Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger is finally gone, a couple years after he should have retired. It’s the offseason, but with the draft coming up this week and the team pursuing free agents — and getting a new quarterback, who may or may not be good enough — Steelers fans have started talking about the team again. 

They expect the team to win big, because it used to win big. They still win, but not so big. As a childhood Giants fan, I’d be very happy if the Giants did as well as the Steelers, but the fans here expect success. The team disappointed them the last few seasons, but they still hope. There’s a lesson for the Church here, in the way the Steelers’ fans respond to their team.

As illustrated in the game against the Bengals in Cincinnati last season. The Steelers had won four and lost two. The fans at our local place, where I go to watch the games, were encouraged but wary. They didn’t think the aged Roethlisberger had it in him. They weren’t sure about the coach. Most of them expected some key players to underperform. But they hoped.

Here I’m not talking about Catholics as we should be, rising above every disappointment. I’m talking about Catholics as we tend to be, choosing where to put our time and attention, based on how well the things we love do what they should do.

 

Commitment and Loyalty

The Steelers lost, 41-10. The team’s one touchdown didn’t matter. It came in the last three minutes against the other team’s second and third stringers. The Steelers really lost to the Bengals 41-3. They were comprehensively humiliated.

Our local place was about a fifth full, which was more than it had been for any Steelers game so far that season. In previous years, even the season before when people were more worried about COVID-19, it was packed for Steelers games, often standing-room only. Many came in Steelers jerseys and Steelers knit caps (an outfit often seen at Mass in the fall, one religion’s vestments being worn at the services of another).

People cheered together and groaned or swore together. It was a communal event, of people gathered together in a shared love for their local team. They may not know each other in real life, they may not speak to each outside the bar, but when the Steelers play, they become brothers in arms. Even I, who after three decades here am still a bit of an outsider, feel it.

But last season, feeling so skeptical about their team’s chances, a lot of those people stayed away. They probably watched at home, but they didn’t rouse themselves to join in the public event.

That’s the first lesson for the Church: Once they commit themselves, people keep their loyalties but they don’t always hold them closely. The identity’s something to build on. But not to count on. The challenge for the Church is that the more the loyalty costs, the easier people shed it. Being Catholic easily turns from a practice to an identity. At dinner in New York City a few years ago, the waitress happily told us she was a Catholic from Croatia. My friend asked where she went to Mass. She looked, and I don’t exaggerate, shocked. “I’m not religious,” she said.

 

Success and Excellence

The Bengals led 10-3 after the first quarter, and you could feel the nervousness. “This is going to be a tough one,” said a man near me, and heads nodded. Then the wheels started coming off. The Bengals scored three touchdowns in the second quarter to go up 31-3 at the half. 

The spirit of resignation had already set in, five minutes from the end of the first half. Except for a couple sacks and one long pass completion, the Steelers were being completely outplayed. The fans switched from hope to grimly amused resignation. People who had yelled loud rude words at Steelers mistakes didn't say anything. People who had been glued to the TV weren't. Some started looking at their phones or talking to their neighbors. Some paid their tabs and went home. 

Here’s the second lesson for the Church: Communal enterprises, even among the loyal, depend upon some degree of success, even if the success is simply avoiding comprehensive failure. People who still hold their loyalty closely may stay loyal, but they don't stay engaged. They have other things to do, things that won’t disappoint them the way the Steelers do. If Catholics don’t see the Church achieving something in the world, they may still go to Mass on Sundays, most of the time, without doing much else. They still love God and his Church, but they have other ways to love him than churchly ones.

Later in the game, the quiet, depressed, disengaged bar erupted when the Steelers, having been giving up yards that would inevitably lead to another Bengals touchdown, intercepted a pass near the goal line. The few that were still watching started the cheer and everyone else looked up and cheered as well. Spirits rose.

Finally, success. Not much success, but something. Maybe, just maybe, possibly maybe, the Steelers could mount one of their great comebacks, which fans remembered from the good old days when Roethlisberger was younger and better. People put down their phones and turned to the television screens.

The bar then erupted into imprecations when on the very next play, Roethlisberger threw a sloppy interception that the Bengals returned for another touchdown. The joy had lasted maybe 45 seconds. Almost everyone went back to their phones and conversation. Even some of the people who’d still been watching the game gave up.

Here’s the third lesson for the Church: Excellence can rouse the apathetic, but you have to do something with it. A success has to promise more success and then deliver. The Church must be a living force in the world. The Church’s officials love big events, rallies, programs with names like “The Church Alive!” but whatever enthusiasm they create doesn’t seem to last. It either fades out or is wiped out by a new story on clergy abuse or some other scandal.

 

A New Season

After this game, the Steelers would go 5-4-1 and barely make the playoffs. The fans hoped again, but the Chiefs crushed them in the first playoff game, 42-21. My Pittsburgh friends ended the season feeling their team was getting worse. But it’s a new season and being loyal, they hope. Like Catholics.