Just a few hours before Kobe Bryant was killed in a helicopter crash, he visited Our Lady Queen of Angels Catholic Church in Newport Beach, California, just before 7 a.m. mass, early Sunday morning.
Bryant visited the prayer chapel and was on his way out when he stopped briefly to speak with his priest, Father Steve Sallot.⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
“I was coming in the same door as he was going out, we called that the backhand of grace,” Sallot recalled. “We shook hands, I saw that he had blessed himself because there was a little holy water on his forehead,” the priest continued. Sallot also revealed that the two discussed Bryant’s future plan of wanting to receive the Catholic sacrament of confirmation, a ritual within Catholicism that is conducted in order to increase one’s ability to practice their faith.
Bryant’s presence in the church was also confirmed in a Facebook post on Monday from Bishop Timothy Freyer of the Diocese of Orange, who spoke highly of the superstar player who was adored by all.
“A longtime Orange County resident and parishioner in our Diocese, Kobe would frequently attend Mass and sit in the back of the church so that his presence would not distract people from focusing on Christ’s Presence,” the bishop wrote in the post.
Hours after attending his place of worship, Bryant, his beloved 13-year-old daughter Gianna, and seven others on board died when his helicopter crashed in Calabasas, California, as they were headed to a basketball game in Thousand Oaks, where he coached, and Gianna played.
