Nathan Berkeley, RFI Communications Director, spoke at the Annual Baseball Retreat sponsored by Catholic Athletes for Christ, which was held in November 2021. The event took place at the Franciscan Retreat Center at Old Mission San Luis Rey in Oceanside, California. The retreat was offered for current and former professional baseball players, coaches, scouts, team chaplains, and others as an opportunity for them to grow in their Catholic faith. A variety of outside speakers addressed the group.

Berkeley spoke about the work and mission of RFI, the meaning and value of religious freedom, and the growing threats the freedom of religion faces in the United States today. He also emphasized the importance of religious Americans living out their faith in public life, for its own good, and as a vital means of defending religious freedom:

[D]efending religious freedom requires that Catholics like you be willing to exercise your faith in full—by attending Mass, praying, reading sacred scripture, bearing witness to the Truth about marriage and human sexuality, meeting the needs of the poor and marginalized, and so much more. 

And it is to be lived out in the athletic arena, in media interviews, in family life, in financial investments, in neighborhoods, in volunteer efforts, in civic and political engagement, and so on. 

Berkeley urged those in attendance to meet the growing hostility that faithful Catholics and other people of faith are encountering in America today by seeking to exercise their faith in all areas of life, “recognizing that such acts of faithfulness contribute in indispensable ways, both to one’s local community and to our country’s common good.”

Watch Berkeley’s full remarks here.