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Alumni, Varsity Catholic and Soccer Head to Haiti
The not-for-profit organization, Catholic Sports Camps, has just announced its plan to bring a delegation of soccer-oriented Catholic missionaries to the country of Haiti. It plans to do so in the last week of December 2011. This effort, known officially as Catholic Soccer Missions, will coordinate with a Catholic orphanage in rural Haiti. The orphanage was the brainchild of Louis Merosne, a graduate of the Franciscan University of Steubenville. Mr. Merosne will enter the priesthood in November of this year and will serve at a local parish in Haiti.
Catholic Soccer Missions (CSM) is a soccer training and spiritual enhancement program for less fortunate children around the globe (ages 7 to 17). The CSM has operated in rural Belize for the past three (3) years. The mission is now expanding into other areas of the world that have an interest in soccer and a demonstrated financial/economic need as well. Furthermore, Catholic Soccer Missions identifies areas where it can assist local children to grow in their Catholic faith. Given the recent natural disaster in Haiti, that country has become a focus for the CSM.
Catholic Sports Camps also operates a series of soccer camps in the United States known as Catholic Soccer Camps. These camps take place each summer in Kansas City and in Green Bay, and are expected to grow to additional locations in 2012. Catholic Soccer Camps, or “CSC,” combines high-level soccer training with Catholicism. The CSC incorporates daily mass, confession and praise & worship into its weekly schedule. Catholic Soccer Missions follow a similar format (i.e., daily mass, confession, on-field prayer, etc.).
While Catholic Soccer Missions are free-of-charge to participants in developing countries such as Haiti, Catholic Soccer Camps are fee-based. One beautiful aspect of the relationship between the CSM and the CSC is that youth campers in wealthier nations such as the United States are able to help their brothers and sisters in developing nations like Haiti. In fact, proceeds from the camps in the U.S. go directly to underwriting the missions in Haiti.
This year’s Catholic Soccer Camps will take place in Kansas City from July 18th to July 22nd at Rockhurst University. The Green Bay camp will operate from July 11th to July 15th on the campus of St. Norbert College this summer as well.
Catholic Soccer Missions and Catholic Soccer Camps are operated in conjunction with Varsity Catholic (a division of the Fellowship of Catholic University Students (FOCUS)) and Catholic Athletes for Christ (based in Washington, D.C.). For more information, to sign up for the Kansas City camp and/or to participate in the CSM, call Anthony Martinez at 913-549-4871 or email him at the following web address: martinez@CapistranoGlobal.com. For more information about the Green Bay camp, call Tina Pallini at 920/362-6377 or email her at tpallini@hotmail.com. Additional information can be found at www.CatholicSoccerCamps.com.
