Editor’s Note: Matthew Chicoine interviewed Sean Bryan via phone call on September 12th, 2025. Some of the questions/answers have been rearranged, edited, and paraphrased to provide the best reader experience without losing any integrity of the answers given.

How did your journey of faith lead you to embrace the mission of being the “Papal Ninja”?

Providence throughout my whole life, I have always been athletic. I did gymnastics through college. When I was with the Salesians, I was doing athletics through youth ministry work. After my time with the Salesians, I continued to do gymnastics. I saw one of my former teammates from when I was on the gymnastics team at Cal Berkeley participate on the show. I found a Ninja gym in my area. I found the culture of Ninja Warrior inspiring and I found a community there. Some of the veterans took me under their wing and gave me advice. 

When I was developing my story, they told me that people want to hear about you being Catholic. So I took on the name Papal Ninja. In the talks that I give for the youth, I tell them that they are papal ninjas too. Ninjas are individuals who are skilled in training and following the master. And papal refers to the Vicar of Christ. So anyone who is Catholic is technically a papal ninja following the Master of Christ.