From the story:
"There was no chance that the Very Rev. Glenn Dion would change the time of his 12:30 Sunday Mass at Holy Rosary Cathedral, a couple of blocks from the site of Sunday’s Olympic gold medal hockey game between Canada and the United States.
"Well aware of the game’s 12:15 start time, Father Dion said: 'We have seven Masses on Sunday, and we don’t cancel any of them. Not even for a hockey game.'"Then he made a confession. The 11 o’clock Mass would be shorter than usual, he told a full congregation, some wearing Team Canada clothes and one boy wrapped in a Canadian flag.
“'I’ll try to get you out of here so you can get yourself in front of a TV,' Father Dion said, before offering a prayer for 'the good fellows soon to start playing for the gold.'”
Later in the story Father Dion lightheartedly talks about how Canada's elevation of hockey to a near-religion parallels the faith life of Catholics:
"Father Dion did not blanch at the suggestion that hockey is religion in Canada. Rather, he detailed the natural congruencies: both are ingrained from a young age, passed among generations, studied and practiced reverently and — in the case of the Catholic parish, at least — have a box where sinners sit in penance."
Read the full story HERE.
