Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston Bishop Mark Brennan talks about baseball in relation to God during a visit to a third-grade classroom at Parkersburg Catholic Elementary School on Friday. (Photo by Evan Bevins)

PARKERSBURG — Bishop Mark E. Brennan is never sure exactly what children will ask when he visits a classroom.

On Friday at Parkersburg Catholic Elementary, the bishop of the Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston asked a group of third-graders if they had any questions about the faith.

The first boy to raise his hand asked, “What’s your favorite sport?”

Brennan said it’s baseball and also suggested God was fond of it too, pointing out the significance of the numbers involved.

He noted there are nine innings in a game, touched on the concept of square roots and told the kids the square root of nine is three, the number of the Trinity.

Parkersburg Catholic Elementary third-grader Emerson Bixman smiles as Bishop Mark Brennan of the Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston answers a question about pets during a classroom visit Friday. (Photo by Evan Bevins)

And just as God rested on the seventh day after creating the world, spectators at a ball game often partake of a seventh-inning stretch, Brennan said.

Other questions he fielded Friday had to do with how someone becomes a saint, what happens to babies who die before birth and who created God.

“I always tell them I don’t mind getting hardball questions,” Brennan said after lunch in the school cafeteria. “The fact that they’re thinking about things is good.”

Brennan said he tries to visit each Catholic school in the diocese, which encompasses the entire state of West Virginia, every year.

On Thursday, he was at Parkersburg Catholic High School, celebrating Mass and visiting classrooms.

Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston Bishop Mark Brennan calls on a third-grader asking a question during a classroom visit Friday at Parkersburg Catholic Elementary School. (Photo by Evan Bevins)

He did the same Friday at the elementary school.

“It’s a good therapy – sometimes you’re dealing with problems – to go visit the children,” he said.

Brennan said he appreciates interacting with students from multiple grades and observing the progression of development.

“It’s a really beautiful thing to see,” he said.

Parkersburg Catholic Elementary Principal Katy McLean said students recognize that it’s a special day when the bishop visits.

“I think they’re very excited to be able to ask a question,” she said. “They’re very free. They’ll ask anything.”

A fifth-grader whose father is a Lutheran minister asked Brennan on Friday what he thought of Martin Luther, the theologian whose writings inspired the Protestant Reformation.

“That’s a loaded question,” Brennan said. “I wish he hadn’t left us, but I don’t hold it against the Lutherans of today.”