Vatican announces sports initiative in time for Olympics

By NADIA POZO
CS&T Staff Writer

News headlines involving drug scandals, sex scandals and violence in professional sports are no longer uncommon, and as a result the Vatican has seen the need to create a new section within the Pontifical Council of the Laity dealing with morality in sports.
As the Vatican made its announcement less than two weeks before the Summer Olympics kicked off in Athens, Greece, the recent doping scandal involving BALCO Labs — the largest sports scandal to date — lingered in the background.
Last summer, BALCO was named by anti-doping authorities as the likely source of the designer steroid THG, a drug allegedly used by several top athletes in baseball, football and track that had been undetectable in tests until weeks before the Summer Olympics kicked off in Athens, Greece, the recent doping scandal involving BALCO Labs — the largest sports scandal to date — lingered in the background.
Last summer, BALCO was named by anti-doping authorities as the likely source of the designer steroid THG, a drug allegedly used by several top athletes in baseball, football and track that had been undetectable in tests until recently.
With such scandals, and the publicity surrounding this year’s Olympic Games, “the timing is right” for the new section, said Father Kevin Lixey, a member of the Legionaries of Christ and head of the council’s new Church and Sports desk.
Father Lixey told the Catholic News Service in an August 5 news story that “people, even governments, are looking for that moral voice.”
According to Ed Hastings, director of Neumann College’s Center for Sports, Spirituality and Character Development, the new Church and Sports section for the Catholic council is a significant addition to the ministry of the Church.
Noting that studies and news reports indicate today’s steroid users are found not only among professionals and world-class amateurs, but also among university and high school athletes, Hastings said: “Some people say that in our country we take sports too seriously, but [at the Center] we say, ‘We don’t [as a nation] take them seriously enough.’”
Neumann’s sports and spirituality center was developed five years ago, in an attempt to address the declining morality in college and high school sports. It works with various colleges around the country, and with Archdiocesan high schools, to foster the “Gospel culture in sports,” Hastings said.
“We promote the appreciation of the giftedness we have been given by God,” he said. “We have to appreciate our gifts and talents, realizing our bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit. … We promote the holistic approach to sports.”
The Archdiocese of Philadelphia has also been ahead of the game in this issue — in designing and implementing a special sports initiative in its Catholic high schools.
A year ago, Patrick Boyle, director of Secondary School Services of the Archdiocesan Secretariat for Catholic Education, noted that there was a need for a more formal implemention of the Catholic high schools’ mission to promote the Gospel — a mission that extends through all areas of academia – to better emphasize sports.
Boyle teamed up with the Neumann center staff to develop the Sports and Spirituality Initiative, which will be carried out over the next three years.
The initiative will implement nine programs, including pre-game scripts (announcements indicating the expectations of athletes and fans before each sporting game), and pre-season meetings with parents (reiterating the importance of sports in developing moral leadership).
“Some of our schools’ programs do great things, such as run retreats and Mass for athletes, but I think we need to highlight them so people can understand truly what Catholic sports program is about,” Boyle said. “We want to provide coaches with the tools necessary to do those things and make their programs more spiritual in nature. I think coaches want to do this but they need the tools and resources.”
Perhaps it should not be surprising that it is the most athletic pope in memory, Pope John Paul II, who instituted the new sports office. Once an avid skier, swimmer and hiker, the pontiff always believed sports could be a “school of virtue.”
“Sport must be accompanied by moderation and training in self-discipline. It very often also requires a good team spirit, a respectful attitude, appreciation of the qualities of others, honest sportsmanship and humility in recognizing one’s own limitations,” the Pope said in his 2004 World Day of Tourism message on May 30.
In a June 26 address to members of an Italian sports center, the Pope said that practicing a sport, “if lived according to the Christian vision, becomes a prime generator of deep human relations and favors the building of a more peaceful and cordial world.”
CNS contributed to this article.
For more information about the Center for Sports, Spirituality and Development contact Ed Hastings at hastinge@neumann.edu or (610) 361-5293.

Contact Nadia Pozo at npozo@adphila.org or (215) 965-4614