Fr. Jon Polce
Episode 379
11 MAY 2026
He played basketball and baseball in high school, when he also umpired the latter sport for about four years. He has also refereed some basketball games, plus, he has continued to play in pickup leagues his whole life, including cricket, curling, soccer, baseball, basketball, and golf. He also coached freshman baseball at Strake Jesuit for two years. Furthermore, he played in the national seminarian’s basketball tournament in Wisconsin in 2022. Meanwhile, he was ordained to the priesthood in 2022 in St. Louis and two years ago was missioned to Jesuit Dallas to be the VP for Mission and Identity, which is the role he currently still holds.
Notable guest quotes:
“My dad was not a Catholic when I was a kid. He was a fallen way Catholic, but he came back to the faith when I was in high school. So, that was a big moment for our family to have my dad back in the realm of the church.”
“I’d say … I caught my faith from my mom and then my grandfather and my father nourished it (over) time.”
“Very much as a kid I defined my identity as being really good at sports because I didn’t have that traditional school culture and so that’s how I kind of made friends and I loved it. I loved it a lot.”
“When I joined the seminary, I was looking for ways to play pick up ball, which led me to that seminary basketball tournament, playing for the Archdiocese of Boston as a Deacon.”
“University of Dallas kind of helped me become an adult in my faith. When you move away to college you have to decide if the faith your parents passed on to you is going to become a lived reality in your life.”
“It led me to take a job in Rome… and interestingly enough I played for an Italian basketball team… for a semester, not to get paid but just to have fun.”
“The Jesuit vocation, the Jesuit heart, is the grace to blossom in multiple locations. And so yeah, I would say there is a challenge in that because you have to love deeply when you go to a place and then you have to have the freedom to not get attached to that place. And that’s a hard grace to pray for, let me tell you. It’s not easy because it’s human to get attached.”
“For all of you that are having transitions in your life, just because the Lord doesn’t answer right away doesn’t mean he doesn’t have an answer. And then secondly, he’s also developing trust in him.”
“I had played my whole life, I had coached a little bit, and I started having this love for wanting to stay involved in sports. But I didn’t think I could continue being a coach in my life as a priest with the demand of that schedule. So, when I was sent to Jesuit High School in New Orleans, I was the Director of Campus Ministry, and part of my job was to oversee teams and their spiritual care.”
“Part of my work was to say Masses for the team and then to walk with the team in the dugout, around the fields, or on the sidelines. And so my primary ministry was through the homilies, the chapel talks and the homilies and the Mass, and inspiring the boys to see their life of prayer before a game oftentimes, or on the road, as not separate from their life as an athlete but as an offering of God of their athletic talent.”
“Your time as an athlete won’t be forever. So, if your identity is just in that and then you lose it then you’re in an identity crisis. But if your identity is as a son of God or a daughter of God who plays, then you can not only give glory to God in the ups and downs of your season but when that sport is no longer in your life or is in your life in a new way you don’t have the same identity crisis.”
“St. Paul actually uses running and boxing as spiritual analogates for the life of Christ.”
“When you’re crunched for time, it feels like it’s a time waste; I could be lifting, I could be practicing. Why do I want to give 15, 20, 30 minutes to God, right? But if you can remind them, thinking of the Old Testament, the tithing, you can tithe with money, you can tithe with time. Giving God your time is not a waste; it’s actually an offering. And the Lord doesn’t bless you, necessarily, with athletic success but he blesses you with something far deeper – success in your heart and peace and love and joy. And so, from that heart, you then can compete in a different level.”
“We know from St. Ignatius, St. Paul, Jesus himself, injury and suffering is not when God stops working but sometimes when he works best.”
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