Plenty of professional athletes make the sign of the cross while standing at the plate or after running the football into the end zone for a big touchdown. Even more wear crosses or gesture toward the heavens in gratitude for a well-timed hit or winning goal. But to what extent is there a definitive connection between professional sports and the Catholic Church?

Last month, the Vatican took a concrete step in forming a relationship with professional sports and held the first conference on church and sports. Sponsored by the Vatican’s Office of Church and Sport, formed by Pope John Paul II in August 2004, 50 attendees from 18 countries attended the meeting, with 10 members from the United States and two from the Arlington Diocese.

Ray McKenna, parishioner at Blessed Sacrament Parish in Alexandria, was invited to the conference due to his role as executive director of the newly formed Catholic Athletes for Christ, a national organization with the goal of ministering to professional athletes. McKenna is in the process of getting diocesan approval for the organization to be based in Arlington.

Robert Feeney, author of The Catholic Ideal: Exercise and Sports and religion teacher at Bishop O’Connell High School in Arlington, also attended the conference, and said the highlight for him was a surprise visit to meet Pope Benedict XVI with St. Louis Cardinals pitcher Jeff Suppan.

"I wasn’t expecting that, to tell you the truth," Feeney said. "I gave the pope my book."

According to McKenna, the first day of the November conference focused on identifying the problems that sports face: drugs, fan violence and the potential negative role modeling of professional athletes. The second day provided an opportunity to discuss "the mission of the Church in sports — what role can and should the Church play," he said.

The office was developed in August 2004, and in December of that year, McKenna was invited to the Vatican and asked by Father Kevin Lixey, part of the Sports and the Pontifical Council for Lay People, for help in planning the conference. McKenna was charged with spreading the word and rounding up U.S. attendees.

McKenna’s interest in the role of religion in sports stemmed from his time serving as sports chaplain for the former Potomac Cannons (now the Potomac Nationals), a Class-A minor league baseball affiliate of the Washington Nationals based in Woodbridge. Since McKenna’s work with the Cannons, "this idea of having a Catholic sports ministry … has been on my heart," he said.

The conference, McKenna said, "was a continuation of (John Paul II’s) new evangelization," and the Vatican "asked specifically" for the gathering of academics, athletes, theologians, sports chaplains and philosophers to go back to their homes and to identify how the Church could be a useful resource.

McKenna said no major decisions were made at the conference; rather it was an opportunity for the Vatican to "learn, to listen, to understand … and to be available as a resource."

"I think (sports is) an area they really want to tap into," Feeney said, "because they want to hit the whole, universal Catholic Church."

"By and large it was more of a call to open the subject, discuss the issues and see what role the Church could play," McKenna added. "There will be follow-up efforts in the U.S. in 2006."

McKenna’s specific project, Catholic Athletes for Christ, seeks "to minister to the needs of Catholic athletes to assist the athletes in the practice of their faith," especially through the sacraments of Communion and reconciliation, he said. "We’re still in the process of spreading the word. To date the reception (from coaches and athletes) has been very positive. The goal is to try to establish it on a national basis and to raise the profile."

Catholic Athletes for Christ has been in the works for over a year, but McKenna waited for the Vatican conference before taking significant steps to get approval from the Arlington Diocese as an "explicitly Catholic" organization, not only a nonprofit Christian one.

Feeney, who gave a talk on using sports as a means of evangelization, especially with young people, described the Church’s involvement with sports as a "long-term deal.

"This is not going to be the only session they have," he said. "It’s really nice to see the Church wants to be involved in this, in the world of sports."