Game day mass continues to attract hundreds

SOUTH BEND, Ind. -

It’s a tradition that’s been around for quite some time but it stays top of mind. Close to 1,000 people fill the Basilica of the Sacred Heart of Notre Dame during a football mass.
 
Topping those numbers are Basilica tours on football weekends which serve close to 10,000 people. 
 
“It is ramped up times 10 as you can imagine it’s even more fun then you could imagine,” says Sue Montalbano, the Coordinator of Tours and Hospitality at the Basilica of the Sacred Heart of Notre. 

Montalbano organizes tours at the Basilica and says the stained glass and ornate alters attract people from all walks of life, but football weekends are especially exciting.

“When they see the beauty of the Basilica and you know it has that feeling to it and they get it, they feel it,” says Montalbano.
 
Montalbano adds it is more than just architecture. The Basilica represents prayer and faith and during busy football weekends Irish fans make sure to get to mass.
 
“This is much more than a university it’s really a place of pilgrimage a place of faith as well as a place of learning and scholarship,” says Father Peter Rocca.

Father Rocca gives mass half an hour after a day game finishes. 
He says church pews fill up with close to 1,000 people. 
 
“It is usually packed! From the front door to the back of the basilica just filled with people,” says Father Rocca. 
 
So win or lose the Notre Dame community comes together and thanks God for another weekend in God Country Notre Dame.

“For them this is almost as important as going to the football game, for them it’s just part of what it means to be at a place like Notre Dame,” says Father Peter Rocca.