The Church has been a sponsor of the beautiful in art, music and other areas of human activity throughout its history. We would also like to extend these thoughts to our brothers and sisters in faith who have been evangelizing and promoting Christian values in sport for more than 50 years. It aims to be a document that speaks to all those who love and value sport, be they players, teachers, coaches, parents or those for whom sport is a job as well as a vocation.
In particular, the Church is interested in dialoguing with the many people and organizations who have been developing programs to defend the human values that are inherent in sport practice.Īlso, the Church wants to address this document to all the Catholic faithful, starting with bishops and priests, but especially to the laity, who are those most in contact with sport as a lived reality. The Catholic Church addresses this document to all people of good will. Engaging in sports, in fact, rouses us to go beyond ourselves and our own self interests in a healthy way it trains the spirit in sacrifice and, if it is organized well, it fosters loyalty in interpersonal relations, friendship, and respect for rules.” As Pope Francis put it, “The bond between the Church and the world of sports is a beautiful reality that has strengthened over time, for the Ecclesial Community sees in sports a powerful instrument for the integral growth of the human person. “The Christian attitude towards sport as towards the other expressions of the person’s natural faculties such as science, learning, work, art, love, and social and political commitment is not an attitude of rejection or flight, but one of respect, esteem, even though correcting and elevating them: in a word, an attitude of redemption.” An attitude of redemption is present in sport when the primacy of the dignity of the person is respected and sport serves the human person in his or her integral development. But this is based on a misunderstanding of Catholic attitudes toward the body during these periods and it misses the positive influence of Catholic theological, spiritual and educational traditions on sport as an aspect of culture. There has been a tendency recently, in part because of the way the history of sport has been written, to think that the Catholic Church has only had a negative view of and impact on sport, especially in the medieval and early modern periods, because of negative Catholic attitudes toward the body.
This document intends to be a brief presentation of the views of the Holy See and the Catholic Church on sports. ''The Church is interested in sport because the person is at her heart, the whole person, and she recognizes that sports activity affects the formation, relations and spirituality of a person". The Church understands the human person as a unit of body, soul and spirit, and seek to avoid any kind of reductionism in sport that debases human dignity. Sport is a human universal and has taken on a new level of importance in our time and so it too finds an echo in the heart of the people of God. Indeed, “nothing genuinely human fails to raise an echo” in the hearts of the followers of Christ. The Church approaches the world of sports because it desires to contribute to the construction of an increasingly authentic, humane sport. With great humility, it wants to share and put this experience at the service of sports. The Church as the people of God has a rich and profound experience of humanity. This document attempts to help the reader understand the relationship between giving our very best in sports and in living the Christian faith in every aspect of our lives. Paul, “I have fought to the end the good fight, finished my course, I have kept the faith.” (2 Tim 4:7). We all want to be able to say one day, with St.
The same is true in human life in general and in living out the Christian faith.
When a person gives his very best, he experiences satisfaction and the joy of accomplishment. Giving one's very best is a fundamental theme in sports, as athletes both individually and collectively strive to achieve their goals in the game.