Home / News & Publications / Michigan Catholic News / 2008 / Grand Prix Mass is just a part of this priest’s ministry
Grand Prix Mass is just a part of this priest’s ministry
by Robert Delaney of The Michigan Catholic
Published August 22, 2008
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IRL Ministry photos
Fr. Phil De Rea, MSC, at this year’s Indianapolis 500. |
Detroit – Before the big race on Sunday, Aug. 31, some of the drivers, pit crews and their families in town for the Detroit Grand Prix will gather for Mass on the upper floor of the Belle Isle Casino.
Celebrating the 11 a.m. Eucharist will be Fr. Phil De Rea, MSC, of IRL (Indy Racing League) Ministry, once dubbed the “racetrack reverend” by the Chicago Tribune.
“It’s for the racing community, but it’s open to the public,” Fr. De Rea says.
In his 37 years of ministering to the racing community, the 66-year-old Missionaries of the Sacred Heart priest has come to be a friend and spiritual adviser to many of those involved in motor sports.
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IRL Ministry photos
Fr. Phil De Rea, MSC, Catholic chaplain of Indy Racing League, at the Miami Grand Prix several years ago. |
“I’ve been doing this since 1971, when my long-time friend Mario Andretti got me to go with him to look at the new Pocono International Raceway (in Pennsylvania),” Fr. De Rea says.
Both Fr. De Rea and Andretti grew up in Nazareth, Pa.
Fr. De Rea’s ministry to the racing community was given a more formal shape with the founding of IRL Ministry in 1996. Besides going to the racing events to celebrate Mass, IRL also offers year-round Bible study programs.
And Fr. De Rea has become involved in other aspects of the lives of those in the racing community. “I’ve gained a lot of friends over the years I’ve been doing this. I’ve baptized a lot of their kids and presided at their marriages,” he says.
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IRL Ministry photos
Fr. Phil De Rea (left) prays with Swedish racecar driver Kenny Bräck – the 1999 Indianapolis 500 winner — and wife Anita before the start of a race. |
Gil De Ferran and Emerson Fittipaldi are among the well-known drivers at whose weddings Fr. De Rea has officiated. And this aspect of his ministry has sometimes taken him across the Atlantic Ocean, as when he conducted the 2001 wedding of driver Dario Franchetti to actress Ashley Judd in Scotland or this year’s wedding of Scott and Emma Dixon in England.
But motorsports can be dangerous, and Fr. De Rea’s pastoral skills are sometimes called upon to help friends and family cope with the death of a driver in a fatal crash. “When something like that happens, you are able to be there to comfort them,” he says.
Fr. De Rea recalled an incident about a decade ago here in Michigan when it was three race fans who were fatally injured when a tire popped up into the stands at a race at Michigan International Speedway in Brooklyn.
“I went to the hospital where they were taken, and waited for the families to arrive, to provide spiritual consolation,” he recalls.
Besides his ministry to the racing community, Fr. De Rea’s other work is fund raising to support his congregation’s overseas missionary work. He is based at the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart’s U.S. headquarters in Aurora, Ill.
“Right now, I’m raising money to build a residence and seminary for our students in Colombia,” he says.
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