When was the last time you saw a physically fit Catholic priest? Jack LaLanne in a Roman collar?

The Catholic News Service has taken notice and is offering some advice for the long weeks of Ordinary Time:

With studies confirming that a high percentage of U.S. clerics are overweight and lead inactive and nutritionally unhealthy lifestyles, several Catholic leaders in interviews with Catholic News Service said priests should focus on their bodies with the same care they give the souls of their parishioners.

“We should remind our priests to take the time for relaxation and physical exercise,” said Baltimore Archbishop Edwin F. O’Brien, himself a physically fit 69-year-old Catholic leader. “It’s very important for their health and their ministry.”

A 2001 national survey of more than 2,500 Christian religious leaders — conducted by the pastoral leadership research project “Pulpit and Pew” based at Duke Divinity School in North Carolina — said that 76 percent of Christian clergy were either overweight or obese, 15 percentage points higher than for the general U.S. population.

The “Pulpit and Pew” study was the largest of recent surveys conducted on the health of U.S. clergy of several Christian denominations, all reaching similar conclusions.

“I probably would agree with that finding, because I know a lot of overweight priests,” said Father David Garcia, director of the Old Spanish Missions in San Antonio. “I’m determined not to ever become one.”

The 58-year-old priest — who combines a strict regimen of running, weight lifting and martial arts six days a week to maintain a body fat percentage of 13 on his 5-foot-7-inch, 148-pound frame — believes his body is a gift from God and that it’s his duty to be a good steward.

Though Father Garcia has been athletic since he was a child, he said that five years after his ordination he became the secretary to his archbishop and began attending high-profile social functions that came complete with servings of rich foods. Six months into the job at the age of 30, he noticed his pants had become pretty snug.

“I looked in the mirror and asked myself, ‘Do you want to be a fat old man before your time?'” he said. “So I looked at my lifestyle, began to study nutrition, began to run … and then diversified my workout program. It’s been a big part of my priesthood. You’re more aware of yourself, and the gift of life. When we let our bodies go, we really in a sense misuse or abuse the gift that God gave us.”

Read on for more. Then hit the gym.

Meantime, I’m going out for donuts.