Pope Francis: Sport, a school
that teaches rules and respect
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| Pope Francis with members of the Italian Sports Centre (Vatican Media) |
Pope Francis meets with members of the Italian Sports Centre
which is celebrating its 75th anniversary
This year the Italian Sports Centre is celebrating the 75th anniversary
of its foundation. The Centre has more than one million two hundred thousand
members and is made up of clubs and sports associations, as well as members and
affiliated parish sports groups throughout Italy.
Greeting the 400 members in the Clementine Hall on Saturday,
which included young people and coaches, Pope Francis noted how the Italian
Sports Centre offered young people, through sport, a healthy and positive
lifestyle, based on the Christian vision of the person and society. Sport, in
fact, he said, “is a great school, provided that you live it with self-control
and respect for others.”
Rules and limits
The Pope emphasized that it was important to accept defeat
and work within the framework of the rules governing a particular discipline.
“When you face a competition, he said, you learn that rules
are essential to live together; that happiness is not found in unruliness, but
in pursuing your goals faithfully; and you also learn that you no longer feel
free when you have no limits, but when, with your own limits, you give your
best.” “We must be masters of our limits and not slaves to our limits.”
Sport and the Christian vision
The Pope pointed out that sport is a tool that can be used
for problem solving and to “achieve a profound transformation of our society.”
He explained that it “can foster a culture of dialogue and
respectful encounters.” The world we dream about, Pope Francis said, is one
based on “healthy competition, which always sees the opponent as a friend and a
brother.”
He continued by saying that friendship and brotherhood was
at “the heart of the Christian vision of man”. This Christian vision, the Pope
underlined, “means learning to look at others and things with the very eyes of
Jesus,” adding that from the “Gospel comes a more beautiful and just world, in
which the diversity of others is not a reason for division, but for growth and
mutual help.”
Concluding his remarks, Pope Francis encouraged those
present to live this Christian spirit in the parishes where they work.
The Pope urged them to be close to those “who are weakest
because of a disability, so that they may participate in the various activities
together with others and never feel excluded. He also invited them to accompany
those who are involved in international voluntary sports projects, in different
countries, which he said, “represent a precious sign for our time.”
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