Breaking In The Habit

Nearly 4000 Miles Down

Greetings from Philadelphia! Fr. Tito and I are now ten stops down and moving along quickly. Since May 20, we’ve seen baseball games at 10 stadiums (8-2 for the home teams), eaten 21 hot dogs (pace has slowed, with no hotdogs in the past week), and I can’t speak for Tito, but I’ve gained about 4 pounds already (I’m going to do an in-house workout as soon as I finish typing this!) All-in-all, it’s been a good trip so far.

Fun Along the Way

Some things are easier shown than spoken about, so here are the past two weeks of videos cataloguing our trip.

Tough to Watch

There are some things in this world that are just awful. When they affect you (or are caused by something you’re apart of) it’s important not to look away.

https://youtu.be/8hKaBSrWauo

Instagram and TikTok

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@caseyofm

I’m not a basic friar. Real beer only, please. #NoIPA #BleacherBrothers

♬ original sound – Mike Clay

@caseyofm

Reply to @krazyone03 Evangelization is about being present and talking about Jesus with those who want to hear it. #BleacherBrothers

♬ original sound – caseyofm

In the Media

https://www.catholicsentinel.org/Content/Arts/Arts-and-Entertainment/Article/-Bleacher-Brothers-to-visit-all-30-MLB-stadiums-on-evangelization-tour/6/31/45836

Bleacher Brothers stand out in crowd at Camden Yards, evangelizing through baseball

https://bccatholic.ca/voices/pat-macken/bringing-catholic-faith-to-the-stadium

https://www.catholicregister.org/faith/item/34477-baseball-hot-dogs-and-pilgrimage-for-ball-loving-priests

Schedule Update

In a few hours we’ll be on our way to New York for a Yankees game. Unfortunately, both of the New York events had to be cancelled because of lack of support. We will not be stopping at St. Raymonds or St. Francis of Assisi.

After New York, we will head to Boston where we will give a talk at St. Anthony’s Shrine on Tuesday at 12:00. We are also planning to meet with young adults on Monday evening, but as of yet we have not received confirmation on a location.

From there, we head to Washington D.C. where we will celebrate the weekend masses at St. Ambrose in Annandale, VA and a young adult mass Sunday evening at St. Ann’s in D.C.

Hope everyone has a great week!

Fr. Casey

One Week Down

The last 9 days have been pretty surreal. Four baseball games, three high school talks, a parish event, 1700 miles traveled, and a whole lot of fried food. The first week might be the most grueling of them all, but it was such a great experience.

The “Everything Goes Wrong” Show

Throughout this evangelism tour at the ballparks, Fr. Tito and I will be filming at stadiums to bring a recap show. We hope to make it fun and informative, and think that you’re going to like our first episode, even if things didn’t go entirely to plan…

“There’s No Crying in Baseball!”

As many of you know by now, A League of Their Own is one of my favorite movies of all time. It seemed fitting, then, that we would stop back one of the main filming locations to make a video and take some pictures.

@caseyofm

A league of their own is an incredible movie! And we got to go visit the real movie site… #BleacherBrothers @thewhiskeypriest_ofm

♬ original sound – caseyofm

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In The Media

As you can imagine, many people have found our story interesting and asked us to talk about it. Here are a few publications that have covered us.

Fr. Casey Cole and the MLB Summer Tour

https://cruxnow.com/church-in-the-usa/2022/05/bleacher-brothers-hit-the-road-to-evangelize-in-mlb-ballparks

A lot more to share… when we have time

One of the biggest difficulties so far has been the constant pace of our travels. There are emails stacking up, projects getting neglected, and, most importantly, episodes of Stranger Things just released that I’ve had no time to watch! As I type now, I’m up against the clock, having to get three more things done in the next 15 minutes before Fr. Tito and I go out for a couple of hours to film next week’s video. Then it’s off to the parish where we’ll preach for the weekend, then a Theology on Tap, and then we do it all again Sunday before leaving for another game Monday. There isn’t much time in the schedule to get done the work we’re doing, let alone “free time.” That’s an oversight we’ll try to fix incoming weeks!

Hope everyone has/had a great Ascension!

Peace and good,

Fr. Casey

What a CRAZY Week It’s Been!

My apologies for not writing a newsletter last week… but it has been a week! Last Friday (5/13) I went away for weekend, spending two days with my family. Sunday morning at 6:00am, though, I was up and driving back to make it in time to celebrate Sunday masses at the parish. On Monday, I drove to Atlanta to pick up Fr. Tito and our rental truck, while also preparing for our trip. Tuesday we were on the go all day, visiting the schools, shopping, and doing interviews. Wednesday I had back-to-back 8th grade graduations, followed by two hours of filming, followed by an interview, followed by a going away party, followed by packing up the truck. And Thursday, the day we left for our trip, I had 6:50am mass, a 7:30 interview, and 9:00 mass… before driving for 12 hours to Miami!

That was all before the trip started! On the way down we hit traffic and a thunderstorm, lost one of our magnetic car decals, and accidentally put the wrong address into the GPS, getting us to our destination an hour after we could have been there. Yesterday, we started the day by giving an hour talk at one school, drove to the other side of the city for two talks at another school, before going to the Marlins game, where Fr. Tito threw out the first pitch.

Whew. It’s been crazy. And Monday’s video is going to be great.

But for now, let’s catch up on all that we missed in the past two weeks.

Upon Friar Review

https://youtu.be/CqozebELFoE

https://youtu.be/ai35y1ReNcA

Reflection

Instagram

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TikTok

@caseyofm

We’re on our way! @thewhiskeypriest_ofm #BleacherBrothers

♬ original sound – caseyofm

More to come!

Fr. Tito and I are heading out in about 30 minutes to film our new show, so look forward to that coming out on Monday (or Tuesday…) Have a great week, and keep us in your prayers!

Fr. Casey

We Don’t Always Agree

It’s not news to anyone that we live in a pluralistic society with more than a few disagreements. It’s obviously not a new phenomenon, yet may of us still struggle to navigate situations with diverse beliefs. Here are a few examples of disagreement from various perspectives.

Many Gods, One Mess

https://youtu.be/kmXikBszi5Q

Throwback: How do engage ecumenism

Back in 2020, I looked at the question of engaging with people of other Christian traditions and what I often found difficult about them.

Responding to Critics

Sometimes, the disagreements we face come from without, with non-believers offering criticisms of the very nature of God. One common example of this is the question of God’s goodness: how can there be a Hell is God is loving?

So Close…

Stepping outside of the world of religion entirely, we come to a disagreement that is far more mundane: Fr. Tito loves a movie that I think is a hot mess. Enjoy this light-hearted argument over the movie The Last Castle.

Not Excited… Yet

With only twelve days left until Fr. Tito and I leave for our ridiculous tour, many people have said the same thing to me: “You must be so excited.” You would think. At this point, it hasn’t sunk in yet, probably because there is still too much to do. Besides the logistics of traveling 17,000 miles and ensuring that we have a place to stay every night (no small task!), I’ve been coordinating with 30 MLB clubs, MLB itself, 25+ individual churches and venues, the friars, the t-shirt company that lost 1/4 of our order, my publisher to get enough books sent each place (all while we’re dealing with a paper shortage!), rental companies, and Fr. Tito, who, like me, is at the busiest time of year for someone who works at a school.

Once the truck is packed and we’re on the road I’ll be excited, but until then… just mild stress!

Here’s the most up-to-date calendar of events.

Peace and good to everyone! Hope you have a great Mothers’ Day!

Fr. Casey

Coming Down to the Wire

With a diocesan clergy conference, confirmations, high school graduation, and school awards ceremony this week (and all that I had to do to get ready for the upcoming tour!) I just never got around to posting a newsletter yesterday! Here you are in all its glory!

The Eastern Church has its own Saints

Last Sunday, many Eastern Churches celebrated Easter, a week after the Western Church. Over the years, our growing traditions have meant that we can’t even celebrate major feasts on the same date. And it got me thinking: what holy men and women have they had over the past 1000 years that we are completely unaware of. Here are five saints we should know about as Western Christians.

The REAL Pope of Division

A few weeks ago, I made a video about how some believe pope Francis to be confusing and divisive. This week, we look at a (fictional) pope that is actually that in the HBO series The Young Pope.

https://youtu.be/N0zGLXlndZo

Chevy Chase at his most Ryan Reynolds

When I describe to you an actor who is sarcastic to a fault, even in the face of danger, people of today might point immediately to Ryan Reynolds. Not in 1985. That shtick was wholly owned by another man, Chevy Chase. In watching Fletch this week, Fr. Tito and I couldn’t help but laugh at how similar Reynold’s performance would have been.

17 days!

Can you believe it? After 8 years of thinking about it and six months of actively planning, our trip is almost here. According to one Twitter follower, the t-shirts have been shipped out (I haven’t received our large order yet, but hopefully soon! And, based on this picture, I’m hoping that the image is actually centered and aligned correctly…)

Schedule Updates

Over the past few weeks we’ve had to update our schedule for one reason or another. Because of that, we had has to cancel our speaking engagements in Baltimore, MD and Poway, CA, move our talk in Boston (still being determined), and added a talk in New York (St. Francis 31st Street.)

Below you will find the most up-to-date list of stops.

Hope everyone has a great week!

Peace and good,

Fr. Casey