The Catholic Church and Sport

When it comes to spreading the word of God through sports, the Catholic church lags behind other Christian groups. Evangelicals have been much more enterprising in using athletes to spread their message. That may be changing.

At the behest of the late John Paul II, an office was set up at the Vatican called Church and Sport in 2005. That year, the Pontifical Council for the Laity also held its first international symposium on the global phenomenon of sport. One of the 50 participants from around the world invited to the conference was Robert Feeney, a religion teacher at Bishop O’Connell High School in Arlington and author of “The Catholic Ideal: Exercise and Sports” (Ignatius Press, 2005).

“John Paul always said that God has a plan for sports,” Feeney said. “He said what we have to do, we have to get involved with sports as it is today and try to improve things that need to be improved on and encourage people to use sports as a gift. John Paul called sports God’s gift to man. He actually went that far. He said sports is God’s gift and what we have to do is find out what his will is for sports. Then he encouraged physical educators to really think about this and to involve themselves in the reordering of sports according to God’s plan, and that was John Paul’s wordage actually, to reorder sports according to God’s will.”

According to Feeney, John Paul II, who died in 2005 at age 84, was considered the “athlete pope.” Feeney even has a picture of John Paul kicking a soccer ball on the cover of his book. Besides playing soccer, the pope ran track in high school, swam, kayaked, skied and hiked mountains.

“He’s the only pope in the history of the Catholic church that’s ever been called God’s athlete,” Feeney said. “He wanted this whole thing to get started because he thought that the Catholic church has something to say about sports.

“He said that sports is a great arena, a great means of evangelization, especially toward the young. I think the pope just wanted the Catholic church to get involved . . . The Catholic church really was sort of on the side, whereas the Evangelicals, they have different groups [such as Athletes in Action and Fellowship of Christian Athletes]. John Paul wanted to get on the path in that area.”

At the gathering in 2005, the participants sought to gain a greater understanding of the value of sport and the role of the church in this area.

“Thomas Aquinas, one of the great saints of the Catholic church, always taught that exercise is the medicine of the soul,” said Feeney who holds a master’s degree in physical education. “Basically, the Catholic church has always seen the body as the temple of the Holy Spirit and encouraged our members to take care of their bodies.”

They also sounded cautionary warnings about rampant abuses in sports – commercialization, a win-at-all-costs mentality and performance-enhancing drug use.

“John Paul II thought if you play sports and all you do is concentrate on winning, you sort of take the fun out of it because of the pressure,” Feeney said. “That you should engage in sports for the fun of it, for the relaxation, being on the team and working toward a common goal and also developing your body, but not to stress too much on winning.

“John Paul always thought that to develop the all-around integrated personality, that includes values of sportsmanship, fair play, loyalty. He talked about self-control. He talked about strengthening the body as a temple of the Holy Spirit. But he always said that physical educators really have to get involved in trying to reorder sports so that it’s not so commercialized, doing it for fame and glory, but to see sports as a means of relaxing your body, developing it, strengthening it, and to engage with other people toward a common goal. John Paul was really big about that because he played on a lot of teams when he was young.”
In contrast to John Paul’s affection for sports, Pope Benedict XVI is more an observer than a participant.

“Benedict even admitted, he said ‘I want everyone to know that I didn’t even like phys. ed. in school. I am not John Paul II,’” said Feeney who has met with Benedict at St. Peter’s. “Their personalities, as you probably already observed, are quite different. He enjoyed playing piano to relax, where John Paul always said, ‘For me to relax, I go and play sports and work out.’”
Given Benedict’s lack of enthusiasm for sports, some may wonder if the office of Church and Sport at the Vatican will founder.

“He’ll encourage the office to keep doing what they’re doing,” Feeney said. “He’s behind that, but you’re not going to get him out there at these special occasions talking about sports because it’s not in his vocabulary.”

By Kathy Orton  |  April 18, 2008; 9:20 AM ET  | Category:  Praying Fields Save & Share:                 
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