Packer Chaplain Tends to Spiritual Destinies

"Eight years ago, Fr. Baraniak was asked to be the team's regular Catholic chaplain. Prior to that, a rotating slate of priests served the role. But after one homily, which had players commenting on it in the locker room, Fr. Baraniak was asked to fill the role permanently.

Not realizing that when traveling, the team wore dress clothes, Fr. Baraniak, then 30, arrived at the team plane dressed in khaki pants and a white polo shirt.

"Brett Favre was larger than life," Fr. Baraniak recalled. "When he walks down the center aisle, he has something to say to everybody." When he saw Fr. Baraniak, he gave him a playful punch on the shoulder and said, "Hey, new guy."

The next day, as Fr. Baraniak, wearing a Norbertine habit and dressed in his Roman collar, was readying the table for Mass, a surprised Favre observed, "Hey, the new guy's a priest." "

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