’HOLY GOALIE’ BISHOP READY FOR PRACTICE – Chicago Auxiliary Bishop Thomas J. Paprocki, 53, prepares to get on the ice after suiting up to practice with the Chicago Blackhawks Jan. 12. (CNS photo)
Posted on 01/29/2006 3:44:40 PM PST by NYer
CHICAGO (CNS) -- The puns are obvious: "Who IS that masked man?" "'Stick' with me, kid." And, of course, "Hey, fella, you're on thin ice." But in this case, the "fella" would be Chicago Auxiliary Bishop Thomas J. Paprocki -- all dressed up in a Chicago Blackhawks uniform and ready to take to the ice at the United Center.
Neither is it all for show.
Bishop Paprocki, 53, has been involved with hockey for a long time -- as a fan and a player.
He was profiled in the December issue of USA Hockey magazine, where he was pictured in his episcopal robes holding a hockey stick and helmet.
The article's headline, appropriately enough, was "Holy Goalie."
Bishop Paprocki has been playing hockey -- floor hockey -- since he was a boy, but it's only been in the past decade, he told the magazine, that he's taken to the ice. Now, twice a week he plays at McFetridge Ice Center stopping pucks in an over-30, no-check league. The bishop is also a veteran marathon runner, which he does just to stay in shape for hockey, he told the magazine.
The feature in USA Hockey -- the official magazine of the national governing bodies of U.S. ice and inline hockey, with a circulation of 430,000 -- led to an invitation from the Blackhawks to attend a team practice Jan. 12 and get a little ice time with the team.
"When they started practice, I watched from the bench for about half an hour," the bishop told The Catholic New World, newspaper of the Chicago Archdiocese.
Toward the end of the formal practice, goaltender coach Stephane Waite warmed him up on the sidelines. "He did some drills with me,” he said. “He wasn't shooting real hard, but stopping his shots boosted my confidence."
But then the warm-up was over. "I was in the net and facing the Blackhawks. Several players took shots at me," he said. "I stopped several until one of the players said, 'Has anyone scored yet?' On the next shot, Mark Bell ripped one past me. Then Denis Savard came over and took a few shots. My head is still spinning from his moves, but I think I did manage to stop at least one of his shots."
However, Bishop Paprocki conceded that he "lost count of the ones that went through."
It was, he said, a day he'll never forget.
Is a career on the ice in the offing? The bishop laughed and said, "None of the Blackhawk goalies should feel their jobs are threatened -- and the cardinal doesn't have to worry that I'm going to give up my day job."
Neat!
Is he Polish, Slovak, what? Reminds me of JP2
Polish!
Holy Goalie
When a game comes down to a shootout, a lot of goalies start saying their prayers. Thomas Paprocki doesn’t sweat it. He already knows he has God on his side.
The veteran netminder does more than just try to save goals, he’s also in the business of saving souls. When he’s on the ice he plays for a team called the
“Lawyers.” He’s also a member of another team – a big one, based out of
Rome. He is Bishop Thomas Paprocki of the Archdiocese of Chicago.
Opposing fans take note: that’s “Sieve, your Excellency.” Paprocki, a Chicago native, started playing hockey at a young age in the basement of his father’s drugstore.
|
“I think sports in general are a good training ground for whatever you do in life,”
— Bishop Thomas Paprocki |
“I am the third oldest of nine,” he says. “I have six brothers. There was a long narrow hallway in the basement of the store, and we used it to play floor hockey.”
The bishop, now 53, caught the hockey bug as a child from his father who was a Blackhawks and Canadiens fanatic.
“Some of my earliest memories are of going to the old Chicago stadium with my dad to see the Blackhawks play. I remember when they won the Stanley Cup in 1961. I really didn’t think I’d have to wait this long to see them win it again,” he laughs. A true Blackhawks fan, he sites Tony Esposito and Glenn Hall as his idols growing up.
“I learned by watching them,” he says. “I always tried to imitate their style.”
Paprocki joined an organized team at the Boys’ Club as an eighth grader, and it was there that his post between the pipes began. He volunteered to mind the net, and he’s been doing it ever since.
Though he has played hockey his whole life, Paprocki stuck mostly to floor and inline until recently. Today he plays in an Over-30 no-check league. They meet twice a week for games and scrimmages at McFetridge Ice Center on Chicago’s Northwest Side.
“There weren’t any rinks on the South Side where I grew up,” he explains. “It wasn’t until about 1997 that I really started playing on ice. I had to go to free skates and just go around in circles until I got the hang of it.
“I guess I must be good enough to play now though,” he laughs. “We’ve won the championship three of the last five years.”
The last five years have been busy ones for him off the ice as well. He was ordained bishop in 2003, and is in charge of overseeing 59 parishes in the Chicago area. Add a hockey net to that list of responsibilities, and that’s a lot of pressure, even for someone with divine inspiration. Paprocki doesn’t mind. He takes lessons from both arenas.
“I think sports in general are a good training ground for whatever you do in life,” he says. “And I do think there are similarities between being in goal and being a bishop. In both situations you are at the center of the action and people are counting on you. Both are really intense games mentally.
“Being a goalie requires concentration and confidence, which are attributes I need as a bishop, and in everyday life.”
Physical conditioning is also important to the bishop. He runs marathons in the off-season “to stay in shape for hockey.” Pictures of him at finish lines from Chicago to Rome and Greece line the hallways near his office at the Archdiocese of Chicago vicariate. It is another part of the office that seems to excite him most, however. He beams proudly as he leads the way into a copy room where the décor is devoted to his hockey.
On one wall is a framed poster of the Chicago skyline with the image of Paprocki in full action stopping a shot, superimposed over Lake Michigan.
It’s the other wall that’s more telling though. Next to a framed shot of his league’s all-star team, with Paprocki front and center, is a cartoon drawing of Jesus playing hockey.
He is a thoughtful and highly respected man, but certainly not without a quirky sense of humor. He is, after all, a goalie at heart.
I really dig it, somehow, when a Bishop shows signs of masculinity.
But could he stop Satan?
http://search.yahoo.com/bin/search?p=miroslav%20satan
If Jesus were alive today he would play goalie because He saves.
(Sorry. But I just noticed Miroslav Satan's player code is #666 on yahoo sports... that's too much.)
http://sports.yahoo.com/nhl/players/666
I'm sure he could knock some sense into him.
He looks nice.
Father, Son and Goalie Host. (that's the punchline to an old joke suddenly made new.)
Actually, I think it's a wonderful thing. It helps to relieve stress, among other things.
And, yes, the demonstration of masculinity goes miles when it comes to attracting young men. It shouldn't be, but it does. I've seen it here in choirs. At my former parish, the choir director was a soccer coach and played hockey in a night league. He had all sorts of boys in the choir. They'd rather be in the choir than serve Mass.
Too bad he wasn't a few years younger. Those Blackhawks can use all the help they can get (as can my sharkies).
;-)
The bishop laughed and said, "None of the Blackhawk goalies should feel their jobs are threatened -- and the cardinal doesn't have to worry that I'm going to give up my day job."
Heck, they should sign him for a game or two. Things can't get much worse and we'd at least have the Lord on our side. :-)
:)
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.