WASHINGTON — In recent years, the bishops of the dioceses of the competing Super Bowl teams have often taken part in a friendly wager on the game’s outcome, usually agreeing to send local food to the winning bishop or a donation to a charity in the winning diocese.
This year’s Super Bowl LVIII on Feb. 11, brings Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone of San Francisco and Bishop James Johnston Jr. of Kansas City-St. Joseph, Missouri, back together for a Super Bowl bet.
In the 2020 Super Bowl, when the San Francisco 49ers faced the Kansas City Chiefs, the two prelates put local food on the line. Archbishop Cordileone agreed to send Dungeness crabs, a Fisherman’s Wharf treat, to Bishop Johnston if the 49ers lost and Bishop Johnston said he would send steaks from the well-known Kansas City Steak Company if the Chiefs lost.
The Chiefs beat the 49ers 31-20, so crabs made their way to the Midwest.
This year, the two bishops are upping the ante and promising not just to send a food or local delicacy but also to support organizations that promote the sanctity of life in the winning diocese.
If the Kansas City Chiefs win, Archbishop Cordileone will send a case of Rice-A-Roni and donate to Alexandra’s House in Kansas City, an organization that helps families facing difficult diagnoses for their unborn child or infant loss.
If the San Francisco 49ers win, Bishop Johnston will send a gift package from the American Jazz Museum in Kansas City and donate to Bella Primary Care, a Catholic health care clinic in San Francisco.
A spokesman for the San Francisco Archdiocese said that the two Church leaders chose to use the platform provided by the Super Bowl to “raise awareness about the efforts to protect the sanctity of life from conception to natural death, particularly as it relates to the protection of human life in the womb, in the face of efforts to limit restrictions on abortion and even enshrine it as a ‘right.’”
He said the two bishops are “wagering a donation to organizations in their respective communities that are doing the heroic work of upholding the sanctity of life and prioritizing the health of mothers and children.”