Pope Leo has praised athletes from the Milan-Cortina Olympic and Paralympic Games, saying sport “can and must truly become a space for encounter” in a world marked by “polarisation, rivalry, and conflicts that escalate into devastating wars”. Source: EWTN News.
Speaking in the Clementine Hall at the Vatican yesterday, the Holy Father welcomed the athletes “with joy” shortly after the conclusion of the Winter Games and thanked them for their witness.
“Thank you for what you have shown,” the Pope said. “Truly, sport, when lived authentically, is not merely a performance: It is a form of language, a narrative made up of gestures, of effort, of anticipation, of falls, and of new beginnings.”
Leo XIV said the games revealed not only athletic achievement but also “stories of sacrifice, of discipline, of tenacity”.
“In particular, in Paralympic competitions we have seen how a limitation can become a source of revelation: not something that holds a person back but something that can be transformed, even transfigured into newfound qualities,” he said. “You athletes have become life stories that inspire a great number of people.”
The Pope also emphasised the communal dimension of athletic success, saying: “No one wins alone.”
“Your team spirit reminds us that no one wins alone, because behind every victory there are many people involved — from family to teams — as well as many days of training, pressure, and solitude,” he said.
Referring to his February 6 apostolic letter Life in Abundance, written for the occasion of the Olympics and Paralympics, the Pope said the Gospel’s vision of abundant life points to harmony between the physical and interior dimensions of the person.
Turning to the global situation, Leo XIV said the athletes’ witness carries special importance.
“At the present time, so marked by polarisation, rivalry, and conflicts that escalate into devastating wars, your commitment takes on an even greater value: Sport can and must truly become a space for encounter,” he said. “Not a show of strength but an exercise in relationship.”
Recalling the value of the Olympic truce, he thanked the athletes for making visible “this possibility of peace as a prophecy that is by no means rhetorical: breaking the logic of violence to promote that of encounter”.
FULL STORY
Pope Leo XIV: Sport must be a ‘space for encounter’ (By Antonio Tarallo, Ishmael Adibuah, EWTN News)
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