Nationals' Trevor Williams recalls fighting anti-Catholic mockery when Dodgers hosted drag nun group

"It becomes absurd. If this is gonna continue to happen, what are we doing?" Williams said in the conversation published Thursday. "Baseball stadiums should be a place where everyone feels welcomed, like 100%. We should all feel welcomed there. But that was clearly against one certain religion. If you don't draw the line in the sand, who's gonna do it?"

The 32-year-old San Diego native recalled the circumstances and was asked at the time whether he was going to say something.

Williams said he thought long about what he wanted to say.

"Going through the whole discernment process - how do I say it, how do I be charitable, how do I call this out as it is? Like on its face, this is anti-Catholic mockery. It was extremely hard for my wife and I to make a statement because we knew it's a target on our back," he told the bishop. "But it was very blatant what they were doing and very wrong."

He said the reactions were "overwhelmingly positive."

"One of the few times in my life where I truly felt the power of prayer from others. I was able to be levelheaded. I had an increased sense of devotion to the Sacred Heart because I got to pray that novena with thousands of people and do that.

"We found out we were pregnant in the middle of this. We named our daughter Monica Margaret because of that grace that we received from the Sacred Heart."

Williams said a few weeks later he felt "mentally exhausted" from receiving questions about the ordeal. He said he was in Houston as the Nationals were wrapping a series with the Astros and was able to return to Washington early because he was set to pitch the next day.

He said he got to the airport early and prayed the rosary while sitting in the food court, looking for some kind of grace to know he did the right thing. He said he looked around and found nothing that would have been a sign for him.

Williams said he got back up and sat alone at a different gate far from the airport crowd.

Williams revealed the nun didn't speak any English but was glad to accept his prayer card.

"Those little, tiny graces I got through this process were, you know, God put me in this arena as a baseball player to speak out against this, he gave me my faith and all signs point to this moment. We were going to L.A. the next week, so I had to say something. I have to make this statement and do this."