2023-11-29 14:06:00
On Wednesday, November 29, Pope Francis received in audience the Scottish football club, Celtic Football Club. In his recorded speech, the Bishop of Rome recalled that the high standards to be achieved are “not just about your sporting prowess or the classical requirements needed to excel, but also about your personal integrity.”
Vatican News
The Holy Father, who has been suffering from the flu since last Saturday accompanied by inflammation of the respiratory tract, was unfortunately unable to deliver his speech, as he usually does during audiences. “Sorry, with this cold I can’t talk much, but I feel better than yesterday. Thanks for the visit. What I had to say, the father will say,” said the Pope to the footballers of the Celtic Football Club team, whom he welcomed today to the Vatican, the day after a Champions League match against Lazio, who won with a score of 2 goals to 0 against the Scottish football club.
Good testimony is better than victory
In his recorded speech, Francis said that while it is always better to win a match than to lose it, “that is not the most important thing.” What matters, says the Pope, “is the example we give, in victory as in defeat, on and off the field”, which embodies virtues such as courage, perseverance, generosity and respect for the dignity of others, which is a gift from God.
Be good role models for young people in Scotland
Founded in 1887 in Glasgow by Irish immigrants in Parkhead, a district in the east of the city, the Celtic Football Club was created with the specific aim of alleviating poverty in the city of Glasgow.
A moment from Francis’ audience with the management and players of Celtic Football Club in Glasgow.
“It was a truly charitable initiative, for the good of the poorest of our brothers and sisters.” And yet, he adds, the world of football has changed since then: in particular, “the financial footprint of the ‘big sport’ has increased considerably, to the point of sometimes risking making football interesting only in the interest in financial gain.” “The treasured heritage of your club therefore places a great responsibility on your shoulders, reminding you that you must be good role models, especially for the youth,” he further remarked.
The Holy Father invited these footballers to be people capable of gentleness, men with big hearts, capable of being wise managers of the many advantages “which you enjoy thanks to your privileged social position”. “The high standards you are called to achieve are not just about your athletic prowess or the classical requirements needed to excel, but also about your personal integrity,” says Francis, who says he carries them in prayer, “so that you continue to remember and to bear witness to everything that makes football a truly good and noble sport.
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