At the anthropological level, interest in the well-being of the human person moves Christians and non-Christians alike in a their common concern and appreciation for sport, which they do not wish to see ruined by an unhealthy obsession for victory and financial gain. Thus it is opportune to join forces in order to defend the dignity of the human person and to uphold the good that can still be found within sports. Here, a reflection on the fundamental elements of Christian anthropology can contribute to this field. What is more, this anthropological reflection could serve as a bridge between Christians...

By considering the title of this chapter, we can see two lines of thought that are indivisibly intertwined: that of man and that of sport.¹ We gain access to man from an interpretation that is predominant to a specific intellectual-cultural mindset, while we gain access to sport via its admired athletic heroes on whom the public eye rests. Thus, we shall formulate a theory that will serve as a kind of guideline for our further elaborations. The theory is: the manner in which man—consciously or subconsciously—cares for himself is, if thought about more deeply, the manner in which...

In addressing a group of professional soccer players, John Paul II took the occasion to underline the value of the body and its proper relation to the spiritual dimension of man:

It is good to recall, regarding this that already the Christian thinkers of the first centuries, with little biblical data, affirmed the unity of the human person, and vigorously opposed a certain ideology, then in vogue, that was characterized by a clear devaluation of the body, and misguided by an erroneous over exaltation of the spirit. “What is man—asked an author of the end of the 2nd century...

The subtitle of this chapter, “sport at the service of the human person,” may provoke the question as to why sport should have “to serve” the person. Ought not all of our activities serve the maintenance, the promotion, and the perfection of the human person? And if they don’t, aren’t they—almost by definition—inhuman patterns of behavior that should strictly be disapproved of? Every type of human practice must serve the person, and sport should not be an exception. Hence, the moral demand hidden in the subtitle of this paper seems to be rather trivial and doesn’t seem to...

This section explores some theological foundations of a Christian vision for sport. Since Catholic theology is composed by systematic reflection on Scripture, tradition, ecumenical councils, pontifical teachings and so on, this section asks how Christianity may relate to the sporting phenomenon, whether through safeguarding it from possible deviations by offering discernment criteria or through its capacity of elevating these activities by placing them within the broader horizon of eternity.

In chapter 4, Father Koch offers a view of sport in the light of Scripture and the writings of Church Fathers. Here the claim is made that the Bible does not...

The theme I am addressing—that of offering a Christian understanding of sport according to its foundations in Scripture and in the writings of the Church Fathers—reminds me of the old theses of dogmatic theology with which I was made familiar through my studies as a seminarian. In these, arguments were usually based on—apart from the actual “theological reason”—the testimony of Holy Scriptures, tradition, and the Church’s teachings. These points were, of course, proper to a thesis, as well as to the “adversary’s” argument. But it is difficult for our present topic because the subject of these...

Before beginning our discussion on Pius XII, we should note that preceding pontiffs were certainly not hostile to sport. Pius X received Olympic founder Pierre de Coubertin in 1905. Coubertin came to Rome on a twofold mission: to ensure that the fourth Olympiad of 1908 would be held in Rome, and secondly, “to persuade the Vatican to raise the sort of ‘interdict’ laid on sports education in many clerical circles.”¹ He said that his first point was not achieved, but his second was! Coubertin writes:

Unlike most heads of religious establishments, Pope Pius X and Cardinal Merry del Val, Secretary...

Sport has always been a theme present within the agenda of the Church, as the many documents of the last century bear witness.¹ In a concise way, we can attribute the following characteristics to these pronouncements by the magisterium regarding sport: they have an exhortative character; they highlight the educational function that is accredited to sport while always safeguarding the dignity of life in the case of it being threatened by the practice of sport; they tend to underline sport’s social-cultural aspect; and lastly, they provide an outline for a spirituality of sport.

Regarding this phenomenon of sport, the Church...

More than thirty years ago, on June 1, 1978, at the start of the World Cup that was being held in Argentina (June 1–25, 1978) and was marked by bitter defeat for the Germans, the fifty-year-old Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, already having been for one year archbishop of Munich-Freising, explained the nucleus of his thought on soccer and sport in general in an interview on the Bavarian Radio program Zum Sonntag.¹

I would like to use as a leitmotif of this investigation this profound and original interview, in which the cardinal and theologian offers a brief philosophical analysis of the...

This article makes neither a religious nor a moral criticism of sport (which is the traditional manner of tackling the matter) nor a song of praise about sport full of problematic directness (which would be the other traditional way of discussing the question). Instead it offers a spiritual and sociotheological perspective of sport.

Updating the Signs of the Times in the light of the Second Vatican Council

“Recognize the Signs of the Times” was the message that Pope John XXIII gave the council fathers. Not only was “aggiornamento” a keyword for the council, but it also was used in his...

This final section seeks to move this predominantly philosophical and theological discussion to the practical level: the pastoral dimension. These three chapters seek to give support both in theory and in praxis to the pastoral ministry of sport. The Church must be engaged proactively in this phenomenon in order that the Gospel may enlighten the work of those who dedicate numerous hours a week to this phenomenon. But how? The possibilities of pastoral initiative will vary as much as the sport disciplines vary and can stretch across various levels of play from children’s to adult, amateur to professional. Nor should...

The question that was posed to me—sport as a concrete pastoral challenge—turns out to be quite intractable. “The closer the look one takes at a word, the greater distance from which it looks back”—this aphorism by Karl Kraus proves also true when looking at the term “sport.”¹ The topic appears amorphous. Hence, without specification of what exactly we are talking about when we talk about sport, instructive insights seem unachievable. The topic and the challenges deriving from it are multifaceted.

A second observation is to be made. In a number of recently published pastoral-theological encyclopedias and compendia...

Before the team’s departure for the 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles, a large Austrian daily paper ran the headline: “Austria’s ‘Good Shepherd’ at the Olympics.”¹ With the conferral of this honorable title on the top athletes’ chaplain, the sports journalist made the right point: a sports chaplain must be a good shepherd for these elite athletes from whom is demanded so much—often more than what is actually good for them.

The task of taking care of the athlete’s spiritual well-being in the midst of the ups and downs of sport is reminiscent of the opening paragraph of the...

“Sport is an important instrument of education and a way of spreading essential human and spiritual values.”¹ As we have seen, for many decades now, the Church has given, not least due to the statements of the Popes, great value to sport for its contribution to Christian education, to the explanation and experience of values, and for what it lends to building a society characterized by reciprocal respect, fair behavior, and solidarity among all peoples and cultures.² Therefore, it is both an opportunity and a challenge to use this instrument and to help bring to the world of sport a...