TIME PERSON OF THE YEAR POPE FRANCIS IS A SPORTS FAN
By Maloney L. Samaco
PhilBoxing.com
Fri, 13 Dec 2013
Pope Francis.
Pope Francis has been named Time magazine's Person of the Year for 2013. According to Huffington Post, this was not a complete surprise as the Pontiff was also the most talked about name on Facebook, the most powerful person on Twitter and the most mentioned personality on the internet.
The Argentine pope has a special interest in sports. According to catholicnews. com when he was young, he played basketball, but he also loved going to the stadium to watch soccer with his whole family to see their favorite team, San Lorenzo in Buenos Aires.
The website further added that his favorite dance style was tango, which he said he loves "very much. It's something that comes from within." He said he danced the tango when he was young "even though I preferred the milonga," which is an older form of tango with a faster rhythm.
Pope Francis met members of the Italy and Argentina football squads at the Vatican ahead of an exhibition match organized in honor of his Pontificate last August according to Catholic Herald.
The Holy Father called on players to ?live your sport as a gift from God, an opportunity not only to improve your talents, but also a responsibility?. And he returned to the idea that athletes should act as role models, encouraging them to set an example of loyalty, respect, and selflessness.
He concluded by praying that the athletes will continue to be able to pursue the ?noble vocation? of sport ? and he asked them to pray for him, too, ?that in the playing field that the Lord has placed me, I can play the game honestly and courageously, for the good of all."
Italy captain Gianluigi Buffon, who gave the pope a ball signed by all the Italian players, was asked if he thought meeting the Pope might propel the miracle for Italy and Argentina to make it to the World Cup finals.
?Our job is to work hard to make sure we?re in the finals,? he said. ?If Pope Francis does miracles, I think they?d be for more important things.? He said the Pope asking for the players? prayers was another sign of his ?humility and humanity?. He added, ?With a Pope like this, it?s easier to be better. He shows us the way, he warms hearts, he moves people?s souls."
Pope Francis also welcomed Argentine football star Carlos Tevez to the Vatican last month to discuss poverty in Buenos Aires. Part of their discussions focused on the under-privileged Fuerte Apache area of the city, where Tevez, 29, was raised.
Tevez brought his family with him to the Vatican on Tuesday and presented the Pope with a Juventus shirt, the Italian club he currently plays for.
After his meeting with the Pope, Tevez, who previously played for Manchester United and Manchester City, wrote on Twitter: ?Thank you Holy Father for welcoming my family. I?m proud that you?re Argentine, and above all that you?re so humble.?
Pope Francis has warned that the commercialization of sport may undermine its spiritual values, stated bbc.co.uk, when he had two days of meetings with leaders of the world of sport. He met Sepp Blatter, the head of the International Football Federation, FIFA, and International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach.
Mr Bach presented the Pope with the Olympic Order in Gold, telling him: "You truly understand the joy in human spirit that sport can bring but just as much the deeper values that it can nurture." Mr Blatter gave the Pope a special Latin edition of the FIFA magazine as reported by paradisepost.com.
He has also been talking about the spiritual values of team games with the rugby squads of Italy and Argentina - ahead of their encounter in Rome,
"Rugby is like life because we are all heading for a goal. we need to run together and pass the ball from hand to hand until we get to it," Pope Francis told the rugby players. "Sport is harmony, but if money and success prevail as the aim, this harmony crumbles," Pope Francis said.
Addressing the delegates of the European Olympic Committees at the Vatican on Saturday, the Pope said: "When sport is considered only in economic terms and consequently for victory at every cost, it risks reducing athletes to mere trading material from whom profits are extracted.''
"The Lord summons you today ... for us to play on his team," the pontiff begins in his World Youth Day address, given last July in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, where the 2014 World Cup will be held. Though the Pope was quoted at the said event as saying Christ offers "something more than the World Cup," he has been collecting soccer jerseys from around the world since ascending to the papacy.
Pope Francis was born Jorge Mario Bergoglio in Buenos Aires to Italian parents and is the 266th Pope of the Catholic Church. He worked briefly as a chemical technician and nightclub bouncer before entering the seminary.
He was ordained to priesthood in 1969 and from 1973 to 1979 he was Argentina's Provincial superior of the Society of Jesus. He became Archbishop of Buenos Aires in 1998, and three years later a cardinal in 2001.
When Pope Benedict XVI resigned in February 2013, he was elected by the papal conclave on March 13, 2013 and chose the papal name Francis in honor of Saint Francis of Assisi. Pope Francis is the first Jesuit pope, the first pope from the Americas, the first from the Southern Hemisphere and after 1272 years, the first non-European Pope since Pope Gregory III.
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Maloney L. Samaco.
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