THE Pope as a sportsman? I bet you have never heard of that facet in his well-chronicled life.
During his teens, Pope Francis, whose real name is Jorge Mario Bergoglio, played basketball, a sport he learned from his father who was a mainstay of the San Lorenzo de Almagro team in Argentina.
Pope Francis played the sport with friends during his younger days, before becoming a football supporter as a longtime card-bearing member of San Lorenzo soccer team in Barrio Flores in the heart or Buenos Aires.
Growing up in the largely Italian immigrant barrio of Flores, the young Bergogli was immersed in the ethos of the Athletic Club of San Lorenzo, then the breeding ground of world-class soccer players.
The eldest of five children of a middle class Italian immigrant family, the young Borgoglio took pride in the fact in fact that all members of his family were card-carrying members of the San Lorenzo Athletic Club.
“Cuervos,” Spanish for “ravens,” was the name given to the San Lorenzo football to show affection to the black cassock worn by their founder, Salesian Fr. Lorenzo Massa. The red and blue team colors were taken from the image of Mary Help of Christians, a popular Salesian devotion.
Each year, in honor of the founding of the club, the Eucharist was celebrated in the street before thousands of fans. The unity and enthusiasm of the cuervos, mostly members of the lower classes, left a lasting impression on the young Borgogli
It is no surprise, therefore, that the highest official of the Christian world has often invited, or was visited by sports officials in the gatherings of sports giants, not only in Argentina, but in nearby European nations as well, where he frequently alludes to sports as a necessary ingredient in citizen building.
In a private meeting with new International Olympic Committee president Thomas Bach, the pontiff and the IOC head agreed that sports can contribute to mutual understanding across nations, while proving different cultures can co-exist peacefully.
After that meeting, the IOC presented the Pope with the Olympic Order of Merit, the highest honor accorded by the sports hierarchy to an individual.
On several occasions, the Pope lamented the too excessive commercialization in sports, particularly soccer “Today, soccer, too, is immersed in a world of big business, with advertising, and television.”
In another talk with FIFA head Sepp Blatter, he urged the latter to be proactive, to “restore dignity…and not allow the economic side of sports to taint everything,”
For Pope Francis, “sports have an important educational value because they contribute to personal growth, highlight the harmony of body and spirit, foster social development and promote the values of “solidarity, loyalty and respect.”