The Catholic Faith of Kobe Bryant

I'm not a basketball fan but even I was shocked by Kobe Bryant's sudden death and the equally tragic death of his daughter and all the other passengers on the helicopter.

I had a more pleasant shock when I read he was a practicing Catholic who would attend weekday Mass and that he credited a priest with helping save his marriage.

Describing his fear of being sent to prison for a crime he believed he had not committed, Bryant told GQ that “The one thing that really helped me during that process—I’m Catholic, I grew up Catholic, my kids are Catholic—was talking to a priest.”

“It was actually kind of funny: He looks at me and says, ’Did you do it?’ And I say, ’Of course not.’ Then he asks, ’Do you have a good lawyer?’ And I’m like, ’Uh, yeah, he’s phenomenal.’ So then he just said, ’Let it go. Move on. God’s not going to give you anything you can’t handle, and it’s in his hands now. This is something you can’t control. So let it go.’ And that was the turning point,” Bryant said.

Read the whole story at Catholic News Agency.

Give them eternal rest, O Lord,

and may your light shine on them forever.