Pope Francis invites MotoGP
racers to live with passion
During a brief Wednesday audience with MotoGP riders, Pope
Francis says sport trains people to live with passion and to transmit the
values of friendship and respect for rules.
By Devin Watkins
Pope Francis met on Wednesday with a delegation of riders
competing in the San Marino and Rimini Coast’s motorcycle Grand Prix Octo.
The sporting event takes place Sunday, September 9th in
the northeastern Italian town of Misano Adriatico, near the Republic of San
Marino.
Sport an educational tool
Speaking to the MotoGP racers, Pope Francis said sport is an irreplaceable educational tool, especially for young people.
Sport, he said, “stimulates a healthy transcendence of self
and self-centeredness, teaches a spirit of sacrifice, and, if done well,
inspires loyalty in interpersonal relationships, friendship, and respect for
rules.”
Passion for life
Pope Francis then reflected on two concepts related to sport: passion and what it means to be a champion.
An important factor when young people commit suicide, he mused,
is a lack of passion for life.
The Holy Father said sporting activities can help instill
that passion. “The world needs passion,” he said, for people “to live with
passion, and not like those who let life weigh them down.”
He also said the true “champion in life” is the person who
lives with passion.
Promoting Christian values
Pope Francis invited the MotoGP racers to help transmit that passion for life to the many people who follow their professional activities.
“It’s important that people involved in sport’s various
levels promote the human and Christian values that are at the root of a just
and mutually supportive society.”
The Pope said sport promotes friendship and dialogue,
“because the sporting event is expressed in universal language, which transcends
borders, languages, races, religions, and ideologies.” Amateur sport is
especially helpful for society, he said, since it comes from the heart.
This, the Holy Father said, gives sport “the intrinsic
ability to unite people, and encourage dialogue and acceptance.”
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