Dear Friends,
Like many of you, I’ve been paying a bit more attention to soccer this summer. Even if you are not a huge soccer
fan, it is hard not to notice the energy, excitement, and sense of unity that surrounds the World Cup. People from every nation, language, and background gather around the same game. There is competition. People cheer hard for their own country. But there is also something very beautiful about it. For a few weeks, the world remembers that we belong to one human family. Before there were nations, there was one human family, created in the image and likeness of God.
I was delighted to discover there is a Catholic connection to the World Cup. FIFA itself is not a Catholic organization. But the man who is mostly responsible for the creation of the World Cup was Jules Rimet, a devout French Catholic. Rimet was deeply influenced by Pope Leo XIII and his great encyclical Rerum Novarum, which defended the dignity of workers, the poor, and the human person. Rimet believed that sports could help bring people together regardless of class, nationality, or division. Under his leadership, the first World Cup was held in Uruguay in 1930.
Almost one hundred years later, another Pope Leo has spoken about the value of sports. Pope Leo XIV recently reminded us that “life is not a race to be run in solitude,” but something “played as a team.” He also prayed that sports may be “a space of encounter, not exclusion, a path of peace, not violence.”
In a world that often seems angry, and divided, the World Cup can be a little sign of hope. Not because soccer will save the world. It won’t. Only Christ saves. But events like this can remind us of something we too easily forget: we are more united in our humanity and in our common origin than we realize.
We all come from the same Creator. We all long for joy, belonging, peace, and home. We may speak different languages, wave different flags, and cheer for different teams, but beneath all of that, we are brothers and sisters.
That is why even a game can remind us that competition does not have to mean conflict. Difference does not have to mean division. Love of one’s own country does not have to mean hatred for another.
Maybe that is one of the lessons of this World Cup. We can celebrate and cheer. We can express our disappointment. But in the midst of healthy competition, we can also rejoice in the beauty of the human family gathered together.
And perhaps, in that, we see a small glimpse of the Kingdom of God, where every nation, race, people, and tongue are gathered before the throne of Jesus.
God bless you all! Fr. John
