Just as the 2026 Olympic Winter Games in Milan-Cortina were about to begin, Pope Leo XIV called on the Church to recognise sport as an opportunity to offer much-needed human and spiritual guidance. Source: CNS.
With so many dangers and distortions threatening the integrity of athletics and the dignity of players, the Church can help strengthen the needed harmony between people’s physical and spiritual development, he wrote, helping sport become a place “for athletes to learn to take care of themselves without falling prey to vanity, to push themselves to their limits without harming themselves and to compete without losing sight of fraternity”.
Pope Leo, who considers himself “a decent amateur tennis player,” issued a letter on “the value of sport” on Friday, titled “Life in Abundance” from Jesus’ declaration, “I came so that they might have life and have it more abundantly”, from the Gospel according to St John.
The need for holistic, integral human development is critical, he wrote, because “the danger of narcissism … permeates the entire sporting culture today. Athletes can become obsessed with their physical image and with their own success, measured by visibility and approval”.
And sometimes sports can take on a “quasi-religious dimension” with athletes perceived as “saviours”, he wrote.
“When sport claims to replace religion, it loses its character as a game that benefits our lives, becoming instead aggrandised, all-encompassing and absolute.”
The Pope dated and released the eight-page letter the same day the XXV Winter Olympic Games in Milan and Cortina d’Ampezzo began. Set to run until February 22, the international sporting event will be followed by the XIV Paralympic Games, on March 6-15.
Offering his “greeting and good wishes to those who are directly involved” in the Games, the Pope also encouraged all the world’s nations to “rediscover and respect” the Olympic Truce as a symbol and promise of hope and reconciliation in “a world thirsting for peace”.
“We need tools that can put an end to the abuse of power, displays of force and indifference to the rule of law,” he wrote, decrying the “radicalisation of conflict and a refusal to cooperate” as well as a “culture of death”.
FULL STORY
Church can help sports by flexing values, strengthening human dignity, Pope says (By Carol Glatz, CNS)
