Vatican prepares for Summer Olympics with conference on faith and sports – Catholic World Report

Rome Redaction, Could 8, 2024 / 11:52 (CNA).

As 206 nations put together to ship their prime athletes to take part within the 2024 Summer time Olympics in Paris, the Vatican is internet hosting an occasion that can take a look at the connection between the Catholic Church and sports activities, each from a religious and anthropological perspective.

“Within the present context of the wars which are tearing our world aside, Olympism is above all a message of peace, and the dedication of the common Church, like France, is crucial. The position of the Church in selling Olympism is well-known,” stated Florence Mangin, France's ambassador to the Holy See, throughout a press convention on the Vatican on Monday.

The three-day worldwide convention on sport and spirituality, entitled “Reviewing Our Lives”, is a joint effort of the Vatican Dicastery for Tradition and Training and the French Embassy to the Holy See. It will likely be held from Could 16 to 18 on the Institut Français Middle Saint Louis (French Cultural Institute in Rome), positioned within the neighborhood of Piazza Navona.

“At first look, watching a convention on sports activities organized by the Dicastery of the Holy See appears just a little eccentric,” Cardinal José Tolentino de Mendonça, prefect of the Dicastery for Tradition and Training, advised a press convention.

“However based mostly on the phrases of Pope Francis, when he compares sports activities to holiness, we understand that there are a lot of connections between sports activities and spirituality.”

Mendonça famous that right this moment the convention will deal with sport to “perceive why it’s so in style” in addition to “determine its dangers” and “assess its significance for constructing a extra fraternal, tolerant and simply society”.

The convention will carry collectively round 200 members, together with representatives from the Vatican, athletes, sports activities membership managers, journalists, lecturers, pastoral representatives from numerous European dioceses and philosophers for a collection of spherical desk discussions.

“Primarily, there are two primary questions that we wish to reply with this convention: What does sport must say to the church? What does the church must say to sports activities? Mendonca stated.

The primary day on the theme “Church and sport: a relationship we have to deepen” will embrace a collection of discussions on these elementary questions, together with: “The Church on the Olympics”, “Sports activities within the parish”, and “Catholic colleges and sport”.

“If we take a look at the historical past of sports activities in parallel with the historical past of the Church, there have been many moments when sports activities have been an inspiration and a metaphor for the lifetime of Christians, or when Christianity itself has enriched sports activities with its humanistic imaginative and prescient,” stated Mendonça.

The second day could have a philosophical and anthropological method geared toward understanding the connection between thoughts, physique and sport by numerous panel discussions comparable to “Sport: a problem for humanization”, “Resurrection of the physique by sport” and “Disappearance of Self and Physique.”

“We are going to deal with the results of a sure technicization of sports activities apply led to by the fixed pursuit of efficiency, if not information,” Mangin stated.

“The dazzling progress of Paralympic athletes, who’re more and more outfitted, supplies a rare imaginative and prescient of the evolution of the human physique, which some already want to enhance,” she stated.

The occasion will conclude on Saturday 18 Could with a “Solidarity Relay Race” in Rome's iconic Circus Maximus at 16:00.