproud she must be.
God rest herself if she's inheaven looking down, you know,
saying, like, look what lookwhat I started.
SPEAKER_00 (43:36):
There was a great testimony on the Halo app, um, I
think the week before lastduring Lent.
They're doing the BrothersKyramatsov Monday, Tuesday,
Wednesday, then Thursday.
They have a story about somebodykind of coming back to the
church and uh current sister oflife.
Um, she was uh in college and uhuh her roommate got pregnant,
and um she was supportive of theroommate.
Uh the roommate ended up withthe sister of life um and had
(44:00):
the child and uh uh and gave thechild up for adoption.
Um and then wanted to keep goingback to visit the sister of
life, and she was saying to herroommate, her friend, why don't
you come visit?
Why don't you come?
Uh and next thing she wanted tosermon treat, and she um well uh
20 plus years later, the childwanted to meet her birth mom.
And the birth mom calls thesister, the sister, can you end?
(44:23):
Um uh I I think the the the thechild stayed with the daughter
stayed with the sisters in theconvent while she was visiting
her birth mom, and the sisterwas driving her back.
And in the car, the sister said,you know, you're really the
reason um when she was in thewomb.
Um What a great story that is.
How beautiful.
Oh my goodness.
SPEAKER_01 (44:45):
Well, what did what did we miss?
SPEAKER_00 (44:49):
Give me uh uh a couple of names that come to
mind.
Phil Jackson, uh uh character orguys that you interacted with,
players or coaches, or maybe aguy that was impressive for his
uh uh I'm sure there's been afew that had model
sportsmanship, right?
That were general uh uh uh uhanybody or even guys that you
worked with uh um uh names thatcome to mind that um that made
(45:09):
an impact in one way or positiveor negative.
No, no, you're a challenge.
SPEAKER_03 (45:13):
I won't I won't name the negative.
We're in the Lenten season andI'd have to go to impression
tomorrow.
Or maybe right outside today,right?
But um the guy the one guy, it'sfunny, the it always keeps
coming to my mind a lot of Dukeguys for some reason.
I guess Coach Kay Mess Mold'sguy.
SPEAKER_00 (45:29):
Coach K was Deli Mes.
SPEAKER_03 (45:31):
Yeah, so uh Grant Hill.
Grant Hill comes to mind as aguy who um just was such a class
guy, uh treated youprofessionally, you know.
Um He was a coach?
Grant Hill was a player.
Grant Hill was just great.
Mark Price, remember the mostprice?
Yeah, Cleveland's.
If if Grant Hill or Mark Priceargued with you, they were
(45:53):
probably right.
You were wrong.
Whereas some other guys arguedwith the ego.
SPEAKER_00 (45:57):
I think with Grant Hill, from what I know, uh, you
know, it's something that standsout.
He during his years it got someattention.
You know, so often when you seeuh someone who's raised the
right way, so much of the creditgoes to the parents, as you say.
Um, you know, even when we lookback on our faith, it's God
bless uh parents.
And uh, you know, Derek Jeter,his his mom and dad were always
there on the stand, but theywould say, you know, that uh he
was raised the right way.
(46:18):
And I I think with Grant Hill,uh his his dad, I think, was a
running back for the DallasCowboys.
Yeah, right, right, right.
Calvin Hill.
Right, right.
SPEAKER_03 (46:25):
I mean, he used to kill the Eagles.
I'm the Eagles for you.
He used to kill the Eagles.
I actually ran into Calvin Hillum when I was refereeing.
Uh he was working for theCowboys, I guess, uh in a in
some capacity, and he'd come inand out of town and he'd stay at
the same hotel the referees did.
And I ran into him and Iintroduced myself to him, and he
looked like he could still run.
(46:46):
The guy was just a class man.
And we talked a lot, I gave himcompliments about his son.
And his mom, I think, I thinkMrs.
Hill is an attorney.
I met her one time.
And uh, but you're right, justgreat parents.
Right.
And Derek Jeter, even though I'mnot a Yankee fan, I love Derek
Jeter.
How do you not like Dark Jeter?
SPEAKER_00 (47:03):
Yeah, right.
SPEAKER_03 (47:05):
Even on the ones of the WBC, the baseball, he's just
wonderful.
SPEAKER_00 (47:08):
Oh, right, right.
SPEAKER_03 (47:09):
I love his analysis and so on.
He's just a normal guy.
SPEAKER_00 (47:13):
Uh it's something to see uh him, Big Poppy, and Arod
behind the diocese.
SPEAKER_03 (47:18):
I know.
SPEAKER_01 (47:19):
The competing all in life, right?
I know.
He he has a connection to myhometown, West Milford, which is
in our diocese.
Uh huh.
Yeah, definitely.
SPEAKER_00 (47:28):
Derek Jeta does?
Yeah.
Um I think his mom went to umPope John, uh, the Catholic high
school in Susse County.
Yeah.
Yeah, yeah.
So I love it.
Um anybody else that stands out?
How about a particular coachthat uh uh made an impact on the
case?
SPEAKER_03 (47:41):
You know what?
There's there's a couple a guyby the name of Paul Silas.
SPEAKER_00 (47:44):
Oh, sure.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_03 (47:45):
You know, he was a big guy.
Yeah, yeah.
And he looked like he could bereally intimidating, right?
Finest gentleman in the world.
I mean, there really are.
I mean, there there are some outthere.
I know that they have pressureon them.
Right, right.
They have to, you know, becausetheir jobs are on the line and
all that stuff.
But all we ask is referees, justlike anything Jay and I were
talking to a head time, justtreat us prof treat as you want
to be treated.
SPEAKER_00 (48:04):
Right, right?
The golden rule.
There you go, right?
SPEAKER_03 (48:06):
And they were players.
Well, why, Steve, why are youyelling at me?
Oh, that's what you're yellingat me.
You know?
But if like I give you MichaelJordan was always professional.
Always professional.
Doesn't mean he agreed with meall the time, but he would do it
in a way that he wouldn't bringthe whole crowd down on you.
You can handle that.
SPEAKER_02 (48:22):
Right.
SPEAKER_03 (48:22):
Nowadays, everybody's like, uh, you know,
screaming up and down.
It's like, just walk, the guy'sa human being.
You know, we're human beings.
SPEAKER_00 (48:29):
Replay has changed things as well, right?
I mean, now it it in the pastthey'd be arguing and arguing,
and there wasn't much that wasgoing to happen or change, but
they would still press it.
But now um if the if and and Ithink it's a good thing that,
you know, if references arehuman beings, if they miss a
call, then you can go back andsay sometimes it takes too long
to but uh but they're working onthat too, I think.
Uh yeah, they are.
SPEAKER_03 (48:49):
And I think you're right.
I think uh the replay has helpedbecause we want to get plays
right.
I mean the name of a referee isto try to get as many plays
right as you can.
And if you do miss one and theychallenge it, well it's good
because if it's gonna cost someof the game in, right.
But I I I I love like if I wasrefereeing now, because it seems
like every whistle they want tochallenge.
Bishop Kevin.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
They twirl it off.
(49:09):
And if I know I'm right, I'lljust get the and the coach
starts to argue, I'll go,challenge it then.
Right, right.
Challenge, don't argue with it.
Just challenge it.
That's right.
SPEAKER_00 (49:18):
Then we're gonna see who's right.
Um I won't mention names, butthere's a few nicks over the
years that come to mind.
Uh uh every time the guy fouls,he it's it's it's uh he he's
arguing with the ref.
It's incredible.
A couple of guys, and it's like,come on, you've got to be
kidding me.
SPEAKER_03 (49:33):
I know, it's not like it's not like they're
making this foul up.
But I would I told Jaybeforehand, we the referees in a
locker room, and even aftergames, we watch a lot of video.
And that's the way you becomebetter.
You're objective, you becomebetter.
And at halftime, it's alwaysgood because players and coaches
are always trying to put doubtin your mind by saying certain
things, uh, every plane, andit's like, am I missing
(49:53):
everything?
It's like it can't be.
So you go back to the lockerroom, you look at it, and you
know that you're right 90-somepercent of the time.
So you you have to watch filmbecause they would just tear you
apart mentally and your ego,we'd be torn apart.
But you have to you needsomething to build you back up.
And and film does that forreferees.
SPEAKER_01 (50:10):
Favorite game or favorite series you've ever
officiated?
SPEAKER_03 (50:13):
Okay, uh, favorite game.
Uh uh.
There's two favorite games, andit's my first finals game and my
last finals game.
The first finals game, thereason why it's my favorite,
because I reached the epitome ofour profession and I worked with
my main main mentor, JoeCrawford.
And Joe and I were we still aredear friends to this day.
We vacation together with ourwives and all.
(50:35):
And so that was an experiencethat I never had before.
Then my last finals game wasgreat because I knew that it was
going to be my last game of mycareer because my knees weren't
holding up anymore.
I was happy to get through my25th year.
And I still remember a quickquick thing on the last finals
game.
Um my family was there becausethey knew it was my last game.
Mary Allen was there, and someother of my friends, and so on.
(50:57):
Um and I remember very rarely inthe finals game, especially as
this was a game six, this thisended the series.
Dallas beat Miami in Miami ingame six.
Yeah, Novitsky, uh Jason Kidd.
Oh yeah, right, right.
Um there's a good guy, JasonKidd.
There's a good guy.
Um and I remember, like I said,very rarely do you do you have
the ch the luxury of lettingyour concentration come down in
(51:20):
the finals game, especially inthe last minute of play.
But it it was like Dallas isgonna win.
So they're up like eight or sixor eight, they're gonna win.
And I just remember sitting backand this I caught my wife's eyes
in the stands and saying, Iwonder what the Lord has planned
for me now.
Because we knew something wasgonna happen.
We didn't know what it was.
We had no idea that the acnewould be in my the cards for me.
(51:42):
But I just knew that somewhere,and we had talked about this
prior to the game.
My wife said, Steve, we've had agreat life doing this.
Traveled around, traveled aroundthe world in China and in Europe
and so on, just we're doinggames.
And and she says, It's exciting,but I'm look I'm looking forward
to the next chapter of our life.
Little little did she know thatshe'd be pulled into this too,
but she wants she'll you you askher, she'll tell you too.
(52:03):
This is the best part of herlife, and this is the best part
of my life right now.
That's great.
That's great.
SPEAKER_00 (52:08):
Maybe we'll close on uh speaking of uh relationships
and teamwork, um, you know, ourunderstanding of the Sacrament
of Orders.
Uh there's uh Bishop Priest andDeacon.
Um uh maybe uh what is what it'sbeen like what you mentioned,
your pastor, and and the I thinkyou said your current pastor is
is great.
And uh have you had much contactwith uh Archbishop Perez or uh
(52:28):
No, not what he's a busy man,right?
Right, right, right.
Yeah, he's a busy man.
But uh but working with um as aas a deacon working with
priests, how's how's thatexperience been?
SPEAKER_03 (52:36):
Uh it's well I've been I I told you, Bishop Kevin,
I I've been blessed to have twopastors that are just amazing.
And they're I don't justconsider them my pastor, my
brothers in Christ, but Iconsider them friends too.
And um and I just I just say tothe deacons, just you know,
you're we're here to serve.
That's what we do.
We serve.
Um we serve the service, right?
(52:56):
Yeah, I mean we serve we servewhatever the bishop tells us, we
go, we serve.
And I just think we just keepthat in mind.
It's not about us.
It's about when you're on thealtar, it's serving, it's about
you know doing the best you canto bring people closer to the
Lord and so on.
And y your your parish priest isjust an you know, your pastor is
he's a normal man like me andyou, and talk to him like that.
(53:18):
I mean, just have it have arespectful conversation.
If for some reason you don't getalong, let's sit down and talk.
I mean, we all want to get we'rewe're brothers in Christ
together.
If I'm doing something thatBishop Kevin doesn't like, I
want you to tell me because Iwhat the one thing I don't want
to do is something wrong.
Something that you know but Iknow what I too do love too, I
love the the younger prieststhat are coming out now from
(53:39):
seminary.
These guys are phenomenal inthis day and age to be in
formation and to become apriest.
I love serving these youngerpriests too.
I do, and I have a bunch of themwho are friends of mine because
you know they like to play golf,they like the sports and all.
I'll do anything for them.
I I I really will.
And I just um yeah, I just Ijust I just just love to serve.
I really do.
SPEAKER_00 (53:59):
Yeah, um it's it's really a blessing.
And as you said, gratitude, uhuh um we're it's a response to a
call and uh and all of us sharethat call from baptism and uh
trying to uh know what the Lordis asking and trying to do it as
best we can, right?
Day by day uh asking his help inprayer.
SPEAKER_03 (54:15):
That's true.
And not everybody's called to bea priest or a deacon, right?
But they're called to dosomething maybe you're doing
right now, Jay.
Or they're called to be the bestfather and husband they can be.
The Lord's calling to each oneof us to get closer to him.
And like you said, during thisLenten season, and even though
it's halfway through Lent, and II I m some of us have broken
their Lenten, but we can getback on the back on the bike
(54:36):
again.
Yeah, back on track again.
And maybe if you haven't, and Iused to do this years ago.
I'll get to it on the AshWednesday, and I don't.
Well, maybe now's the time we'rehalfway through.
It's not too late.
We got time between now andEaster.
If somebody out there whohasn't, or they're afraid to do
something or haven't or forgotto do something, start now.
SPEAKER_00 (54:54):
Start now.
SPEAKER_01 (54:55):
Exactly.
And get to confession, right?
SPEAKER_03 (54:56):
Amen.
SPEAKER_00 (54:57):
Yes, sacrament of healing.
Monday's uh welcome home forhealing here in the diocese.
We have every Monday at everyparish from 7 to 8:30 confession
that is available.
So we thank our priests and weencourage uh as many as possible
to take advantage of that.
SPEAKER_01 (55:10):
Um you mentioned Coach Jay Wright.
SPEAKER_00 (55:13):
Can you tell us uh about that?
I think it's Wednesday, May 6th,we'll put it up, but uh you're
welcome to come back up if youlike.
And uh you said you've had uh uhsome contact with them over
here.
SPEAKER_03 (55:22):
Great guy.
He's he's worth going to thelisten to.
A man of faith.
A man of faith, he really is.
SPEAKER_00 (55:27):
So yeah, Coach Wright is gonna be with us at
St.
Paul's Inside the Walls, ourEvangelization Center.
I think it's Wednesday, May 6th.
And uh check the show notes.
Um you can register.
Um and uh for young people andcoaches, uh he'll be in the
afternoon speaking to studentathletes and and coaches, so
that's a that's a possibility.
And then in the evening, seveno'clock, uh we're gonna we're
(55:50):
asking parishes to encourageparish leaders to go.
But there's uh an openregistration if there might be
some Villanova alums out there.
We want to uh given that theHoly Father is an uh an alum, we
have to uh be uh supportive ofVillanova's so uh so uh and the
Augustinians.
But uh um look look forward tothat and uh um we'll um keep
(56:11):
each other in prayer.
And Deacon Steve, thanks so muchfor coming.
And uh thank you so much for bepraying for you and please pray
for us and uh thank you verymuch.
We uh we continue in our seasonof Lent.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (56:21):
Okay, and thank you all for joining us.
Please subscribe, comment, andleave a positive rating.
Get to know us better byfollowing Bishop Kevin's
Instagram and beyond the beaconon social media.
Read the bishop's weekly columnon beaconnj.org and get in touch
if you have a question for thebishop or a podcast topic idea,
and discover our other podcasts.
(56:42):
See you next time.
SPEAKER_00 (56:43):
Thanks, everybody.
God bless.
God bless.
Have a great land.
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
The Breakfast Club
The World's Most Dangerous Morning Show, The Breakfast Club, With DJ Envy, Jess Hilarious, And Charlamagne Tha God!