VANCOUVER — Blood, guts and God. It’s not the Holy Trinity that normally comes to mind. But a local church in Vancouver is using a big boxing match to reach out to its parishioners and the greater community.
Tomorrow night in Las Vegas, Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Manny Pacquiao will be stepping into the ring, with an estimated 400 million people watching.
And approximately 500 of those fans tuning in will be doing so from their local, well, pew. St. Patrick’s Parish is opening up its gymnasium to the public, with three enormous screens, bleachers and even beer.
With 85 per cent of the parish hailing from the Philippines and their hometown hero Pacquiao taking part in what many are calling the “Fight of the Century,” the higher-ups at St. Patrick’s saw Saturday’s bout as a way to reach out to the community.
“The church can never be just simply insular. It cannot just live and exist within itself,” Father James Hughes told Global News. “If this is just one way of the many ways that we’re trying to do that in the Mount Pleasant area, then we’re happy to do so.”
Even if they had to pay for a $7,000 licence to broadcast the game.
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