Vatican cricket team touring
Argentina
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| Pope Francis autografing a bat for the cricket club in his hometown, Buenos Aires, Argentina. |
St Peter’s Cricket Club is on a ‘Light of Faith’ tour to
Buenos Aires, December 27, 2018, to January 3, 2019.
The Vatican’s cricket team sets off on its
first tour outside of Europe on December 27th, travelling to Argentina at the
invitation of a Buenos Aires-based sports club called ‘Cricket Sin Fronteras’
or Cricket Without Borders.
During the 8-day ‘Light of Faith’ tour the Vatican side,
officially known as St
Peter’s Cricket Club, will play against the Argentinian national team,
but it will also take the sport inside a Buenos Aires prison and into the slums
in some of the poorest parts of the city.
In preparation for the tour, Pope Francis met
the players at the end of his General Audience on Wednesday, December 12th,
signing a cricket bat which will be presented as a gift to the host club. The
Pope also blessed several hundred rosaries to be distributed to children and
their families in the slums.
Tour programme
‘Cricket Sin Fronteras’ was founded in 2009 with the
approval of Pope Francis as Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio, Archbishop of
Buenos Aires. Its mission is to teach values of respect, inclusion and
teamwork, and it currently works with some 1,500 boys and girls, aged from 6 to
20.
In October 2017 the Argentinian Club sent a team to Rome to
meet with Pope Francis and to play a debut match against the Vatican XI. The result
was a win for St Peter’s, so the Buenos Aires club will be hoping to make it a
draw as they play St Peter’s on their home territory on December 27th.
The following day, the Vatican team will challenge the
national Argentinian side which has been an associate member of the
International Cricket Council since 1974 (the sport was first introduced there
by British immigrants in the early 1800s).
On December 29, the Vatican cricket team will meet the
Pope’s successor in Buenos Aires, Cardinal Mario Poli, and Auxiliary Bishop of
Buenos Aires Joaquìn Sucunza, celebrating Mass with them in the Metropolitan
Cathedral.
The following day, Sunday, the team will make a pilgrimage
to the Basilica of Our Lady of Luján, patroness of Argentina, Paraguay, and
Uruguay. On January 3rd, just before their return to Rome, the team will visit
Martìn prison in Buenos Aires and play against a side made up of inmates and
staff.
St Peter’s Cricket Club was established in 2013 and is
comprised of seminarians who are studying for the priesthood at various
colleges in Rome. It operates under the auspices of the Vatican Pontifical
Council for Culture and was set up to promote ecumenical and interfaith
relations through a shared love of cricket.
The December 27 to January 3 Buenos Aires trip is St Peter’s
Cricket Team’s 5th “Light of Faith Tour”.
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