Mother Nature says autumn arrives in our Eastern Time Zone at 9:54 p.m. on Sept. 22.

For more than 100,000 student-athletes who participate in the fall season of sports sponsored by the Michigan High School Athletic Association, autumn came on the scene Aug. 6 when practices could officially start for football and two days later for all other sports: cross country, soccer and tennis for boys, and cross country, golf, swimming and volleyball for girls.

By the time you read this, competitive juices will be flowing for most, if not all, of the 26 schools comprising the Catholic High School League for its 92nd year. Right behind, the CYO will begin its 85th season on the grade and middle schools levels.

Back on June 1, the Vatican released a bombshell of an announcement that could/should/would alter the way sports on any level is viewed and played anywhere in the world. The Vatican made public its first major document about sports, “Giving the best of yourself: A document on the Christian perspective on sport and the human person.”

I didn’t give it much thought — OK, none at all — until Judge Michael J. Riordan, of the Michigan Court of Appeals, notified me that “one of my classmates helped write it.”

Sure enough. There he was, Fr. Patrick Kelly, SJ, one of four speakers on the dais at the press conference. How many times does it happen that a declaration from the Vatican has a connection to the CHSL and CYO?

Fr. Kelly played football at Redford St. Valentine, and football, basketball and track at Bishop Borgess High School. In his junior year, he garnered All State and All Catholic honors at tailback and safety. “He was the toughest guy to bring down,” Riordan says. And quick, too.  “I was offensive center, just pushing people around,” providing space for Kelly to slip through. “I’d look and he was gone.”

Football his senior year ended five days before the season started. He broke his ankle in practice. Interest from college recruiters dried up, so he went to Grand Valley State as a football walk-on. He was starting safety as a freshman, eventually won All Conference laurels, and was elected team captain his senior year.

“My college experience was important for another reason: My faith came alive in a new way,” Fr. Kelly says. “I became interested in Jesus’ story, which spoke powerfully to me.”

He went on to get a degree in religious studies at the University of Detroit (“where I got to know the Jesuits”), a master’s from Harvard Divinity School, and after his ordination in 1999, a doctorate in theology, ethics and culture at the School of Religion of the Claremont Graduate University. He has been associate professor of theology and religious studies at Seattle University for the past 12 years.

Fr. Kelly, 58, is recognized internationally for his books, articles, presentations and conferences dealing with a Catholic perspective on sports. “This all surprises me. I thought I had left sports behind. But going into my doctoral studies I wondered: What would a Catholic take be on sports?”

His “take” and that of his fellow collaborators produced a document “to help (us) understand the relationship between giving our very best in sports and in living the Christian faith in every aspect of our lives.” The document is intended for “players, teachers, coaches, parents or those for whom sport is a job as well as a vocation.”

No way can I in a few hundred words come close to describing the essence of a text that consumes more than 21,000 words. I recommend it as mandatory reading, particularly Chapter 3, which examines a series of elements that are the formula for the harmonious development of body, soul and spirit. (Google “Vatican document Giving the best of yourself” for a copy of the full document).

Playing within the rules, fair play, sacrifice, individualism and teamwork, the joy of participation, equality, respect and the common good all are aspects where the human being, whether a participant or a spectator, experiences significant truths about him- or herself on his or her quest for the ultimate meaning of who we are in God’s image and likeness, just as He created us.

Pope Francis sums up the document’s message in a talk he gave to young people in 2014 that could serve as a pep talk for all of us today: “Challenge yourself in the game of life like you are in the game of sports. Challenge yourself in the quest for good, in both Church and society, without fear, with courage and enthusiasm. Get involved with others and with God; spend your life on what really matters and lasts forever.”

Fr. Kelly will be in the Metro area next month visiting his parents and family in Canton, reuniting Sept. 7 for the 40th anniversary of the Bishop Borgess Class of 1978, doing a workshop with Detroit Mercy coaches and student athletes on Sept. 11, and celebrating Mass for the beginning of the school year at UDM on Sept. 13.

Contact Don Horkey at [email protected].