Excerpt from Pope Leo’s Feb. 6 letter On the Value of Sport as the Olympic Games opened in Italy.

On the occasion of the celebration of the XXV Winter Olympic Games, which are being held in Milan and Cortina d’Ampezzo from 6 to 22 February, and of the XIV Paralympic Games, which will be held in the same place from 6 to 15 March, I wish to address my greeting and good wishes to those who are directly involved, and at the same time, take this opportunity to offer a reflection for everyone. Sport, as we know, can be very professional in nature and highly specialized. As such, it is a calling for relatively few people, even though it elicits the admiration and heartfelt enthusiasm of many who identify with the victories or defeats of the athletes. But sport is also a shared activity, open to all and salutary for both body and spirit, even becoming a universal expression of our humanity.

My predecessors have emphasized how sport can play an important role for the good of humanity, especially in the promotion of peace. In 1984, for example, Saint John Paul II, speaking to young athletes from around the world, quoted the Olympic Charter, which regarded sport as an important factor of “better understanding between each other and of friendship, thereby helping to build a better and more peaceful world.” He encouraged the participants with these words: “May your encounters be a symbolic sign for the whole of society and a prelude to that new era, in which people shall not lift up the sword against another (cf. Is 2:4).”  

It was in this spirit that the Olympic Truce emerged. In ancient Greece there was once an agreement to suspend hostilities before, during and after the Olympic Games, so that the athletes and spectators could freely travel and the competitions could be held without interruption. The institution of the Truce stems from the conviction that participation in public games (agones) constitutes an individual and collective path toward virtue and excellence (aretē). When we engage in sport with this spirit and under these conditions, it promotes the growth of fraternal solidarity and the common good. 

On the other hand, war results from a radicalization of conflict and a refusal to cooperate with each other. Thus, the adversary is considered a mortal enemy, to be isolated and, if possible, eliminated. The tragic evidence of this culture of death is before our eyes — lives broken, dreams shattered, survivors’ trauma, cities destroyed — as if human coexistence were superficially reduced to a videogame scenario. Yetnone must never forget that aggression, violence and war are “always a defeat for humanity.”  

Fortunately, the Olympic Truce has been proposed anew in recent times by the International Olympic Committee and the General Assembly of the United Nations. In a world thirsting for peace, we need tools that can put an “end to the abuse of power, displays of force and indifference to the rule of law.” I wholeheartedly encourage all Nations to rediscover and respect this instrument of hope that is the Olympic Truce, a symbol and promise of a reconciled world.

“I came that they may have life and have it abundantly” ( Jn 10:10). These words of Jesus help us to understand the Church’s interest in sport and the manner in which Christians approach it. Jesus always focused on people, cared for them and desired the fullness of life for each of them. For this reason, Saint John Paul II affirmed that “man is the primary route that the Church must travel in fulfilling her mission.” Therefore, according to the Christian perspective, the human person must always remain the focal point of sport in all its expressions, even those aiming for competitive and professional excellence.

Furthermore, a solid basis for this understanding can be found in the writings of Saint Paul, known as the Apostle to the Nations. At the time in which he wrote, the Greeks already had a long athletic tradition. For example, the city of Corinth sponsored the isthmus games every two years until the beginning of the sixth century B.C. For this reason, when writing to the Corinthians, Paul made reference to images of sport to introduce them to the Christian way of life. He says, “Do you not know that in a race the runners all compete, but only one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may win it. Athletes exercise self-control in all things; they do it to receive a perishable wreath but an imperishable one” (1 Cor 9:24-25).