Priest shares golfing passion with others

BY BILL DOYLE
CFP CORRESPONDENT

Father Derek Mobilio is a very good golfer who plays the game two or three times a week.
Whenever he’s paired with someone he doesn’t know, sooner or later his playing partner asks what he does for a living. He gets all kinds of reactions when he tells them he’s a priest. After spending six years as a seminarian, he was ordained in June at St. Paul Cathedral in Worcester and he’s associate pastor at Our Lady of Hope Parish in Grafton.
“The reaction is all over the place,” he said, “from total shock and silence to some people being really excited about it. Some people are really intrigued, really curious. The most common reaction is they immediately start apologizing for their bad language on the first few holes.”
No one yet has asked for a confession on the course, but he brings his stole and his oils with him just in case they’re needed.
While preaching has replaced golf as his passion, the game remains his favorite hobby.
“It’s basically my No. 1 form of exercise because I always walk,” he said. “It’s my way of getting out and relaxing.”
Father Mobilio figured that golf would be a good way to bring parishioners together so he organized a league that played at Pakachoag Golf Course in Auburn on Wednesday nights in July and the first two weeks of August. At 4:30 p.m., the golfers attended Mass at North American Martyrs Parish in Auburn, whose pastor, Father Frederick Fraini, also played in the league. Then they began teeing off at 5:15 p.m.
Twelve to 16 men, aged 16 to 70, from North American Martyrs, Our Lady of Hope, Christ the King and Our Lady of Providence parishes in Worcester, St. Mary in Jefferson and St. Joseph in Charlton, took part in the league. The group included a teacher from St. John’s High School in Shrewsbury and students from St. Paul Diocesan Junior/Senior High School in Worcester. Father Mobilio recruited golfers through church bulletins, social media and word of mouth.    
“I think there’s a parallel between the way you play golf and the way you live your life,” he said. “So if you get men together who are trying to live their life in accordance with the Catholic faith as disciples of Jesus Christ then you can start making parallels between playing golf the right way and living your life the right way.”
Father Mobilio believes in playing golf according to the rules – he doesn’t roll his ball over in the rough – and considers learning to accept imperfection is key to success in golf and life.
“No day is going to be perfect and the next shot is all you have control over,” he said. “It’s the same in your life as a Christian. We’re all imperfect, we’re all striving for holiness, but we all come up short every day. So all we have control over in that case is asking the Lord for his mercy and then you get the next shot. Whenever you fall short, there’s going to be another opportunity to not fall short, to live with charity and hope, rather than selfishly.”
Jack Yasko, a freshman at Niagara University, hadn’t played much golf before, but he joined the league because he had grown to know Father Mobilio through the chaplain at St. Paul’s, Father Donato Infante. Mr. Yasko was so impressed with Father Mobilio he began attending Our Lady of Hope instead of the Holden parish in which he grew up.
“It was more comforting knowing that I could talk about my faith with others around me,” Mr. Yasko said of the golf league. “It was more like a security blanket, like, ‘I’m not alone,’ and I can enjoy activities outside of worship at Mass and still be able to talk about my relationship with God.”
Some of the golfers weren’t as involved in the church as others. Forming relationships by playing golf, basketball or the violin or just about anything can blossom into holy friendships that lead people to a closer relationship with God. That was Father Mobilio’s goal in forming the league. When the younger members get married or go through hard times, he wanted them to know he would be there for them as a priest.
“It was an awesome experience,” Mr. Yasko said. “Everyone was super down to earth. It was relaxing and laid back. Not every conversation was about faith. People generally wanted to get to know each other and have fun playing golf.”
Hockey was Father Mobilio’s main sport while a student at St. Peter-Marian High School, but he also played golf for the Guardians, and at State University of New York at Oswego he helped his golf team with three intramural championships. At a 5 handicap, he golfs in a Tuesday night league at Leicester County Club and also plays occasionally at Holden Hills, Green Hill and Kettle Brook.
Father Mobilio and his playing partner, Fairfield University sophomore Conall Donovan of St. Mary in Jefferson, were by far the best team in the weekly two-man scramble competition at Pakachoag. Mr. Donovan has a low handicap similar to Father Mobilio’s. So they spotted every other team 10 shots for the championship match on the final day and Mr. Yasko and Ray Dewar, a sophomore at Beloit College in Wisconsin who graduated from St. Paul’s, posted a net score of 30 to defeat Father Mobilio and Mr. Donovan by four shots. They earned $50 gift cards to Golfers’ Warehouse.
Father Mobilio plans to organize another league at Pakachoag next year.
“It’s not an intimidating place,” he said. “So if someone is taking up the game, you can take them there and they don’t feel like they have to live up to all these expectations. They can just have fun and learn the game the right way.”
Father Mobilio did his best to bring the golfers closer to God, but you might say that another golfer in the league actually brought him closer to heaven. Father Fraini’s father, Frederick, plays in the league and he took Father Mobilio and another golfer on a flight from Worcester Airport to New Hampshire in his four-seat airplane. Father Mobilio didn’t see any angels during the flight, but he joked that he prayed to God that the plane would land safely.