Seminarians from across the country came by the hundreds to St. Francis de Sales Seminary this past weekend for an important formation event. 

But it wasn’t a spiritual retreat or theology conference that brought members of 13 different seminary communities to Milwaukee. 

Instead, it was basketball.

More than 350 seminarians and priests were on hand Feb. 9-11 for the fourth annual De Sales Invitational, an inter-seminary basketball tournament hosted by the Wisconsin house of formation. 

The 14 teams competing were the most ever for the tournament, which has grown every year since its start in 2021, when just six teams played. 

The widespread participation in the De Sales Invitational speaks to basketball’s status as a preferred form of positive recreation at many U.S. seminaries, but also to the unique opportunities for fraternity present at a seminarian version of March Madness.

“The tournament is a great reminder that we’re not alone,” said Father John Baumgardner, vice rector of St. Francis de Sales. “We’re not alone as Catholics or as priests, but in it together, trying to be faithful.”

The mix of seminarians at this year’s invitational was certainly diverse geographically, as men from Midwest seminaries like Kenrick-Glennon in the Archdiocese of St. Louis and St. Gregory the Great in the Diocese of Lincoln, Nebraska, came to play, as did teams from Notre Dame Seminary in the Archdiocese of New Orleans, St. Mary’s in the Archdiocese of Houston and St. Vincent de Paul in the Archdiocese of Miami.

Deacon Arturo Merriman, a seminarian for the Archdiocese of Atlanta who played for St. Vincent de Paul, said it was worth it to make the 1,400 mile trip to Milwaukee “to be in unity with our brothers we seldom see” and represent the Church in the south, all in the “net of sports,” which brings us close in competition but closer in the friendships that competition sparks.”

Participants mostly came from major seminaries preparing men for the diocesan priesthood, but also included minor seminaries, like St. John Vianney in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, as well as houses of formation for men in religious life, like the Congregation of the Holy Cross’ Moreau Seminary, located at the University of Notre Dame.

Redmond Tuttle, a St. Francis de Sales seminarian who helped coordinate the tournament, said that though the draw is basketball, the tournament is also “one of the few times seminarians from different seminaries across the country can compete, spend time together, and pray together.”

“We have worked to improve it every year, not in quantity but quality, and have been blessed by the buy-in and enthusiasm from so many of the visiting seminarians and spectators,” he told the Register. 

 

Christ-Centered and Competitive

In Milwaukee, players found an atmosphere that was both frenzied and fraternal, Christ-centered and competitive. Many of the hallmarks of competitive organized basketball were present, including well-known chants from the sometimes standing-room-only crowds, like “You can’t do that! Clap, clap, clap-clap-clap,” after a foul, and even a cardinal mascot cheering on the seminarians from Immaculate Heart of Mary in the Diocese of Winona-Rochester, Minnesota.

At the same time, the sight of cassock-wearing coaches and the Vatican flag being swung in the stands were a telltale sign that this was a distinctively Catholic take on basketball. And, of course, prayer was an important part of the weekend. Seminarian players joined each other at halfcourt after each contest for prayers of thanksgiving, and a final Sunday Mass in St. Francis de Sales’ chapel after the tournament wrapped up was at full capacity.

The three days’ worth of games, which included pool play before a single-elimination bracket, were held at two locations — one of them the former practice facility of the Milwaukee Bucks. The tournament even received financial support from current Bucks shooting guard Pat Connaughton.

While no one from the De Sales Invitational will likely be going to the NBA any time soon, the play on the court was competitive, as participants included a mix of guys who had played in high school, or even college, with newcomers to organized basketball.

Ultimately, the men of Our Lady of Guadalupe Seminary in Denton, Nebraska, went home with the hardware — the third time in four years that the Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter seminary has won the De Sales Invitational. Our Lady of Guadalupe’s balanced inside-out attack held off the three-point sharp shooting of St. Francis de Sales, 54-38, as the Shoremen came up short in their bid to defend the title they won last year.

When asked what was behind Our Lady of Guadalupe’s continued success in the tournament, seminarian player Michael Caughey first cited a distinction from one of his seminary’s priests that basketball is firmly in the category of “things that are not important,” especially when compared to something as significant and central to Catholic life as the Mass.

“Having said that, basketball at Our Lady of Guadalupe Seminary is at the very top of things that are not important,” Caughey told the Register.

 

Body and Soul

Caughey’s comments point to the broad appeal of basketball not only at Our Lady of Guadalupe, but at seminaries throughout the United States.

In fact, the De Sales Invitational isn’t the only inter-seminary basketball tournament of its kind. Mundelein Seminary in the Archdiocese of Chicago, hosted the 22nd installment of its Father Pat O’Malley Invitational just a couple of weeks earlier, Jan. 26-28.

The two tournaments are linked, given that the De Sales Invitational started up in 2021 because the Mundelein tournament was still suspended due to COVID-19 concerns. 

Now, organizers at the Wisconsin seminary see the two tournaments as complementary, giving seminaries across the country at least two opportunities to participate in an organized basketball tournament. In fact, 21 different seminaries were able to take part in at least one of the two tourneys, with St. Francis de Sales and Mundelein both participating in each other’s.

Organized basketball tournaments are also a feature within many individual seminaries, and games pitting seminarians against priests are also a popular feature in many dioceses throughout the country.

But it’s also true that more casual games of basketball are a commonplace element of seminary life across the country, with many seminaries having regular weekly sessions of pickup ball. 

The ability to play the sport indoors during the winter months when seminaries are in session likely contributes to this fact. So, too, does the relatively low bar of entry required to participate: Even if you can’t shoot or dribble, you can still rebound and defend.

All in all, for many seminarians, basketball is the preferred means of taking care of their bodies, an important element of the holistic formation men receive in their preparation for the priesthood.

Deacon Christopher Eichman, a member of the Our Lady of Guadalupe team, referred to a Latin maxim: corpus sanum, mens sana, which translates to “healthy body, healthy mind,” to make this point.

“Bodily health disposes and facilitates the spiritual, immaterial part of us,” he said. “This is true for every seminarian at every seminary engaged in human formation.”

While participants in the De Sales Invitational didn’t necessarily argue that basketball is the most Catholic of sports — a debatable claim advanced by partisans of baseball —many also see a connection between the sport itself and good preparation for the priesthood.

“A great basketball team plays with the mindset that it is not about you,” said Father John Baumgartner, vice rector of St. Francis de Sales. “And that’s true in the priesthood — it’s just not about you. It’s about the Lord and his Church and the people of God you’re called to serve.”

Our Lady of Guadalupe’s Deacon Eichman agreed, describing basketball as more than just a game,” providing a “microcosm” for how to approach others and life in general.

“It is a wonderful training ground to exercise the passions … in an often-high-pressure environment which finally doesn’t matter,” the FSSP seminarian told the Register.

But the deacon also pointed out that playing basketball is a chance to enjoy the game for its own sake, not merely as a means to other ends, like bodily health or growing in virtue.

“This is an opportunity for leisure, the basis of culture,” he said, referring to an influential work of the same name by the 20th-century German Catholic philosopher Joseph Pieper. “We get to have a very, very faint and distant vestige of what heaven will be like.”

Others point out that basketball can even play a part in helping people to get there.

Given basketball’s popularity in the U.S. (football may be more watched, but basketball is the most played), St. Paul Seminary’s Dominic Miller sees participating in the game as an opportunity to encounter all kinds of people, Catholic or not, and witness to the Gospel.

“The diocesan priest is called to be in the world but not of the world,” said Miller, who played collegiately at the University of Mary in Bismarck, North Dakota, before entering seminary. “Basketball is a great way to be in the world and encounter those in the world and to hopefully bring them closer to Jesus Christ.”

 

A Band of Brothers

While basketball may also be generally popular in U.S. seminaries as a casual form of recreation, it’s also true that players like Miller see a unique value in participating in a big tourney like the De Sales Invitational.

“There is something about coming together as a team, preparing and then competing that makes for incredible fraternity,” the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis seminarian told the Register.

Last year, St. John’s Seminary in the Archdiocese of Boston even produced a 30-minute documentary, Souls in the Game, about their preparation for and participation in the De Sales Invitational.

Tournaments like St. Francis de Sales don’t just generate fraternity among the players, but also among entire seminary communities.

Take St. Paul Seminary, for example, who brought a whole bus to the tournament this year, including not just 16 players, but 24 seminarian fans and five priests.

The supporters were hoping to see their “Sons of Thunder” win the championship, after they finished second the year before. But although his team didn’t win the tourney, St. Paul rector Father Joseph Taphorn still saw a lot of value in half of his seminary community making the trip to Milwaukee.

“It’s worth investing in a weekend like this,” he told the Register. “It strengthens our own sense of fraternity at the St. Paul Seminary, and our men are better for having encountered God and brother seminarians from across the country in prayer and recreation.”

For Deacon Eichman, the tournament has an impact far beyond what happens on the hardwood.

“Seeing the virtue of the men at the tournament always encourages us to continue in our pursuit,” he shared, adding that the tournament has been the catalyst for men from Our Lady of Guadalupe forming “long-lasting friendships with men from the other seminaries.”

And while each seminary certainly aims to take home the championship trophy, Tuttle believes the chance for so many seminarians to come together as part of a bigger “team” is the greatest victory one can have at the De Sales Invitational. 

“It is essential for all of us who have dedicated our lives to Christ and his Church to realize that we are not alone, but have a band of brothers who are praying and serving with us in the vineyard."