Note: We were scheduled to run our guide to Dauphin Island this week, with Olympics-focused posts next week, but something happened that calls for a swap. The Paris 2024 Olympics opening ceremony featured elements that many found deeply hurtful, particularly a visual allusion to Jesus' Last Supper. Many have vowed to boycott the Olympics in response.
Defending Jesus, the Faith, and the Eucharist is obviously an ultimate priority, yet I don't want us to miss all the beautiful, good, intentional things the French Church is doing right now in association with the Olympics.
Sports are far more important than mere entertainment. Sports are a profoundly human endeavor, a deep integration of body and soul, and a powerful catalyst for virtue. Scripture itself often uses sports metaphors to capture the shining hope and goal of Christian life.
Come back all next week for a comprehensive, practical guide to our favorite beach. Today, let's shine light in the darkness.
The Archdiocese of Paris and the French Bishops Conference collaborated on a major initiative to evangelize during the Olympics called "Holy Games." For three weeks during the Olympics and Paralympics, the Holy Games will send out missionaries, host watch parties and other fellowship events, celebrate public Masses, and invite people to sacraments, adoration, and prayer.
French Catholics held a prayer vigil for athletes ahead of the Olympics. Hundreds of locals gathered at the Cathedral of Saint-Denis to pray for and bless athletes before the opening ceremony. “We asked ourselves: ‘The games are coming. What can we possibly do? How can we plant the cross in this event to accompany the world of sports?’” Read how one Honduran athlete felt as the French congregation prayed over him.
More than 50 Catholic church parishes embarked upon special evangelization outreaches during the influx of Olympic visitors. Their offerings range from free refreshments tables to scavenger hunts that lead into basilicas for prayer. “Our wish is that every person who enters the basilica can encounter Christ,” explained Sister Marie-Jérémie, in charge of the Olympic program at the Sacré-Cœur. About 150 young adult volunteers have come from across France to help with these efforts and build community with each other.
On Sunday before the Olympics commenced, Pope Francis focused his Angelus address on sports: “I hope that this event may be a beacon of the inclusive world we want to build and that athletes, with their sporting testimony, may be messengers of peace and authentic models for young people."
Who knew that there is an official Vatican sports association called Athletica Vaticana? This is the first I've heard of them, but they're biking and running around Paris wearing papal-flag-emblazoned jerseys and pursuing their goal "to be a symbol in the heart of the Vatican and the Catholic Church as a Christian witness using spiritual, supportive, and cultural initiatives to dialogue with the worldwide sporting community." They encouraged Olympic athletes to "win the medal of fraternity."
Hozana Association, a French Catholic social prayer network, collaborated with the Rosario app on a “Rosary Olympics” challenge. Apps users join together to begin praying one decade of the rosary every day, then gradually increase to all five decades daily. “The idea is that during the duration of the Olympic games, we challenge ourselves to get into the habit of praying the rosary daily.” Get the app here.
A beautiful and thoughtful roundup of the Church's enduring love for sports. "Through a spiritual attitude, a heightened sense of the sacredness of every activity, especially one as enlivening as sports, becomes a form of prayer."
(Meanwhile, Catholic Answers explores whether the Olympics are pagan—a very balanced answer about how Catholics engage with the secular world.)
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