Arlington’s Catholic “Priests-Athletes” for Christ   by Ron Petak

The Revs. Andrew Fisher and J.D. Jaffe are priests in the Diocese of Arlington, Va. Both attended high school in the area, and both were ordained at the Cathedral of St. Thomas More. And there’s one more thing they have in common – both are former NCAA Division I athletes. Father Fisher and Father Jaffe took time last month to talk with Catholic Athletes for Christ about their athletic backgrounds and the lessons their respective sports taught them in making them better disciples of Christ.

Not blessed with a blazing fastball, former Mount St. Mary’s right-hander Andrew Fisher relied on his pitching guile during a four-year college career. “What I lacked in speed, I made up for with location,” Fisher said. “I learned about the art and science of pitching.” Right pitch at the right time. Coming out of Gonzaga High School in Washington D.C., Fisher considered several schools, but two criteria had to be met. “I was looking for a Catholic college and playing time,” he said. “Mount St. Mary’s was my best opportunity to play Division I baseball.” As it turned out, it was the right school at the right time because four years after graduating from MSM is 1994, Father Andrew Fisher was ordained at the Cathedral of St. Thomas More in Arlington, Va., where he serves today at Parochial Vicar. “God used not only baseball, but that opportunity to play baseball,” he said.
Fisher, who played from 1991 to 1994, made the most of that opportunity. He is fifth all-time at MSM with seven complete games (five in 1994), has the 12th lowest earned run average (3.71 in 1993) and ranks third for fewest walks per nine innings (1.55 in 1994). His senior year - the season he tossed a one-hitter and a two-hitter - Fisher was a team captain. He also made the most of his opportunity to discern his vocation.
“I owe something special to baseball,” he said. “Every weekend we had a long road trip and I’d sit on the bus and have time to pray, think and reflect. It was like a retreat every weekend.” That reflection time combined with friends involved in the campus ministry program as well as some Mount St. Mary’s seminarians put Fisher on the path of the priesthood at Mount St. Mary’s Seminary. Fisher said his athletic background has served him well in serving God and the faithful, especially the youth he encounters. “Athletics is a normal part of young people’s lives. It’s a quick, mutual bond and a common experience,” Fisher said. His experiences – in sports and living his faith – have been lessons learned in resolve and determination. “As a baseball player, I would show up for practice and work hard,” Fisher said. “You watch, listen and learn.” “One inning does not make a game, and any athlete will tell you perseverance is the key to success. You don’t give up no matter what obstacles come your way.”

Lifting hundreds of pounds during a workout or lifting souls to the Lord, Father J.D. Jaffe has a handle on both.
A former shot putter at Annandale (Va.) High School and collegiately at William and Mary, Jaffe, 33, continues to work out at least once a week at a local gym and will compete in early September in the Virginia Scottish Games. An assistant principal and chaplain at Paul VI High School in Fairfax, Va., Jaffe said his approach to working out – physically and spiritually – is summed up in one word: discipline. “You need a willingness to have personal discipline and manage your day,” Jaffe said. Physical discipline, he said, to stay an hour after practice to work on technique or spiritual discipline to sit daily before the Eucharist when it’s just you and God.
“Athletes discipline themselves to form habits of exercise and physical exertion,” Jaffe said. “In the spiritual life, we build up habits of doing the good – patience, humility, self-sacrifice, etc. “In sports it is called athleticism; in the spiritual life this discipline is called virtue.” Jaffe, who serves as spiritual advisor to Catholic Athletes for Christ, has always been into sports as he played soccer and football in his youth, but “team sports never sunk deep with me.” “I played football [offensive guard] my freshman year in high school,” said Jaffe, who stands 6-3 and weighs 380 pounds. “I had the size and speed, not the right mentality. I love football, but it just wasn’t me, wasn’t my personality.” The second semester of his freshman year, Jaffe heeded the advice of his father, Sid, and went into the family business – throwing the shot put. “My dad competed in the shot at American University, and he asked me, ‘Why not go out for track and field?’ ” Jaffe did and a passion for weight lifting was born. “I took to it like a duck in water,” he said. “When I got to college, I fell in love with lifting.” It was also in college when Jaffe heeded his call to the priesthood. “Like all good Catholic boys, you’re open [to the priesthood] your whole life, but reject it because it’s ‘not me.’ ” Jaffe said. “And in high school, I was far too into girls.” And like the weightlifter who steadily adds strength and stamina, Jaffe steadily moved to surrender his life to Christ.  “My freshman year it was in the back of my head and the forefront of my mind, but I kept running from it because it scared me,” he said. “I wanted a family [children] and that was hard for me to move past.”
Midway through his sophomore year, Jaffe said, “I stopped running from it,” and by his junior year, “made the decision this is what the Lord wanted me to do. If it was what the Lord wants for me, it’s the only way I can be happy.” After graduating from William and Mary, Jaffe attended St. Charles Borromeo Seminary in Philadelphia for one year, then spent the next four years at the North American College in Rome. He was ordained to the diaconate there in 2002 and to the priesthood for the diocese of Arlington, Va., in June 2003 at the Cathedral of St. Thomas More. Throughout his formation and in his ministry, Jaffe said the disciplines he learned from athletics paid great dividends. “When I got to the seminary, I already had a lot of components necessary [to succeed],” Jaffe said. “There are four facets of the seminary - human formation, academic life, spiritual life, apostolic work – and a lot of guys, that unless they have the discipline, focus on one thing too much.”

SIDEBAR
Fr. J.D. Jaffe will competed Sept. 5 at the Virginia Scottish Games in The Plains, Va.
Scottish Highland Games are considered one of the ultimate tests of brute strength as kilt-clad competitors are challenged in weight throwing disciplines, including the stone toss, hammer throw and caber toss – the latter a wooden pole about 18 feet long and weighing about 115 pounds. Jaffe, who started competing in Scottish Highland Games as a 16-year-old, will compete in seven events at the Virginia event. In addition to the challenge of throwing objects weighing up to 56 pounds, Jaffe said the camaraderie of the games is unmatched in other sports. “No competition is more sportsmanlike,” Jaffe said. “You help each other do their best, so it’s sport at its core.”