(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis on Thursday told members of the Spanish Villarreal football club that the team spirit which is so vital in playing a good match is fundamental in life and society as well.
The Pope was receiving some of the Villarreal club players, managers and coaching staff who are in Rome to take on the “AS Roma” team in their second leg of the “Europa League” championship.
To those present he said that football, like others sports, is a mirror of life and society: “when you are on the field you need each other. Each player puts his professional skill and talent to the benefit of a common goal, which is to play well and to win.”
The Pope pointed out that much training is needed to achieve that affinity and said that it is important to invest time and effort in creating a team spirit.
“This is possible if you act in the spirit of fellowship, leaving aside individualism or personal aspirations. If you play for the good of the group, then it is easier to win” he said.
Pope Francis also spoke of the power of sports to educate and transmit positive values.
He said many people, especially young people, watch and admire football players who have the responsibility to provide a good model and highlight the values of football, which are “companionship, personal effort, the beauty of the game, team play”.
The Pope also said one of the traits of a good athlete is gratitude: “you must remember the many people who have helped you and without whom you would not be here”.
These include, he said, those with whom you played as children, your first teammates, coaches, assistants, and also your fans that encourage you in every game with their presence.
He said these memories are important and help one not to feel superior but to always be aware that one is only part of a great team that goes back a long time.
“Feeling this way helps us grow as people, because our ‘game’ is not only ours, but also that of others, who are somehow part of our lives” he said.
Pope Francis is known to be a football fan himself and he concluded his audience encouraging the athletes to keep playing and to keep giving the best of themselves so that others can enjoy those beautiful moments.
(from Vatican Radio)…
(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis held an audience on Wednesday for the Italian family members of those who died in the Dhaka massacre in Bangladesh on 1 July 2016.
The terror attack in Dhaka took place on the Holey Artisan Bakery in the diplomatic district of the capital and claimed the lives of 29 people, nine of whom were Italian.
Bishop Valentino di Cerbo of Alife-Caiazzo in Italy accompanied the group of around 30 people who met Pope Francis ahead of his Wednesday General Audience .
Those present included family members of Marco Tondat, Christian Rossi, Maria Riboli, Vincenzo D’Allestro, Claudio Cappelli, and Simona Monti, who were killed in the terror attack.
Maria Gaudio, the wife of Vincenzo D’Allestro, afterwards said: “Pope Francis thanked us for our witness of love and he said we were an example also for him.”
(from Vatican Radio)…
(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis on Wednesday recalled this year marks the centenary of the apparitions at Fatima.
Speaking to German pilgrims during his General Audience , the Holy Father said “let us entrust ourselves to Mary, Mother of hope, who invites us to turn our gaze towards salvation, towards a new world and a new humanity. God bless you all.”
On May 13, 1917, Lúcia Santos and her cousins Bl. Jacinta and Bl. Francisco Marto began seeing apparitions of Our Lady, which continued for months.
Last December, the Vatican confirmed Pope Francis will go on pilgrimage to the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Fatima from 12-13 May of this year.
(from Vatican Radio)…
(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis remembered the Feast of the Chair of St. Peter during his final blessing at his weekly General Audience on Wednesday.
“Today we celebrate the feast of the Chair of St. Peter the Apostle, the day of the special communion of believers with the Successor of St Peter and the Holy See,” the Pope said.
“Dear young people, I encourage you to intensify your prayers for of my Petrine ministry; dear sick people, I thank you for the witness of life given in suffering for the building up of ecclesial community; and you, dear newlyweds, build your family on the same love that binds the Lord Jesus to His Church,” he continued.
On this feast day, the statue of St. Peter in St. Peter’s Basilica is dressed in Papal vestments, and venerated by the faithful.
(from Vatican Radio)…
(Vatican Radio) Self-centeredness and sin corrupt the beauty of Creation, but God does not abandon humanity and turns Creation’s groans into hope for new life. That was at the heart of Pope Francis’ catechesis on Christian hope at his Wednesday General Audience.
Drawing inspiration from Chapter 8 of the Letter to the Romans, Pope Francis continued his catechesis on Christian hope. He said that St. Paul reminds us that Creation is God’s gift to humanity but that sin corrupts it.
“St. Paul reminds us that Creation is a marvelous gift, which God has placed in our hands, so that we can enter into relationship with Him and recognize the imprint of His love, in whose realization we are all called to collaborate, every single day.”
But when we are self-centered and commit sin, the Pope said we break our communion with God, and the original beauty of human nature and creation is marred.
“With the tragic experience of sin, having broken communion with God, we damaged our original communion with all that surrounds us and we ended up corrupting Creation, turning it into a slave, submitted to our feebleness. Unfortunately, we see the dramatic consequences of this every day. When communion with God is broken, humanity loses its original beauty and ends up disfiguring everything around it; and where before all pointed to the Creator Father and His infinite love, now it carries the sad and desolate sign of pride and human voracity.”
Thus, rather than show God’s infinite love, creation bears the wounds of human pride.
Pope Francis said the Lord “does not abandon us but offers us a new horizon of freedom and salvation”.
He said St. Paul reminds us of this truth, by inviting us to hear the groaning of all Creation.
“In fact, if we listen attentively everything around us groans: Creation itself groans; we human beings groan; the Holy Spirit groans in our hearts.”
He said these groans “are not sterile or inconsolable, but – as the Apostle points out – they speak of the pangs of birth; they are the groans of one who suffers, but knows that a new life is coming to light.”
Despite the many signs of our sins and failings, the Pope said, “we know that we are saved by the Lord, and even now contemplate and experience within ourselves and all around us signs of the Resurrection, of Easter, of a new creation.”
He said the Christian does not live outside of this world, but in it. “The Christian has learned to read all things with eyes informed by Easter, with the eyes of the Risen Christ.”
And when we are discouraged or tempted to despair, Pope Francis said the Holy Spirit comes to our aid and “keeps alive our groans and the hopes of our hearts. The Spirit sees for us beyond the negative appearances of the present and reveals to us even here new heavens and a new earth, which the Lord is preparing for humanity.”
(from Vatican Radio)…