Sacred spot in Green Bay: Where Vince Lombardi prayed

While visiting Green Bay, Wisconsin for the Catholic Media Conference, I took a few moments this morning to walk over to the church where the legendary Vince Lombardi attended daily Mass: St. Willebrord’s, just a few blocks from the convention center and my hotel.

A plaque outside describes the special relationship Green Bay Packers coach Lombardi had to the place, noting that it was just a short walk from the Packer offices.

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PK: God, Family & The Green Bay Packers

Thanksgiving is a time in the United States where families come together to give thanks to God, catch up with relatives….and watch NFL Football. This is actually good, provided that these three things are put in the right order. As the legendary Packers head coach Vince Lombardi would always say, “Think of only three things: your God, your family and the Green Bay Packers-in that order.”

Lombardi hit it right on the nail with that line and it shouldn’t be surprising. He was instilled with religious and family values from an early age, growing up in a large Italian-Catholic family in an immigrant neighborhood in Brooklyn.

Bread for the Family, Bread for the Priest

Vincent Lombardi was the oldest of five children, while his mother (Matilda Izzo) belonged to a clan of twelve brothers and sisters. The Lombardi’s would spend a lot of time with the Izzos, especially on Sundays. After attending Mass, the two families would get together and share in a traditional Italian feast, which lasted the entire day.

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Video of excellent Vince Lombardi Fox pregame piece narrated by Cdl. Dolan

Rocco found the video and has the details:


Legendary Vince Lombardi ~ Super Bowl XLVIII... by HumanSlinky

Green Bay Packers connect Lombardi with home parish in new Heritage Trail

GREEN BAY— Fans of the Green and Gold who check out the new Packers Heritage Trail will discover that a number of Catholic sites have strong ties to the team's rich history.

The trail, designed as a self-guided walking tour, features 22 commemorative plaques located within a two-mile radius of downtown Green Bay. Seventeen plaques are part of a City Walk. Five others are a part of two spurs designed as self-guided bike rides. St. Willebrord Church, known to many as the church where Vince Lombardi attended morning Mass, is among the city sites. Cliff Christl, a Green Bay native and longtime sportswriter who developed the idea for the tour, said that while St. Willebrord was an easy choice for the trail, he didn't know if placing a plaque on church property would be possible.

Norbertine Fr. Andy Cribben, pastor at St. Willebrord, admits that he was initially skeptical of the possibility of what was first described as a nine-foot sign being installed outside the church. The post is placed three feet into the ground, so the plaque is actually at a six-foot level. The text on the St. Willebrord plaque convinced Fr. Cribben of the project's merit.

"I thought the text was beautiful," he said. "It connected faith and the history of the Packers."

The text opens with Lombardi's connection to the church. The history of the parish is also presented as well as information about Norbertine Fr. David Rondou, who was pastor at St. Willebrord during the Lombardi years.

"It's interesting, why did (Lombardi) pick St. Willebrord? I think it had something to do with Mass times," said Christl. "When he first moved to town there was the convenience of being close to his office on Washington Street, but why St. Willebrord instead of St. John's or cathedral or one of the other nearby churches?"

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Very cool!!

The Bishop's Charity Game is this Thursday, BTW.  Hope to see some good shots of Bp. Ricken and the Green and Gold. 

KDM: Vince Lombardi and The Superior Ideal

Among the ways we have just let Coach Vince Lombardi inspire us, I want to focus on the most important one: He went to Mass and received Communion everyday of his life. Pope John Paul II said the Holy Eucharist “contains the Church’s entire spiritual wealth: Christ himself” (Ecclesia de Eucharistia).

Precisely during a time when our culture was becoming disconnected from their True Source – Vince Lombardi remained firmly and wholly connected to his. No matter what Lombardi dedicated himself to, he never abandoned his true self as a child of God and devoted disciple of Jesus Christ. More than anything, he understood the necessity of receiving God’s Divine Life, as he brought himself, daily, to the altar of our Lord to receive Him – body, blood, soul, and divinity – as the real source of power in his life. This was where his energy, his very life came from.

Lombardi understood that all things converge in Christ – He is the way, the truth and the life. Archbishop Timothy Dolan wrote: “To know Jesus, to hear Jesus, to love Jesus, to obey Jesus, to share His life in the deepest fiber of our being, and then to serve Him – this is our goal” (Called to be Holy). There is no other authentic way to strive for perfection. Lombardi recognized this as the superior ideal that must never be abandoned, but interwoven into all of our pursuits, whether it is a businessman or parent or professor or coach.

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CatholicVote: Catholic Institutions Need More Vince Lombardis

Over the past few days, while political and religious analysts have written about Libya and the latest sex abuse scandals, I have thought about the success of Catholic high school sports coaches. On Saturday, my alma mater played in the California boys basketball championship. On Sunday on 60 Minutes, the legendary Bob Hurley of St. Anthony’s High School in Jersey City, New Jersey was profiled. Each of the schools graduates virtually all of their players, an achievement that in the case of St. Anthony’s, a school located in a black ghetto, is especially impressive. And based on initial signs, each of the teams say Catholic prayers and promote Church teachings in their programs.

The success of these two basketball programs cannot be attributed solely or even mainly to the great talent they attract. De La Salle’s team this year did not have a single player recruited by a Division I school. Although St. Anthony’s has had superior talent to De La Salle, certainly they are not a sports factory, a school defined solely by its record, as some high school basketball programs are.

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