He fits the mold of any LSU offensive lineman.
Standing 6-foot-3-inches with a barrel chest and burly stature, Ben Domingue fills out his number 61 jersey admirably as he snaps the ball in Death Valley.
But when he steps outside the lines, he still gets the same question.
“Wait, are you a football player?”
Shedding stereotypical boundaries sometimes correlated with football players, Domingue has taken the reigns as outreach minister at the University’s Christ the King Catholic Church this semester, lending a new light on the backup center’s persona off the field.
“I’ve never been one to stay inside those borders, because I feel like you limit yourself,” Domingue said. “Why wouldn’t I step outside that box to become the man I am and help other people?”
After walking on the football team during his freshman year, the Lafayette, St. Thomas More product felt his almost nonexistent spiritual life was hindering him on and off the field.
With the entrance of a few “great friends” into his life, Domingue ventured back to the church and immediately sought to get involved.
“Over the course of time, I realized I had the call to serve with the gifts and talents that God gave me,” Domingue said. “Obviously, one being football and the other was me being a very sociable guy.”
Christ the King Parochial Vicar Rev. Matthew McCaughey said Domingue’s hunger to represent something bigger than himself has been admirable — even if that hunger may sometimes get the best of him.
“The first week [of school], Ben was out with us in Free Speech Alley handing out flyers,” McCaughey said. “I had to hold him back because Ben wanted to hand out so many.”
Though Domingue was unfamiliar with any Christ the King activities in his first year as a Tiger, his new role affords him the opportunity to spread the word to the new crop of students who may be strictly “Sunday Catholics.”
“If you ask a lot of college students these days ‘hey, you wanna come pray?’ nobody wants to come out and pray,” Domingue said. “But if you say there’s a bowling night or to come play football on the Parade Ground, that is where we’re really effective.”
McCaughey lauded Domingue’s “radical zeal” for spreading the word to those who are somewhat reticent about their faith.
With Domingue constantly recruiting new churchgoers, McCaughey said the authentic way he attracts them is commendable.
“After he recognizes an openness in someone, then he’ll make an invitation,” McCaughey said. “It’s always done in a very natural way that’s inviting.”
Playing in seven games last season as a backup to P.J. Lonergan, Domingue said it isn’t tough to balance his aggressive football personality with his new ministry job.
Even after being demoted to a third-string position this season, he said he’s relied on the church and his faith to pull him through.
“When I serve other people, it gets my own problems out of my own head and you rise above the situation,” Domingue said. “But the old saying is ‘every football player falls on his butt, it’s what you do when you get back up.’”
Domingue said his teammates have been receptive of his new position, and he’s hoping to inspire athletes to take leadership and ministry roles to step outside of their boxes.
“I feel as if I’m the outreach minister on and off the field,” Domingue said. “I don’t have to wear a title or a badge; I’m going to let it go through me.”
