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Pope Francis and his teachings on sports

Pope Francis and his teachings on sports

Tokyo 2021 Olympic Games

Pope Francis has repeatedly underlined the educational potential of sports for young people, the importance of "putting oneself on the line" and the merit of "fair play".

Vatican City
July 28, 2021

pope francis, papa francisco, papst franziskus

The inauguration of the Tokyo 2021 Olympic Games took place at the Olympic Stadium in Tokyo. In his teachings on sports, Francis emphasizes values such as teamwork, unity, and fair play.

The Olympic Games to be held in Tokyo 2020 were delayed by one year due to the coronavirus pandemic. In fact, at the arrival of the athletes to the Olympic Village, positive cases of coronavirus were already detected. This triggered the Japanese organization’s anti-covid protocol.

Some of the measures taken to avoid Covid19 infections are as follows:

– There will be no spectators in the stands at the stadiums.

– Hugging between athletes is not allowed.

– Olympic winners will have to put their medals around their own necks to avoid any possible contact.

Pope Francis’ teachings on sports

Pope Francis has repeatedly underlined the educational potential of sports for young people, the importance of “putting oneself on the line” and the merit of “fair play”. He also emphasized the value of a defeat because the greatness of a person is more evident when he or she falls rather than in moments of triumph, both in sports and in life.

The Pope reminded the Special Olympics athletes that sports can be “a universal language that can overcome cultural, social, religious and physical differences, and it can unite people, rendering them participants in the same game and co-protagonists of victories and defeats”.

In an address to the Italian swimmers in 2018 the Pope reflected on the value of sports, saying, “regardless of the technical results, they offer a testimony of discipline, healthy competition and team play. They show what goals can be reached through training, which involves great effort as well as sacrifices.” Pope Francis insisted on the ‘team building’ aspect. It is true that swimming is mainly an individual sport, but by practicing it in a sports society, and at a national level, it becomes a team experience in which collaboration and mutual help are very important”.

olympic, olimpico, olympisch
tokyo

The sacred fire of passion: the Olympic torch

In his Open Letter to the Vatican Athletic Team, Francis composed a very motivational speech for the athletes preparing for the Olympic Games. He made a comparison between the flame of the Olympic Games and the burning bush in the book of Exodus. “When I think of sports, I really like the image of fire: it is bright, clean, dazzling. When it becomes a flame, it no longer produces smoke: it is mysterious, brilliant. It is the sacred fire of passion, which heats without consuming.” 

Throughout his open letter, the Supreme Pontiff encouraged young athletes to pursue their dreams of victory in spite of any suffering. Along this same line, earlier this year, in an interview with Gazzetta dello Sport, the Pope noted: “Victory gives you a thrill that is difficult to describe, but there is also something marvelous about defeat. Wonderful victories can be born from certain defeats because you unleash the desire for redemption after identifying the mistake. I would even add that winners don’t know what they are missing out on.“

In these Olympic Games, may the athletes discover the glory of trust in the team, the value of a hug not given or of a muffled applause. May we all appreciate the fraternity of those rings united and intertwined. And may the torch of hope be lit, like a sacred fire that will not be extinguished, in our hearts.

Angelus Prayer Pope Francis - 07.25.2021

in other articles: Pope Francis prayed with Grandparents, Girl’s Youth in Brazil fulfill their mission in the midst of the pandemic

 

Source: vaticannews.va
Photos: www.laityfamilylife.va, Pixabay (Günther Simmermacher and Anncapictures)

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Pope Francis prayed with Grandparents

Pope Francis prayed with Grandparents

He prayed at the first World Day for Grandparents and the Elderly, which was celebrated on July 25th.

The motto proposed for this new day of remembrance is "I am with you always" (cf. Mt 28:20). Therefore, it is encouraged that, from now on, this world day, which has been scheduled around the day commemorating Jesus' grandparents, Saints Anne and Joachim, be celebrated always on the fourth Sunday of July.

Vatican City
July 27, 2021

Joaquin y Ana, joachim und anna,

Grandparents’ feast

On the occasion of the first World Day for Grandparents and the Elderly, Archbishop Dr. Heiner Koch, chairman of the Commission for Marriage and Family of the German Bishops’ Conference, encouraged everyone to translate this celebration into concrete activities. Therefore, the Archbishop of Berlin, encouraged different generations to get together on this day to share stories and experiences. He further emphasized that older people carry with them a treasure of life experiences and faith that is worth sharing and keeping alive for the next generations, their grandchildren. Archbishop Koch’s proposal for parish pastoral workers is especially relevant. He suggests that they “summon and invite grandparents and the elderly to write down stories of their life and faith experience, collect them and publish them on their parish’s website” so that they can also contribute to the exchange.

Receiving a visit from an angel

In his message Pope Francis was very specific when he explains that the meaning of this World Day, after the long period of isolation we have been through, is that all grandparents, all the elderly receive a visit from an angel. “Sometimes these angels will have the face of our grandchildren, sometimes that of relatives, of good and old friends, or of people we have just met in these difficult moments.” 

For its part, the Dicastery will grant the youth who visit their grandparents the plenary indulgence established by the decree from the Apostolic Penitentiary, and it could be an opportunity to watch together the Holy Father’s message or recite together the prayer that was presented on video and can be downloaded at https://bit.ly/elderly2021.

abuelos, grandparents, grosserltern

The official prayer 

I thank You, Lord,
for the comfort of Your presence:
even in times of loneliness,
You are my hope and my confidence,
You have been my rock and my fortress since my youth!

I thank You for having given me a family
and for having blessed me with a long life.
I thank You for moments of joy and difficulty,
for the dreams that have already come true in my life and for
those that are still ahead of me.
I thank You for this time of renewed fruitfulness to which You
call me.

Increase, O Lord, my faith,
make me an instrument of your peace,
teach me to embrace those who suffer more than me,
to never stop dreaming
and to tell of your wonders to new generations.

Protect and guide Pope Francis and the Church,
that the light of the Gospel might reach the ends of the Earth.
Send Your Spirit, O Lord, to renew the world,
that the storm of the pandemic might be calmed,
the poor consoled and wars ended.

Sustain me in weakness
and help me to live life to the fullest
in each moment that You give me,
in the certainty that you are with me every day,
even until the end of times.
Amen.

More information:

Pope Francis’ message on the 1st World Day for Grandparents and the Elderly (pdf).
(Source: Dicastery for Laity, Family and Life- website).

Related articles:

Source: vaticannews.va
Photos: vatican.va, cathopic.com

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Amoris Laetitia and Schoenstatt’s pedagogy: How to put it into practice?

Amoris Laetitia and Schoenstatt's pedagogy: How to put it into practice?

Interview about the relation between the apostolic exhortation Amoris Laetitia and Schoenstatt's pedagogy with practical advice for family life

Schoenstatt International interviewed Father Alexandre Awi Mello, secretary of the Dicastery for Laity, Family and Life, along with the Ghelardis, a couple belonging to Brazil's Family Federation, within the framework of the Marathon for the Original Shrine, to delve into the Year of the Family Amoris Laetitia and the practical ways of applying Schoenstatt's pedagogy in family life.

Schoenstatt International
July 7, 2021

Year of the Family Amoris Laetitia

Father Alexandre Awi Mello, secretary of the Dicastery for Laity, Family and Life and the Ghelardis from Brazil’s Family Federation, were interviewed on May 15 at the Original Shrine by the Brazilian communicator Otávio Cezarini Ávila. The topic covered was the Year of the Family Amoris Laetitia.

Regarding this topic, Father Alexandre remarked that, five years after the publication of the apostolic exhortation Amoris Laetitia, Pope Francis wanted to know if the Church has adopted this reflection which centers on highlighting the beauty of the conjugal vocation and life. “It’s about an opportunity to revive the Church’s careful view of the family, with an invitation for families themselves to be protagonists at this time”, he said.

“The Dicastery for Laity, Family and Life is planning this Year of the Family Amoris Laetitia with several initiatives. Among them, the publication of a monthly video reflecting on each chapter of the exhortation, with a message from the Pope”, added Father Alexandre.

Father Alexandre told us about the existence of another initiative: the first World Day for the Grandparents and the Elderly, which will take place on the fourth Sunday of July, close to the feast of Saints Joachim and Anne, Jesus’ grandparents, that is celebrated each year.

For further information about these initiatives and others go to: www.amorislaetitia.va

Schoenstatt’s pedagogy and the Year of Amoris Laetitia

When asked about how we can relate Schoenstatt’s pedagogy with the Year of Amoris Laetitia, Father Awi Mello reminds us that “Schoenstatt is a family and within the Schoenstatt Movement we understand family as a whole, there is room for every state of life and for every age. When we talk about family, we are talking not only of couples, as in other movements. In Schoenstatt every family member should feel embraced.”

Finally, Father Alexandre recalled that “in the October 2016 Congress (which is held nationally in Brazil, with the same theme, in different cities) a relation was drawn between Amoris Laetitia and Schoenstatt pedagogy, and one of the things that can be highlighted is the pedagogy of the ideal that is mentioned in the exhortation, when the Pope states that we cannot diminish the ideal of the family, and that this must be presented emphatically to the youth, showing the beauty of that vocation”. And he concluded: “The Home Shrine is a way of embodying the domestic church, a topic that is present in the Pope’s text”.

Application of the pedagogy of trust and bonds in family life

Flavia and Luciano Ghelardi emphasized that children were entrusted by God to be raised in the family, so that one day they can reach heaven, and the pedagogy of trust helps parents to trust in the good that is within each child and in the fact that they will make good choices.

Flavia remarked that “it is important to cultivate a personal bond with each member of the family and one way to do this with the children is the ‘outing with mom’, in which once a week, the mother goes out to eat with one of the children to their favorite place, and spends time talking, reinforcing the bond, sharing projects, difficulties, joys. It’s a time when the mother can also tell her story, the family’s history.”

Luciano adds that “another practice that helps to strengthen the bond with God and with the family is the night prayer in the Home Shrine, all together, sharing a little about how each one’s day went, giving thanks and making petitions”.

Schoenstatt’s response to the challenges of today’s family

Regarding the challenges of the family in today’s world, Luciano believes that “there are many challenges, among them finding the meaning of this life”, and expresses that “Schoenstatt can respond especially with the Personal Ideal, which makes us know that each one is loved by God from all eternity and has a mission to fulfill in this world. The Movement offers practical ways to discover this ideal”.

Complementing this idea, Flavia explains that “another response that Schoenstatt can give is through practical faith in Divine Providence, which takes a look at every event, big or small, knowing that God the Father has a loving plan that governs everything and expects a loving response from us. The way to discover what is God’s plan behind each event is through the meditation of daily life as taught by our Founding Father, which consists of taking a few minutes during the day, choosing an event from the previous day and, with the Holy Spirit’s light, ask yourself three questions: 1) What does God want to tell me with this? 2) What do I tell myself? 3) What do I answer to God?”

And synthesizing Schoenstatt’s contribution, Flavia expressed that “in the Home Shrine, the true heart of the home, the same graces flow as from the Original Shrine and from the daughter shrines; and the family is nourished there to be able to face all the challenges.”

You may watch the full interview here.

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Against polarization and confrontation

Against polarization and confrontation

In The Pope Video, the Holy Father focuses on dialogue as the “path to seeing reality in a new way, so we can live with passion the challenges we face in constructing the common good.” He calls for putting an end to the polarization that divides us and praying that “no spaces of enmity or war” may remain.

Vatican City
July 5, 2021

The Pope Video has just been published with the intention that Francis is entrusting to the entire Catholic Church through the Pope’s Worldwide Prayer Network. In this month of July, the Holy Father calls us to become “architects of dialogue and friendship” to solve the conflicts and causes of division that exist in society and among individual people. Only through dialogue, he tells us, is it possible to flee the constant polarization and social enmity that destroy so many relationships.

Francis asks that we pray to construct the common good with men and women who extend a hand to each other, and especially to always be at the side of the most impoverished and vulnerable.

Dialogue in a polarized world

Although in general we can say that, on a global level, the number of war deaths has been dropping since 1946,[1] conflicts and violence on a societal level are more present than ever. Although at times it doesn’t manifest itself physically, we can observe a growing polarization that ends up contaminating many relationships. The Pope already warned about this in 2016[2]: “We see, for example, how quickly those among us with the status of a stranger, an immigrant, or a refugee, become a threat, take on the status of an enemy.” Since then he has been observing with concern how polarization and enmity were also a “virus” that was invading our ways of thinking, feeling and acting.

In today’s world, Francis points out, “part of our politics, society and media dedicate themselves to creating enemies so as to defeat them in a game of power.” This is why we need to “build social friendship, which is so necessary for living together well,” a friendship that can serve as a bridge to continue creating a culture of encounter, which will bring us closer, above all, to those who are on the peripheries, the most impoverished and vulnerable.

Dialogue to construct the common good

In his latest encyclical, Fratelli tutti (2020), the Pope dedicated the sixth chapter to “Dialogue and Friendship in Society”: “Authentic social dialogue involves the ability to respect the other’s point of view and to admit that it may include legitimate convictions and concerns” (FT 203). In his intention for July, he reinforces this idea, reaffirming that dialogue is a great opportunity to see “reality in a new way, so we can live with passion the challenges we face in constructing the common good.”

Giving priority to dialogue means abandoning the logic of polarization and replacing it with respect, without wanting to destroy others. There can be richness in differences, but if there is no dialogue we can allow them to lead to hostility, threats and violence. “We come from distant lands; we have different traditions, skin color, languages and social backgrounds; we think differently and we celebrate our faith in a variety of rites. None of this makes us enemies; instead, it is one of our greatest riches,[3]”Francis said several years ago.

diálogo

Men and women who are architects of dialogue and friendship

Fr. Fréderic Fornos, S.J., International Director of the Pope’s Worldwide Prayer Network, observed that this intention “highlights the Holy Father’s emphasis on achieving the ‘rebirth of a universal aspiration to fraternity’ (FT 8). Dialogue, authentic dialogue that doesn’t fall into parallel monologues, must be our first option for solving social, economic, and political conflicts. All international academic research shows that polarization has grown greatly in recent years, even in the most solid democracies. For this reason, being architects of friendship and reconciliation—what Francis is asking of us—is even more urgent in today’s world, where—as Benedict XVI reminded us in his encyclical letter Caritas in veritate—our increasingly globalized society brings us closer together but doesn’t make us grow in fraternity. Achieving this does not depend only on our own strength, and this is why we need to pray for this intention. We ask Jesus Christ to help us on this path. He is the path to true social friendship.”

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Family love: a vocation and a path to holiness

Family love: a vocation and a path to holiness

It is Pope Francis himself who is presenting the X World Meeting of Families, to be held from June 22-26, 2022. He does so through a video message, released today and available on Vatican News and on the Youtube Channel of the Diocese of Rome. The logo for the event, promoted by the Dicastery for the Laity, Family and Life and organized by the Diocese of Rome is presented along with it as well.

Dicastery for laity, family and life
July 2, 2021
Foto do Papa Francisco en Dublin

The event will take place in an unprecedented and multi-centered format

The Meeting, initially planned for 2021, will be held from June 22 to 26, 2022, in a time of hope and rebirth. The event, as also emphasized by the Holy Father, will take place in an unprecedented and multi-centered format, with local initiatives in dioceses around the world, similar to those that will take place simultaneously in Rome. While Rome will remain the designated venue, each diocese will be able to be the center of a local Meeting for its own families and communities. This is to allow everyone to feel like protagonists at a time when it is still difficult to travel because of the pandemic.

Family love: a vocation and a path to holiness

is the theme of the X World Meeting, which will therefore be carried out in two parallel ways:

  1. Rome will remain the main venue, where the Festival of Families and the Theological-Pastoral Congress will be held, both in the Paul VI Hall; and Holy Mass will be held in St. Peter’s Square. In particular, delegates from Episcopal Conferences and international movements involved in family ministry will participate.
  2. At the same time, in individual dioceses, the bishops will be able to launch similar initiatives at the local level, starting with the theme of the Meeting and using the symbols that the Diocese of Rome is preparing (logo, prayer, hymn and picture).

«Over the years –  underlines Cardinal Kevin Farrell, Prefect of the Dicastery for the Laity, Family and Life – this important ecclesial appointment has observed an ever increasing participation of families. The thousands of people who have participated in the most recent editions, bringing enrichment with their languages, cultures and experiences, have been an eloquent sign of the beauty of the family for the Church and for all humanity. We need to continue on this path, seeking to involve more and more families in this beautiful initiative».

«It has to do with seizing a precious and unique opportunity for relaunching family ministry with renewed missionary drive and creativity, starting from the indications given to us by the Holy Father in the Exhortation Amoris Laetitia, that is, getting spouses, families and pastors involved all together», commented the Cardinal Vicar, Angelo De Donatis.

foto de família
Famlily love

Description of the Official Logo

The logo designed for the X World Meeting of Families recalls the oval shape of Bernini’s colonnade in St. Peter’s Square, the place which defines the Catholic Church par excellence, and it refers back to its original meaning that is the welcoming and inclusive embrace of the Mother Church of Rome and of her Bishop, extending it to every man and woman throughout time.

The human images under the dome, barely visible, and the cross hanging above them, represent husband, wife, children, grandparents and grandchildren. They want to recall the image of the Church as a “family of families” proposed by Amoris Laetitia (n. 87) in which “The experience of love in families is a perennial source of strength for the life of the Church” (n. 88). The cross of Christ that looms up towards the sky and the walls of protection seem almost upheld by the families, who are authentic living stones of the ecclesiastical construction. On the left, along the thin line representing the colonnade, we notice the presence of a family that is in the same position as the statues of the saints placed on the columns of the square. These remind us that the vocation to holiness is a possible goal for everyone. They are meant to emphasize how it is possible to live holiness in the essentiality of ordinary life.

The family on the left, which appears behind the line of the colonnade, also indicates all the non-Catholic families, distant from the faith and outside the Church, who are watching the Church event that is taking place from the outside.  The ecclesial community has always looked to these with attention. One can notice how dynamic the figures that are moving toward the right are. They are moving outwards. They are outgoing families, witnesses of a non-self-referential Church. They go in search of other families in an attempt to bring them closer and share with them the experience of God’s mercy.

The predominant yellow and red are a clear reference to the blazoning colors of the city of Rome, in a graphic design intended to express an intense bond with the community.  

 

Read more:

https://schoenstatt.com/amoris-laetitia-forum-a-place-for-meeting-and-pastoral-exchange-on-family-topics/

http://www.laityfamilylife.va/content/laityfamilylife/en.html