June 2026
“I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.”
(2 Tim. 4:7)
On the first of June, a few days before the opening of the 2018 FIFA World Cup, the Holy See published a document on sport from a Christian perspective entitled “Giving the Best of Yourself” (“Dare il meglio di sé”).
Among other things, it is interesting that the Church states clearly in the text for the first time that it has nothing against sporting activities taking place on Sundays, provided that they do not become an excuse for missing Holy Mass.
In the document we may also read that abuses can always occur in sport, and it warns against such negative phenomena as the use of doping or the aggressive behaviour of hooligan supporters. At the same time, the document emphasises the educational and social importance of sport.
Sport can also be a means of evangelisation and sanctification, especially when we speak about sport in youth ministry, parishes and schools. Sometimes it is one of the paths that opens the way to Christ in places and environments where the faith, for various reasons, cannot be proclaimed directly.
In the Catholic Church there are saints who are patron saints of athletes, such as Saint Sebastian. We also have saints who loved sport and gladly practised it, such as Saint John Paul II or Saint Pier Giorgio Frassati.
For each one of us Christians, and therefore also for every Christian athlete, holiness means practising sport in such a way that it serves encounter, personal growth, witness and the proclamation of the joy of being Christian among those who surround him.
Fr. Stan