Getting off the sidelines: Sportscaster Mark Viviano eager to share his Catholic faith

Mark Viviano has been reporting about Baltimore sports for more than 30 years, but now he says it is time to get in the game of sharing his faith more fully.

He isn’t giving up his day job – more like a nights-and-weekends job – any time soon, but he is planning to share his faith through regular columns and stories for Catholic Review Media.

“I was hesitant to get off the sidelines,” Viviano, 60, said about his writing plans. “But I no longer have any excuses.”

Fatherhood and a deeper understanding of the gifts from his upbringing have changed his way of thinking.

“I’ve always been a communicator,” said Viviano, whose Baltimore sportscasting career started in 1994 at WBAL and continues at WJZ-TV after a brief two-year stint at CNN in Atlanta. “I share stories, report and offer my opinion. That’s a job, but I just know that is not all there is.

“I’ve come to an understanding that the most important thing is to share my faith,” said the five-time winner of Maryland Sportscaster of the Year. “We are baptized to evangelize. As part of the mainstream media, I was always hesitant to share my faith. We aren’t supposed to talk about those things. But I think there’s a need for it, and I think it’s my duty to share stories I see about people of faith.”

The parishioner of St. John the Evangelist in Severna Park says becoming a father helped change his way of thinking about sharing his faith. He attends Mass regularly at St. John and is a weekly volunteer at St. Casimir in Canton, where he and his wife, Megan, were married and both of his sons were baptized – 8-year-old Michael and 5-year-old Christian.

He grew up in a faith-filled household with four siblings in St. Louis. His father owned a wholesale fruit business and always found time to pray the rosary with his family and attend Mass despite long hours laboring at his business. Viviano’s oldest brother, Anthony, is a priest in Jefferson City, Mo.

“One-hundred percent my faith comes from my parents’ example,” he said of father, Joseph, and mother, Patricia, who died when he was 17. “Everything we did in our household was about faith. Whenever I spoke with my father, his last words to me before we parted or hung up the phone were ‘Stay close to our Lord.’ You just kind of accept it when you are younger, but come to understand it as you get older.”

Viviano feels blessed to have been in a profession he cherishes, taking his father’s work ethic to heart during the demands of early mornings, late nights and busy weekends.

He even met his wife at work, connecting at WJZ when she was a producer there through a shared passion for running. He grew close to her after he answered what he said was a personal call from above to cut back on the grind of working both daily radio and television shifts.

He and Megan, an online editor, volunteer at St. Casimir with food service for the needy. They make sure to have their sons join them when they can to share the importance of giving back at Beans & Bread food bank and Helping Up Mission.

“I’ve always known the significance of my faith,” he said. “But I think I’ve become much more attuned to it since I’ve become a father, tending to my children’s needs.”

He said he recently joined the Knights of Columbus and looks forward to coaching his kids’ soccer and baseball teams while doing a little evangelizing with his communication skills on the side.

“I feel, know and experience the presence of the Holy Spirit in my life,” he said. “I want to share that light in ways that may encourage, inspire or inform others. We are called to share his love and his word in any and all ways. I hope that sharing my experiences as a Catholic, a husband, a father, a broadcaster and a citizen can somehow impact others positively.”

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