Courage: The Sage the Church Needs, by Kevin Wells

By Kevin Wells, Crisis Magazine, Jan. 30, 2024

Kevin Wells is a former Major League Baseball writer, Catholic speaker, and author of Priest and Beggar: The Heroic Life of Venerable Aloysius Schwartz (Ignatius Press). His best-selling book The Priests We Need to Save the Church was published by Sophia Institute Press in 2019.

Star ESPN sportscaster Sage Steele picked an unwinnable fight against a leviathan—and won. But she died, too. Her way is one the Church must follow.

September 11, 1998, was an ordinary night. I stood among a gathering of baseball beat writers and radio and television reporters awaiting entrance into the Tampa Bay Devil Rays Major League Baseball clubhouse. In a minute or two, we would pile into a room full of players, get quotes, and speak briefly with Manager Larry Rothschild. Thereafter, we’d rush back to the press box to make deadline for tomorrow’s newspaper.

It was those few minutes outside of the clubhouse that I cannot forget. In that white cinderblock hallway in the underbelly of Tropicana Field, I wasn’t considering my story lead for the Rays 3-2 win over the Texas Rangers, I was focused on something that felt like a chlorine gas covering me. It was a slow-moving wave I had allowed into me. It was cowardice, and although I felt it pummel and choke me, I stood there, quiet and still. …

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