Pope Leo XIV has emphasised the importance of coming together for peace and promoting unity through sport, politics, music, and other means. Source: Vatican News.
In a video message published yesterday, the Pope addressed the participants in a charity soccer match organised by the Holy See’s Children’s Hospital Bambino Gesù and Caritas Italy.
“Our humanity is at stake. Let this match that speaks of peace mark a point in its favour,” the Pope said.
In his message, the Pope expressed his hope that all who participate in the event may “look into the eyes of children and learn from them” how to “find the courage to welcome” others, how to be “men and women” that promote encounter, and how to “find the strength to believe and to ask that a truce may come, a time to stop the buildup to hatred.”
“It is still possible, it is always possible, to come together, even in a time of divisions, falling bombs, and war. It is necessary to create the opportunities to do this,” he emphasised. “Challenge divisions and recognise that the greatest challenge is to come together.”
The Pope’s message was addressed to the participants of this year’s La Partita del Cuore (“The Match of the Heart”), a charity football match and concert that took place yesterday in L’Aquila in central Italy.
Proceeds from the event support the Project Welcome initiative, which provides accommodation and material assistance to underprivileged families from Italy and abroad whose children require treatment at the Bambino Gesù Hospital.
In his message, Leo emphasised the crucial role that sports, music, television, and politics play in promoting unity and overcoming divisions.
“Sports – when lived well by those who practice and those who cheer – have this great thing about them, that they transform confrontation into encounter, division into inclusion, and solitude into community,” he said.
The Pope added that television can play a larger role than just connecting people, as it can help promote communion amongst all with “love rather than with hate.”
Similarly, Pope Leo insists that politics can “unite instead of divide, if it doesn’t settle with the propaganda that feeds on building enemies.”
Lastly, the Pope underlined the importance of music that “enriches with meaning our words and our memories, ever since we started speaking and remembering as children.”
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Pope: Humanity can always come together, even in times of division (By Isabella H. de Carvalho, Vatican News)
