Vatican unveils new focus on sporting events for Year of Faith
16 Oct, 2013: The Pontifical Council for Culture announced on Tuesday a number of
new sporting events aimed at raising the importance of sports during this year of
faith. These include the launch of the Vatican’s very own cricket team and a race
that will take place next Sunday up to St Peter’s Square, where participants will
be greeted by Pope Francis following the Angelus prayer. ‘I have finished the race:
I have kept the faith’ Those words of St Paul in his second letter to Timothy are
at the heart of a number of initiatives announced by the Vatican’s Council for Culture
in order to raise the profile of sports within the Catholic world. Noting how last
year’s London Olympics featured many athletes who spoke openly about their faith,
Council officials have organised a 100 metres relay race up the Via della Conciliazione
leading to St Peter’s Square for Sunday October 20th. Msgr Melchor Sanchez de
Toca is undersecretary of the Council for Culture: said “We wanted to bring sports
to the place where St Peter gave his confession of faith, to bring the attention of
the Church on sports and to bring sports into the Church… It connects the City
of Rome with the Vatican I think it would be a very powerful image to see a bishop
or cardinal in a track suit running….the Pope will greet participants at the end of
the Angelus..” The race features facilities for disabled athletes and commentary
by well-known sporting personalities keen to shift the focus from growing financial
interests back to the more traditional values of sport as an expression of harmony
between body and spirit. VR