Bishop Louis Tylka takes a turn in a dunk tank at the National Catholic Youth Conference in Indianapolis last weekend. He promised those who knocked him off the perch that "they didn’t have to go to confession for dunking the bishop.” (Provided photo/ Carla Wizieck)

INDIANAPOLIS — Basketballs get dunked. So do cookies, doughnuts, and even chicken nuggets. But a bishop?

Allow Bishop Louis Tylka to explain how he wound up in a dunk tank operated by the Salesian order at the National Catholic Youth Conference last weekend in Indianapolis. The tank was meant to draw the attention of the event’s 13,000 teens to the religious community’s space in the “Marketplace” area set up in Lucas Oil Stadium.

“As I was walking by,” Bishop Tylka recalled, “a Sister came up to me and asked:  ‘Oh bishop, would you be willing to get in the dunk tank?’ I said ‘Sure’ and she was quite surprised.”

“Are you for real?” the Salesian Sister asked.

“Absolutely,” the bishop replied.

So into the cage he climbed, sat above a sea of rubber balls, and stayed for about 10 minutes and a few dunkings.

“I’ve been in dunk tanks before,” said Bishop Tylka in what may come as a surprise to many. “They’re usually filled with water, which is usually ice cold. A tank of rubber balls is a lot more compassionate to the person being dunked. The hardest part was trying to get up, with all the rubber balls under your feet.”

Were the dunkings courtesy of teen attendees from the Diocese of Peoria?

“Yes,” said Bishop Tylka. “And I promised them they didn’t have to go to confession after dunking the bishop.”