Denver, Colo., Sep 8, 2023 / 13:45 pm

The Washington Nationals Major League Baseball team hosted a “Ladies Night” at the ballpark on Aug. 31. Nationals pitcher Trevor Williams took it as an opportunity to invite religious women from the Diocese of Arlington, Virginia, to the event.

Williams, a parishioner at St. John the Beloved Church in McLean, Virgina, invited women from religious orders to the event, including the Daughters of St. Paul in Alexandria and the Franciscan Sisters of the Eucharist in Falls Church.

The invitation included free tickets to the Nationals versus Miami Marlins game, complimentary refreshments, and on-field access before the game. The religious sisters also picked up commemorative certificates ahead of the game.

“If we’re going to have a ‘Ladies Night’ at the stadium, what better opportunity to bring our religious sisters out to the game?” Williams said in an interview with the Catholic Herald.

Sister Chelsea Bethany, a Daughter of St. Paul, said: “I’m a Nats fan, except when my home team is playing, which is the Baltimore Orioles.”

Williams, a devout Catholic, has been outspoken about his faith. The pitcher made headlines on May 30 when he became the first MLB player to denounce the Dodgers’ decision to honor an anti-Catholic group known as the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence.

In a public statement, he decried the Dodgers for honoring a group that, as he put it, makes “a blatant and deeply offensive mockery of my religion, and the religion of over 4 million people in Los Angeles county alone.”

In an exclusive interview with EWTN’s Colm Flynn, Williams said: “It had to be said. We cannot stand idly by while Our Lord gets mocked.”

“When I die,” Williams added, “and St. Peter greets me at the gates, he’s not going to ask what your win-loss record was in 2023. He’s going to ask, ‘How did you build the kingdom of heaven?’”