Pope Francis welcomes Argentine and Italian rugby teams

November 22, 2013 - Pope Francis on Friday once more demonstrated his keen interest in sports and games, expressing admiration for rugby as a tough sport with a lot of physical clashes but without violence. “There is great loyalty, great respect,” the Pope told the visiting players and officials of the national rugby teams of Italy and his native Argentina, accompanied by the Argentine ambassador. He noted that playing rugby is tiring and not a cakewalk, which is useful also to temper the character and will power. He drew an analogy between the game and life, commending the equilibrium between the group and the individual, particularly in the scrum where the two compact sides are locked in a ‘scrum’ pushing each other, which ends in individual actions with ‘agile runs’ towards the ‘goal’. This, the Pope explained, reminds us of the goal of life – “this search is tiring, that requires struggle and commitment, but what is most important is not running all alone. To arrive at the goal one needs to run together, and the ball has to pass hands and a player advances together until he arrives at the goal. And there is celebration. Even though he admitted this interpretation of his is not very technical, he urged the players to put it in practice in life. He also urged for prayers for him so that he along with his collaborators may also form a good team.
During the meeting, the Argentine and Italian rugby teams gifted Pope Francis an olive sapling which will be symbolically planted in Rome’s Olympic Stadium on Saturday when the two sides meet on the field. It will later be transplanted in the Vatican gardens.
Just before welcoming the Argentine and Italian rugby teams, the Pope also met Sepp Blatter, the president of FIFA, the international governing body of football. Pope Francis has numerous encounters with athletes and sportsmen, especially in his weekly general audiences, where pilgrims often gift him sports jerseys and caps. Earlier in August, Pope Francis had welcomed in the Vatican, Argentine and Italian soccer stars on the occasion of a friendly match. Early November, in a brief ceremony in the Vatican he lit the torch of the winter Universiade 2013, scheduled for next month in Trent, Italy. Returning from the World Youth Day in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in July, he left a ball with the colors of Brazil, at the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome.