William Penn Hotel Pittsburgh

Reversing JFK: Santorum's bid to marry faith and politics

It was election night in November 2006, and Rick Santorum had organized a private Catholic Mass in a room at the Omni William Penn Hotel in Pittsburgh. The senator from Pennsylvania had just lost his re-election bid.

The Mass, held just before his concession speech, included a priest and Santorum's close family and staff. Though the occasion was somber, the soon-to-be-ex-senator aimed for a celebratory mood, said Mark Rodgers, then a top Santorum aide.

"Life is if full of what can be perceived as disappointments or hardships," Rodgers said, "but Scripture tells followers of Jesus that we approach those situations with joy because there's ultimate redemption."

Santorum's younger brother, Dan, remembers that many attendees - including the senator's children - were weeping over Santorum's landslide defeat at the hands of Democrat Bob Casey Jr.

But not the senator.

"You'd think he would have been crushed," says Dan Santorum. "But he wasn't even bitter. He didn't complain. He just said it was God's plan.

"That's when I knew he was going to run for president of the United States," Dan continued. "Because I think that God had another plan for him."

It's unclear if Rick Santorum, whose strong finish in the Iowa caucuses has breathed new life into his presidential campaign, interpreted his Senate loss the same way.

But the hotel Mass, and Santorum's apparent placidity in the face of an overwhelming defeat, illustrate what confidants say is the key to understanding him as a person and politician: a devout Catholic faith that has deepened dramatically through political and personal battles.

"When I first met him he was an observant Catholic but a fairly privatized one," says Rodgers, who ran Santorum's first race for the U.S. House in 1990 and served as a key Santorum aide in Congress for 16 years.

"The journey I saw him on was a gradual awakening to the importance of faith at an operational level within a democracy, the idea that free people need to have a moral foundation.

Calvin Sweeney, Steelers Wide Receiver, 1980-1987 « Pittsburgh ...

Calvin Sweeney:

First, can you let readers know what you have been doing since your NFL days?

Well, I’m recovering from foot surgery – had this injury from football years ago and finally got the surgery.

I went to work at the UPS after football. It’s a unique story. I didn’t know that my next door neighbor was  a UPS’er - he was my neighbor during my entire NFL career. he asked me a couple of years before I retired what I would do after retirement and I said I didn’t know. He said I’d be a good UPS’er – I act like them (laughing).

After I retired, I got a voicemail from UPS saying that they understood I was interested in applying for a job. The guy said he followed my career and wanted me to give him a call. I said to my wife – who is this? I called him back and to make a long story short, we played phone tag for weeks. We had a hard time connecting so he told me to meet with this other guy. I did and told the next guy I had a degree in marketing and asked him what opportunities there were for me. He told me I would have to start as a driver.

I said wait a minute. Driving what? He told me the little brown package trucks (laughing). They had a training class in two weeks, he told me, a driver-orientation class, and that I should get back to him if I want to take it.

Well, I didn’t get back to him. I went to Europe for twenty-one days. When I got back I had lots of messages from UPS. My wife said I should give it a try – but I told her I never quit anything if I try it. Well, I did try it and loved it. I loved being my own boss on the road and did it for nine months. When I went into the office my supervisor asked me if I’d like to get into management. I said yeah. They said they were impressed that I came in and didn’t act like a superstar – I blended in. They said I start now – go home and change.

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