Fr. Casey and Fr. Tito, two priests of the Order of the Friars Minor, traveled over 17,000 miles to visit all 30 Major League Baseball stadiums in the country.
A dream that began nine years before, in their novitiate, the two avid baseball fans wanted to follow in St. Francis' footsteps by bringing the Gospel message to people in the places where they gathered.
FR. CASEY COLE
Order of the Friars Minor
Ten, twenty thousand people gather there every single night of the summer. They're a great place of encounter...
And so we thought: what if we go on pilgrimage to all 30 Major League Baseball stadiums and just encounter people where they're at.
This past summer, the dream became a reality in the Bleacher Brothers Project. Fr. Casey and Fr. Tito began their pilgrimage in Miami and ended in Colorado, spending their summer watching baseball, playing corn hole, and tasting local cuisine as a means of encountering people.
Fr. Casey says this pilgrimage takes a page out of Pope Francis' playbook for evangelization.
FR. CASEY COLE
Order of the Friars Minor
He says that proselytism is silly. It's useless. You know, going up to people and telling them that you need to believe in Jesus is not very effective. But simply being a presence there and being inviting and being normal, really, letting people come to us to ask questions. We don't go up to anyone. We look the way we do. We wear our habits and that's fascinating to people.
Naturally, we get some interesting questions. Here's how we respond.
Man: So you guys are obviously fans of the Padres?
Fr. Casey: Actually, they're fans of us.
Group: Wait, are you guys for real?
Fr. Tito: I don't Cos Play. I'm 100% for real.
Fr. Casey: But unfortunately, there's one question we don't get asked enough.
Fr. Tito: Can we buy you a beer?
FR. CASEY COLE
Order of the Friars Minor
We wanna show people that your faith doesn't have to be separate from the rest of your life. Bring the joy that you get from evangelization, the joy from the resurrection to going to a baseball game. Let that be an experience of God's beauty. I mean look at these cathedrals really, these secular cathedrals. Look at the community that comes together. Look at the beauty of the game itself.
The Bleacher Brothers Project is more than just two Franciscans going to baseball stadiums. Rather it is pilgrimage focused on meeting people where they are.
KG
