CNA Newsroom, Feb 7, 2025 / 21:05 pm

On Super Bowl Sunday, players for the Kansas City Chiefs and Philadelphia Eagles are vying for a championship, a ring, money ($178,000 for winners versus $103,000 for losers), and a lifetime achievement.

The Catholic bishops of their respective dioceses have more modest things at stake: food, a $500 donation, and bragging rights.

Even so, the bishops are talking some clerical smack over their purportedly friendly wager.

It’s a rematch for Kansas City Bishop James Johnston and Philadelphia Archbishop Nelson Pérez, whose city’s teams played each other in the big game two years ago. (Kansas City won, 38-35, the first of two Super Bowl victories in a row. Philadelphia won the title in 2017, its only championship in the Super Bowl era.)

For years, the bishops of dioceses whose teams make it to the Super Bowl have been placing a public bet on the outcome. This year, if the Eagles win, Johnston is supposed to provide Jack Stack barbecue (famous in the Kansas City area) for Pérez. If the Chiefs win, Pérez will provide Philadelphia cheesesteak for Johnston.

Each bishop is also promising a $500 contribution to the other diocese’s Catholic Charities if his team loses.

The two bishops made a joint Feb. 7 appearance on “EWTN News In Depth.”

Johnston, whose Chiefs are looking for an unprecedented third Super Bowl victory in a row, expressed confidence in coach Andy Reid and quarterback Patrick Mahomes.

Pérez sounded hungrier, though, in support of the Eagles, affectionately called “the Birds” by their loyal fans.

“Well, I think the bishop and his Chiefs … are in for it. Because the Birds are hunting,” Pérez said.

Pérez made two things clear during the interview:

1.  He’s totally confident the Eagles will win.

2.  He wants the benefit of a point spread.

“Bishop Johnston, the bishops that I’m in retreat with asked me to ask you for two points since we’re the underdog,” Pérez said.

(In such a case, if the Chiefs won by one point, Pérez would still win the bet. If the Chiefs won by two points, it would be what’s known as a “push,” and neither side would win. The Chiefs would have to win by three or more for Johnston to collect.)

Johnston was having none of the retreat bishops’ suggestion.

“You tell them to go back to their prayer,” Johnston said.

Neither bishop can claim as much team spirit as Bishop Michael Burbidge, a Philadelphia native who had an Eagles emblem put into stained glass during a recent renovation of the Cathedral of St. Thomas More in his Diocese of Arlington, Virginia.

Even so, the rival dioceses on Sunday have heavy-duty patron saints, as the bishops pointed out. Philadelphia has St. John Neumann (the fourth bishop of the city) and St. Katharine Drexel (a native of the city).

Johnston’s see is called the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph, making for an obvious go-to saint.

“So we’re going to rely on good old St. Joseph, who’s the patron of the universal Church. So I think we’ve got him outnumbered there, with St. Joseph,” Johnston said.

The program’s host, EWTN News President and COO Montse Alvarado, pointed out that Chiefs placekicker Harrison Butker is known for publicly expressing his Catholic faith, and she asked Johnston: “Do you think evangelizing in the end zone can bring fans to Christ?”

“Well, I’m really encouraged by the faith of so many of the players, and not just on the field, but even afterwards in interviews, how many of them speak about their faith,” Johnston replied. “And so I think it’s a great witness of, you know, not covering your lampstand, but putting it out to where it can give light.”