Ahead of the Opening Ceremony of the Olympic Games in Paris, Athletica Vaticana has encouraged the athletes in fraternal friendship and reiterated Pope Francis’ appeal for an Olympic Truce. Source: Vatican News.
“The Olympics and Paralympics can be strategies for peace and antidotes to war games.”
Athletica Vaticana, the official multi-sports Association of the Holy See, conveyed this message in an open letter to Olympic athletes.
“With the beauty and fairness of each person’s sporting gesture, and without ever resorting to shortcuts,” Athletica Vaticana said, “the Games can be opportunities for hope, in the small and big issues of each person and of humanity.”
Athletica Vaticana lamented that the Olympics this year take place amid wars, tensions and injustice on a global scale and, while decrying this as a “dark time for humanity”, it reiterated Pope Francis’ appeal for an Olympic Truce.
Calling on sport to welcome efforts to promote peace, the association noted that while the athletes may be unable to stop what Pope Francis refers to as, “the third world war in pieces”, they are, however, able to cultivate a more fraternal humanity.
“Every training session, every challenge overcome, every moment of difficulty faced with courage, brought you to the Olympic Games is not just victory or defeat but a journey through life that is never done alone”, reads the letter.
Recalling finally that Pope Francis reminded us that sport “is a great ‘relay race’ in the ‘marathon of life,’ in which no one is to be left behind”, Athletica Vaticana concluded by inviting all Olympic athletes to win, together, “the medal of fraternity”, with an embrace of sporting friendship and gratitude.
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Athletica Vaticana reminds Olympic athletes of their great responsibility (By Deborah Castellano Lubov, Vatican News)
