The Catalan Olympic athlete who now says mass

TerraceFrom the stands of the Josep Marquès stadium, he points to a chalet behind the benches, on the other side of the pitch. "We were there dancing because we had won a league title with Atlètic Terrassa. I looked at my watch and realized it was time to go to Mass. I must have been terrible [due to the alcohol I'd consumed], but I went," Litus Ballbé (Terrassa, 1985) recalls to ARA. "It wasn't an obligation; I felt like it. I was still wearing my tracksuit; I must have smelled bad, so I went to the back of the church," he continues.

When he says Mass now at the Bonanova parish in Barcelona, few of those present must be aware that they are standing before a priest who was an Olympian at the 2012 London Games with the Spanish field hockey team. "My friends from Atlètic Terrassa made it very normal for me to go to mass, and when we went on vacation in August, I would go to mass on Sundays with a hangover," explains Litus, dressed in a shirt with a clerical collar. If it weren't for his look, it would be very difficult to identify him as a priest. He debunks your prejudices with every sentence as he tells his story.

"I've always thought I've never been a good Christian or an example of professionalism as an athlete. I wasn't the most disciplined when it came to taking care of myself with food and the gym. When they criticize Alcaraz for his lifestyle now, I understand to a certain extent. My God isn't hockey; I'm very much about friends and enjoying life." Litus, who has 59 cousins, was educated at Viaró, a religious school in Sant Cugat del Vallès. But he assures that his parents, who are also Christians, gave him the freedom to be whoever he wanted to be. In fact, they were the first to be surprised when he explained to them that he wanted to be a priest. But more on that later.

First, his pact with God, which ended with a visit to Medjugorje (Bosnia-Herzegovina), a town famous for its supposed Marian apparitions. "First of all, I'll tell you that the Virgin Mary didn't appear to me there," warns Litus, who has a journalism degree and is an Espanyol fan. "I'm very hot-blooded, and during a training session before the U-21 World Cup [held in the summer of 2005] I got into an argument with a teammate, and that created a bit of a bad atmosphere." On Sunday, he went to mass in Rotterdam. "There, I made a pact with God. I told him that if he gave me a good World Cup, I would go to Medjugorje with my father." Then he made peace with his teammate and gave the matter no further thought.

Exceeding expectations, that Spanish U-21 team, made up mostly of Catalans like Litus Ballbé and David Alegre, won a bronze medal. And they went to celebrate in Mallorca. "We were hanging around the hotel pool one day, and then I remembered I'd made a pact with God," he explains. The visit to Medjugorje changed Litus's mindset as a believer. "Until then, I had two ideas about who was a good Christian: either a geek, which for me was someone who didn't play sports or go out to parties, or a freak, who didn't do any sports or go out to parties." uncle very perfect, who never sins. And I was a mess. But there I met a group of religious people who went out to parties and who also messed up like me." That was his revelation.

The second came on December 20, 2006, the day his grandmother died at the age of 97. "I thought I should change my life because my grandmother was very good and would go to heaven. And if I wanted to go to heaven too, I couldn't live the life I was leading then. I didn't go to school because we made excuses for being elite athletes, I went out to parties, I hung out with girls, I wasn't the most disciplined. I wanted to be a good person like my grandmother," he confesses. Litus's life then seemed completely happy, but inside he felt a void that was magnified when he was diagnosed with mononucleosis just before beginning training for the 2008 Beijing Games with the Spanish national team. He explained his concerns to various people in the religious world, and more than one asked him if he had considered becoming a priest. No, he hadn't. But Litus returned to Medjugorje, and the conversations he had there changed everything.

"I was afraid of entering the seminary because I had the feeling that a seminarian was a fool. Also, I thought, 'I'll be an ex-seminarian because I'll leave after two months, and what normal girl would want to be with a seminarian?' uncle "I've dressed as a priest," he admits. He also decided to change his environment, and that meant leaving Atlètic Terrassa. "I cried because I was so afraid that my friends would reject me for my decision to enter the seminary." He communicated this via email to the club and his teammates. They only asked him to remain the same as always.

After a year of seminary in Pamplona and playing field hockey in San Sebastián, Litus returned to Catalonia to continue his seminary and return to Atlètic Terrassa. This combination lasted until he was among the pre-selected for the London Games. He requested a one-year leave of absence from the seminary, which ended up being two because he then went to play in Belgium, and hung up his stick at 28 years old, with his goal of becoming an Olympian already achieved. Since 2016, Litus has been a priest, and since 2021, he has been responsible for the sports ministry of the Spanish Episcopal Conference. The void has been filled. His next goal is to work as a missionary: "Somewhere where I'm needed, where there's a lot of need for help."