Rome to host international conference on Sport and Spirituality
Some 200 participants are due to gather in Rome from May 16 to 18 for the international conference “Putting Our Lives on the Line” organized by the Vatican and the French Embassy to the Holy See ahead of the Paris Olympic Games.
By Lisa Zengarini
As part of the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris, the French Embassy to the Holy See and the Vatican Dicastery of Culture are organizing an international conference on sport and spirituality from May 16 to 18.
Titled “Putting Our Lives on the Line” (“Mettere la vita in gioco”, in Italian), the event will bring together some 200 participants including professional/Paralympic/amateur athletes, representatives of international sports organizations, sports club leaders, university students in sport. /pedagogy/sociology/anthropology/philosophy/theology, and agents of the pastoral care of sport who will reflect on the spiritual implications of what has become one of the most practiced and followed cultural activities in contemporary society.
The spiritual dimension of sport
Indeed, sport has always had a link with the spiritual dimension of life, as Pope Francis has also emphasized on several occasions, underlined Cardinal José Tolentino Mendonça, who will open the conference on May 16.
“If we look at the history of sport alongside the history of the Church, there have been many moments when sport has been an inspiration and metaphor for the lives of Christians, or Christianity itself has enriched the sport of its humanist vision,” declared Monday the Prefect of the Dicastery of Culture and Education during a press conference on the occasion of the event, which was also attended by Madame Florence Mangin, Ambassador of France near the Holy See.
Church and sport
Participants will therefore try to understand why sport is so popular today, identify the risks, evaluate their relevance to building a more fraternal, tolerant and just society and thus discern how God manifests himself in sporting competition. The objective of awareness raising is to find an answer to two fundamental questions: “What does sport have to say to the Church?” and “What does the Church have to say about sports?” “. Hence the title chosen for the conference, said Cardinal Mendonça.
Themes covered during the conference
The first day (May 16) will address the relationship between “Church and sport”, through the sharing of the testimony of high-level athletes and some concrete pastoral experiences that put sport at the service of the Gospel and the Gospel at sports department. The second day (May 17) will focus on the relationship between “man and sport”, through the reflection of a group of highly qualified speakers from Italian and French universities, who will discuss sport in its various aspects. pedagogical, philosophical, sociological and theological. relevance. The third day (May 18) will have a more practical dimension, with a solidarity sporting event (the fraternity relay) to show civil society the social importance of sport itself.
