Globe-trotting Iowan meets two popes, finds rewarding new career in church

By LORI BERGLUND
Special to Lumen Media
 
It’s been an interesting journey across the globe for a man who grew up in small towns in northwest Iowa. Brett Meister has traveled the world, met two different popes, and is now finding a new calling as director of communication for the Diocese of Phoenix.

“I was a little nervous, honestly,” Meister said of his career change in serving one of the largest dioceses in the southwest United States. “I’m a life-long Catholic, I love my faith, and I love my church, but I was never a career church person. I knew there was going to be a learning curve.”

Meister was named to the position in Phoenix in 2022, after a 23-year career leading communication for the world-famous Harlem Globetrotters. With changes brought by the pandemic, it was time to slow his own globetrotting and settle down in a community near his two daughters.

Despite the initial misgivings about making such a drastic change after a long and successful career with a high-profile organization, Meister is enjoying his work and has found it a rewarding mid-life transition.
With Pope Francis in 2015“I love the challenge,” he said. “I love the culture here, and I love working with Bishop John Dolan. It’s very rewarding.”

Born in Burt, Meister moved to Marcus when he was 10 years old and graduated from high school there in 1984. His family was active at Holy Name Catholic Church.

“We were very involved in the church growing up,” he recalled. “I was an altar server and a lector.”

While Marcus may be a small town, he said it offered him a “well-rounded” background in both education and extra-curricular activities. He played just about every sport they offered, from football to basketball and track, and was also active in band, speech and drama.

From Marcus, it was off to Briar Cliff College in Sioux City, where he majored in mass communications with a minor in writing. His first job out of college was at Channel 4, KTIV, in Sioux City. He also served a stint as sports information director at the former Westmar College in LeMars before joining the Continental Basketball Association (CBA) in Denver and St. Louis.

The CBA was a professional basketball group that served as a minor league for the NBA. Folks at the Harlem Globetrotters also kept an eye on the CBA players and frequently signed them on as players.

“The Globetrotters would call once a month looking for players, and one month they said, ‘Hey, have you ever thought about working for the Globetrotters?’”Thus began Meister’s more than 20-year career with a basketball team that blends entertainment with athleticism. Known for spreading goodwill throughout the globe, the team has earned recognition from multiple popes. 

“I was responsible in 2000 when I arranged a visit for the Globetrotters with Pope John Paul II at the Vatican,” Meister noted. “It was unbelievable. I felt like it was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to meet the pope. Little did I know that 15 years later I would be doing it again when I arranged a visit for the Globetrotters with Pope Francis.”

With Globetrotter legend Curly NealThey were each unique opportunities, visiting John Paul II near the end of his papacy, and Francis in his early years.

“With John Paul II, we spun it as ‘the world’s most traveled pope meets the world’s most traveled sports team.’

“He was vibrant and smiled a lot,” Meister recalled of John Paul II.

“Pope Francis, he walked down to where we were and was laughing and joking around,” Meister noted. “When I shook his hand, I asked him to pray for me and he said, ‘No, you pray for me.’”

The experience of meeting two popes is more than most people will ever know. For Meister, it is now the people of the Diocese of Phoenix that he is called to serve. He is finding unique ways to blend his secular experience into the work of helping call people to God. The challenges, he finds, are similar for dioceses across the nation.

“The traditional way most diocese communicate is through a newspaper,” he noted. “For dioceses around the country, newspapers are going away. That had already happened when I came to Phoenix.”

Just as the Diocese of Sioux City is now adapting to greater use of technology in communication, other dioceses are doing the same.

“We have significantly ramped up our digital content,” Meister said. “We produce four podcasts. We have a number of different weekly videos – and it’s working. We are reaching more people. We are growing our audience, and we’re doing it all organically. We’re very encouraged with the success we’ve had in a short amount of time.”
Selfie with Bishop Dolan of PhoenixBishop Dolan is pleased with what he sees as the Diocese of Phoenix reaches out in this new way under Meister’s leadership.

“Brett Meister is a wonderfully dynamic member of our pastoral staff here in the Diocese of Phoenix. His energy, creativity, and general love for life has been an inspiration for me personally. He is forever behind a camera, and he is honestly engaged in the people he interviews,” Bishop Dolan said.
            
One of the perks of being an Iowa native working in Phoenix, is the snowbirds Meister occasionally gets to meet. There’s even a retired priest from the Diocese of Sioux City – Father Gene Murray - who spends his winter, not just golfing in Arizona, but also helping at local parishes.
            
“It’s fun to see him in the wintertime,” he said.
           
 In many ways, life has come full circle for Meister. Church was central to their family when he was growing up. He went off to see the world for a while, but never left his faith behind. Perhaps those meetings with two popes were a foreshadowing of the change that was coming in his own life, to serve the church more closely with his professional skills.
Meister
            “When you’ve been with an organization for almost 24 years, you kind of get into a routine,” he said looking back on his Globetrotter days. “I look back at it now and perhaps I was getting stale.”    
       
Not so anymore, with a new challenge and new focus in his work serving the church he has loved all his life.            
“I feel very energetic here,” he said. “It’s been very refreshing.”

Lori Berglund is a freelance writer based in Dayton (Iowa). She is a member of Holy Trinity Parish in Webster County.

HOME