The NFC North, Religiously Speaking

The Vikings and the Green Bay Packers have a scheduled game on December 24th this year. December 24th is also considered by some to have some religious significance. In Wisconsin, the weaker affiliation is bowing to the stronger one:

GREEN BAY, Wis. — St. Bernard Catholic Church, several miles from Lambeau Field, has adjusted its Christmas Eve Day Mass schedule as the Green Bay Packers are scheduled to play at 2 p.m. that afternoon.

It eliminated its two 4 p.m. Masses and added a second Mass at 6 p.m.

The parish staff went back and forth in discussing its options, said Ginny Gigot, it's business administrator.

"This was not a unanimous decision,'' the pastor, the Rev. David Pleier, said in church bulletin item on the move. "Comments ranged from, 'You mean to say you're putting football ahead of the birth of Christ?' to 'What if we have a Mass and nobody comes? Would that be an honor to the newborn Savior?'

I may not be a Packer fan (thank goodness), but you have to respect a devotion that even trumps mere religious observances!