Kevin Doyle
Episode 325
21 APR 2025
He played no fewer than five sports in his youth and then went on to not only compete in pole vault in high school but played for two different soccer teams. In addition to being captain of the VHSCAA State All-Star Team, he at one point held the school record for most shutouts in a season and his team had the school record for the longest undefeated streak. He is a graduate of the University of Notre Dame, where he tried out for the soccer team. Present day, he is president of The Catholic Initiative, a key “Legacy of Hope” project, which is a first of its kind in the world. It is a Vatican-approved effort to invest in the restoration and sustainability of vibrant Catholic churches, schools, and parishes where a lack of financial resources is currently holding back their potential.
Notable guest quotes:
“(parents) were both cradle Catholics. They were both graduates of Notre Dame as well as were their parents and their fathers. So, we were very strong in our faith, and it was an important part of our life, and we stayed convicted that way.”
“Tennis was my best sport. And I loved playing tennis, but it just didn’t have the same camaraderie and feel when you’re playing a solo sport that joining the soccer team did and joining the soccer club and traveling around with my buddies and teammates.”
“This world is going to be what we make of it and this world is going to be what you call God to ask you to help lead you in the right way. You can’t just sit there and wait.”
“We oversee a portfolio of hotels where we give all the profits to charity and where we also try to live out the seven corporal works of mercy through the programs and actions that we take at the hotel.”
“At Notre Dame… I went to Mass every week. I went and prayed at the grotto when I was really having a tough time with something. But I was not nearly as intentional and close to God then as I am now.”
“My whole college and early career, I wanted to be the athletics director of Notre Dame.”
“I just kept hearing from God, ‘You got to go visit Notre Dame. You got to go visit Notre Dame’.”
“Bill wanted to serve the poor. He was someone who built a business without ever going to college and became very successful, but he always knew that the blessings he had were nothing other than gifts from God and it wasn’t, they weren’t his, and he needed to share them with people who may not have had the same sort of fortunes that he did… he was also a devout Catholic, a daily communicant.”
“Pope Francis says that the pastor should smell like the sheep. That’s not the case for so many pastors and school principals and things because they’re distracted.”
“Everything about sports from the way that it brings people together to the way that you can learn lessons to the way that even just talking to teammates who may not have God in their life, and you can use that as a way to introduce them to God. I think there is so much overlap.”
Related link:
The Catholic Initiative website