In Rome, sport, and especially athletics, is lived with passion. Many competitions are held every week in the Eternal City. Since I arrived here in 2016 I have had occasion to participate in many of them. It was in this context that I met and joined Athletica Vaticana, the first sports association promoted by the Vatican. Swiss Guards, gendarmes, employees of the Vatican Museums and L’Osservatore Romano, officials of dicasteries, firemen, embassy staff, professors of pontifical universities, several priests and religious (including a nun and a bishop), are some of the most significant profiles of this plural, international and intergenerational team, in which variety and inclusion are hallmarks, and in which you are welcomed as if you were part of a family.
Athletica Vaticana was born in 2019. The origin was some years before when a group of people linked to different Vatican organizations, who shared a passion for sports, came together to build community from this common bond. Its primary objective is to be a sign at the heart of the Vatican and the Catholic Church as a Christian witness through spiritual, solidarity and cultural initiatives that foster dialogue with the global sports community.
Since the origins of Athletica Vaticana, Pope Francis has closely followed its steps, appreciating its initiatives as a way to reach out to people through sport. And it was on January 13, 2024 when he wanted to welcome both team members and their families in an endearing audience in which he addressed a message to all, highlighting the relevance and opportunities of sport in today’s world. His words not only inspire Athletica Vaticana, but every sports enthusiast, so that they, too, will be able to “to know themselves and to feel recognized by the Church as persons at the service of the sincere search for the true, the good and the beautiful”. (Praedicate Evangelium, 154). Here are some excerpts from this inspiring message for today’s athletes.
Dear friends of Athletica Vaticana.
I express my joy for the presence of Athletica Vaticana in the streets, on the tracks and on the playing fields, and for your Christian witness in the great world of sport, which today represents the most widespread cultural expression, as long as you maintain that amateurism which is the guardian of sport.
It is significant that our meeting will take place in the first days of 2024, which is the Olympic and Paralympic Year. Recalling the value of the “Olympic truce”, my hope is that, in the particularly dark historical moment we live in, sport can build bridges, break down barriers, promote peaceful relations.
With a style marked by simplicity, for exactly five years Athletica Vaticana has been committed to promote fraternity, inclusion and solidarity, bearing witness to the Christian faith among athletes, amateurs and professionals.
Dear friends, it is very meaningful that you try to do all this by sharing the life of other athletes, running or cycling or playing together with them. The initiatives of Vatican Athletics – from the most simple and spontaneous to participation in international sporting events – take on their full meaning as the expression of a community made up of women and men who, bound by a common service to the Holy See, live their passion for sport as an experience of evangelization.
For this reason, in addition to sports activities, your association also offers moments of prayer and service to the most needy. It is part of your mission to be close – a key word – to the most fragile: I am thinking of initiatives with young people with physical or intellectual disabilities, with prisoners and detainees, with migrants, with the poorest families. And it’s nice that everyone participates in these meetings with the same dignity, including Olympic and Paralympic champions, diplomats and members of the Curia. I return to the word “closeness”, a closeness that becomes tender with sport. As God with us: God is close and tender, and therefore compassionate. Closeness and tenderness.
Sport is a means to express one’s talents, but also to build society. Sport teaches us the value of fraternity. We are not islands: in the no matter where a person comes from, what language or culture he or she speaks. What counts is the commitment and the common goal. This unity in sport is a powerful metaphor for our lives. It reminds us that, despite our differences, we are all members of the same human family. Sport has the power to bring people together, regardless of their physical, economic or social capabilities. It is an instrument of inclusion that breaks down barriers and celebrates diversity. Even the Second Vatican Council pointed out that sport can offer “an aid in establishing fraternal relations among people of every condition, nation and race” (Gaudium et spes, 61).
The game, therefore, is made up of rules that must be respected. Winning with humility and accepting defeat with dignity are values that sport teaches. and that must be lived in daily life in order to build a more just and fraternal society. “Sport,” as Venerable Pius XII said, “is a school of loyalty, courage, endurance, determination, universal brotherhood, all natural virtues, but which provide the supernatural virtues with a solid foundation” (Agli sportivi italiani, May 25, 1945).
Sport also shows us that we can face our limits with patience and determination. Each athlete, through discipline and commitment, teaches us that with faith and perseverance we can achieve goals we never thought possible. This message of hope and courage is crucial, especially for young people.
I encourage each of you to see sports as a way of life that helps you to build a more united community and to carry forward the values of Christian life: loyalty, sacrifice, team spirit, commitment, inclusion, asceticism, redemption. Go ahead, dear friends of Athletica Vaticana! And don’t forget amateurism, which is like the juice that gives life to the sporting activity. Always give the best of yourselves! I bless you with all my heart. And please don’t forget to pray for me. Thank you.
Fr. Antonio Carrón de la Torre, OAR
(Article published in the magazine Santa Rita y el Pueblo Cristiano)