Jubilee of Sport

 The Jubilee of Sport is to be marked from 14th - 15th June 2025. The press conference to introduce this jubilee gives some idea of the relationship between the Church and the world of sport and of the events that will form part of this Jubilee. 

The Jubilee itself reminds me of a chapter in Romano Guardini's short book The Spirit of the Liturgy. That chapter is entitled "The Playfulness of the Liturgy" and, whilst Guardini warns that we should read the whole in order to really understand his idea, I offer two quotations in an attempt to summarise the chapter:

The child when it plays, does not aim at anything. It has no purpose. It does not want to do anything but to exercise its youthful powers, pour forth its life in an aimless series of movements, words and actions, and by this to develop and to realize itself more fully; all of which is purposeless, but full of meaning nevertheless, the significance lying in the unchecked revelation of this youthful life in thoughts and words and movements and actions, in the capture and expression of its nature, and in the fact of its existence. And because it does not aim at anything in particular, because it streams unbroken and spontaneously forth, its utterance will be harmonious, its form clear and fine; its expression will of itself become picture and dance, rhyme, melody and song.

And, towards the end of the chapter:

The liturgy does the same thing. It too, with endless care, with all the seriousness of the child and the strict conscientiousness of the great artist, has toiled to express in a thousand forms the sacred God-given life of the soul to no other purpose that that the soul may therein have its existence and live its life. The liturgy had laid down the serious rules of the sacred game which the soul plays before God. And, if we are desirous of touching bottom int his mystery, it is the Spirit of fire and of holy discipline "Who has knowledge of the World" - the Holy Ghost - Who has ordained the game which the Eternal Wisdom plays before the Heavenly Father in the Church, Its kingdom on earth. And "Its delight" is in this way "to be with the children of men". 

There have been many occasions when the Church has engaged with the field of sports. In the Great Jubilee of the Year 2000 a Jubilee of Sport took place, during which Pope St John Paul II met with leading protagonists from the field: Jubilee of Sports People. More recently, in May 2024, the French Embassy to the Holy See and the Dicastery for Culture and Education sponsored a conference "Putting Life into Play". Pope Francis' message to that conference is reported on the Vatican News website, with a full text here. I quote below from Pope St John Paul II's homily of October 2000:

Playing sports has become very important today, since it can encourage young people to develop important values such as loyalty, perseverance, friendship, sharing and solidarity. Precisely for this reason, in recent years it has continued to grow even more as one of the characteristic phenomena of the modern era, almost a "sign of the times" capable of interpreting humanity's new needs and new expectations. Sports have spread to every corner of the world, transcending differences between cultures and nations.

The Holy Father went on to compare the commitments needed to be successful in sport to those needed to live a full Christian life:

 "Those that sow in tears shall reap rejoicing" (Ps 125: 5). The responsorial psalm reminded us that persevering effort is needed to succeed in life. Anyone who plays sports knows this very well:  it is only at the cost of strenuous training that significant results are achieved. The athlete, therefore, agrees with the Psalmist when he says that the effort spent in sowing finds its reward in the joy of the harvest:  "Although they go forth weeping, carrying the seed to be sown, they shall come back rejoicing, carrying their sheaves" (Ps 125: 6).

At the recent Olympic Games in Sydney we admired the feats of the great athletes, who sacrificed themselves for years, day after day, to achieve those results. This is the logic of sport, especially Olympic sports; it is also the logic of life:  without sacrifices, important results are not obtained, or even genuine satisfaction.

Once again the Apostle Paul has reminded us of this:  "Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable" (1 Cor 9: 25). Every Christian is called to become a strong athlete of Christ, that is, a faithful and courageous witness to his Gospel. But to succeed in this, he must persevere in prayer, be trained in virtue and follow the divine Master in everything.

He, in fact, is God's true athlete:  Christ is the "more powerful" Man (cf. Mk 1: 7), who for our sake confronted and defeated the "opponent", Satan, by the power of the Holy Spirit, thus inaugurating the kingdom of God. He teaches us that, to enter into glory, we must undergo suffering (cf. Lk 24: 26,46); he has gone before us on this path, so that we might follow in his footsteps.

 Pope Francis own particular contribution to the Church's engagement with the world of sport is perhaps in his strong encouragement of a culture of encounter and dialogue, something to which the world of sport readily lends itself. In his message for the conference in May 2024 Pope Francis also encouraged the preservation of a genuine sense of "sportsmanship", of the maintenance of a certain amateur spirit in the way in which people take part in sport.

Pope Leo XIV more recently met with the football team of Naples, winners of Italy's equivalent of the British Premier League. In a slightly different way, he picked up Pope Francis' words in favour of a genuine sportsmanship:

Welcome! And congratulations for your victory in the Championship! It is a great celebration for the city of Naples!

And it is precisely on this that I would like to reflect with you. To win the Championship is a milestone that one reaches at the end of a long journey, where what counts the most is not the one-off exploit, or the extraordinary performance of a champion. The Championship is won by the team, and when I say “team”, I mean the players, the trainer with the entire team, and the sports association.

Therefore, I am truly happy to welcome you now, to highlight this aspect of your success, which I consider the most important. And I would say that it is so also from a social point of view. We know how popular football is in Italy, and practically all over the world. And so, from this perspective, it seems to me that the social value of an event like this, which goes beyond the merely technical and sporting fact, is the example of a team – in the broadest sense – working together, in which the talents of the individuals are placed at the service of the whole.

And there is one last thing it is important to me to say, taking advantage of this occasion. It regards the educational aspect. Unfortunately, when sport becomes a business, it risks losing the values that make it educational, and can even become anti-educational. It is necessary to keep a lookout for this, especially with regard to teenagers. I appeal to parents and sports managers: we must be very careful of the moral quality of the experience of sport at competitive level, because the human growth of the young is at stake.

As a final thought, we might remind ourselves that the Apostle Paul more than once compared the Christian life to an athletic competition (cf. 1 Cor 9:24; 2 Tim 4:7-8), a thought that brings us back to Romano Guardini's account of the playfulness of the Liturgy. The "play" that we can see in the exercise of sport can perhaps be seen as one of those "seeds of the Gospel" of which the Prayer for the Jubilee 2025 speaks:

May your grace transform us into tireless cultivators of the seeds of the Gospel. May those seeds transform from wthin both humanity and the whole cosmos in the sure expectation of a new heaven and a new earth, when, with the power of Evil vanquished your glory will shine eternally.

Jubilee of the Holy See

 Monday 9th June 2025 is being marked as a Jubilee for the Holy See. Whilst many of the other major Jubilee 2025 celebrations offer something of an invitation to participation by people from all parts of the world, this celebration appears more of a semi-private event. It appears to be a celebration intended for those who work in the offices and missions most closely associated with Vatican, and so express a collaboration with the Successor of Peter in the carrying out of his mission to the Church and to the world.

The choice of day for this Jubilee is interesting. It marks the celebration of the Memorial of Mary, Mother of the Church. In his allocution at the end of the third session of the Second Vatican Council, Pope St Paul VI proclaimed the title of "Mother of the Church":

Therefore to the glory of the Blessed Virgin and for our consolation we declare Mary most Holy as Mother of the Church, that is of all the Christian people, of the faithful and of the pastors, who call her a most loving Mother; and we establish that with this title the Christian people may from now on give even more honour to the Mother of God and offer her their supplications.

[As an aside, when I read of the events surrounding this proclamation, I feel that it is an occasion on which Pope St Paul VI may have acted in response to a particular inspiration of the Holy Spirit. His encyclical letter Humanae Vitae would be another such instance.] 

When Pope Francis decreed that the celebration of a Memoria marking the title Mother of the Church should be inserted into the universal Liturgical calendar of the Church, he offered a brief theological account of the title and then referred back to Pope St Paul VI's allocution:

Thus the foundation is clearly established by which Blessed Paul VI, on 21 November 1964, at the conclusion of the Third Session of the Second Vatican Council, declared the Blessed Virgin Mary as “Mother of the Church, that is to say of all Christian people, the faithful as well as the pastors, who call her the most loving Mother” and established that “the Mother of God should be further honoured and invoked by the entire Christian people by this tenderest of titles”.

Therefore the Apostolic See on the occasion of the Holy Year of Reconciliation (1975), proposed a votive Mass in honour of Beata Maria Ecclesiæ Matre, which was subsequently inserted into the Roman Missal. The Holy See also granted the faculty to add the invocation of this title in the Litany of Loreto (1980) and published other formularies in the Collection of Masses of the Blessed Virgin Mary (1986). Some countries, dioceses and religious families who petitioned the Holy See were allowed to add this celebration to their particular calendars.

Having attentively considered how greatly the promotion of this devotion might encourage the growth of the maternal sense of the Church in the pastors, religious and faithful, as well as a growth of genuine Marian piety, Pope Francis has decreed that the Memorial of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of the Church, should be inscribed in the Roman Calendar on the Monday after Pentecost and be now celebrated every year.

Towards the end of the Bull of Indiction for the Jubilee 2025 (n.24), Pope Francis wrote of the Virgin Mary as the Mother of Hope:

Hope finds its supreme witness in the Mother of God. In the Blessed Virgin, we see that hope is not naive optimism but a gift of grace amid the realities of life. Like every mother, whenever Mary looked at her Son, she thought of his future. Surely she kept pondering in her heart the words spoken to her in the Temple by the elderly Simeon: “This child is destined for the falling and rising of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be opposed, so that the inner thoughts of many will be revealed – and a sword will pierce your own soul too” (Lk 2:34-35). At the foot of the cross, she witnessed the passion and death of Jesus, her innocent son. Overwhelmed with grief, she nonetheless renewed her “fiat”, never abandoning her hope and trust in God. In this way, Mary cooperated for our sake in the fulfilment of all that her Son had foretold in announcing that he would have to “undergo great suffering, and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again” (Mk 8:31). In the travail of that sorrow, offered in love, Mary became our Mother, the Mother of Hope. It is not by chance that popular piety continues to invoke the Blessed Virgin as Stella Maris, a title that bespeaks the sure hope that, amid the tempests of this life, the Mother of God comes to our aid, sustains us and encourages us to persevere in hope and trust. 

Jubilee of Ecclesial Movements, Associations and New Communities

 The days 7th-8th June 2025 are being celebrated as a Jubilee of Ecclesial Movements, Associations and New Communities. The days are chosen to be those of the Vigil and celebration of the Feast of Pentecost, when the Church celebrates the coming of the Holy Spirit on the infant Church. Some examples of the movements that might be represented in the celebration of this Jubilee are: Communion and Liberation, the Focolare, the Charismatic Renewal, the Legion of Mary and FAITH Movement. I also include SIGNIS as an ecclesial movement, though it has a specific commitment in the fields of film, media and communications. The Jubilee takes place immediately after the annual meeting of the Dicastery for Laity, Family and Life with the moderators of international associations of the faithful, ecclesial movements and new communities. Some 70 000 pilgrims are expected to take part.

The movements are due to meet with Pope Leo XIV in St Peter's Square on the Vigil of Pentecost, an event which re-creates a meeting of the movements with Pope St John Paul II on the eve of Pentecost in 1998. The memorable expression of that occasion is the reference that Pope St John Paul II made to the co-essentiality of the institutional and charismatic dimensions of the Church, developing the teaching of Lumen Gentium n.12:

The institutional and charismatic aspects are co-essential as it were to the Church's constitution. They contribute, although differently, to the life, renewal and sanctification of God's People. It is from this providential rediscovery of the Church's charismatic dimension that, before and after the Council, a remarkable pattern of growth has been established for ecclesial movements and new communities.

This meeting with St John Paul II took place in the context of the first World Congress of Ecclesial Movements and New Communities. The Holy Father referred to some of the difficulties that had occurred in the growth of these new movements and their relationship to the wider Church. 

Their birth and spread has brought to the Church's life an unexpected newness which is sometimes even disruptive. This has given rise to questions, uneasiness and tensions; at times it has led to presumptions and excesses on the one hand, and on the other, to numerous prejudices and reservations. It was a testing period for their fidelity, an important occasion for verifying the authenticity of their charisms.

Today a new stage is unfolding before you: that of ecclesial maturity. This does not mean that all problems have been solved. Rather, it is a challenge. A road to take. The Church expects from you the "mature" fruits of communion and commitment.

On the Vigil of Pentecost in 2006, the movements gathered again in St Peter's Square, this time with Pope Benedict XVI. After a reflection on the place of the Holy Spirit in creation and within the life of the Trinity (Pope Benedict's words on the abuse of creation foreshadow Pope Francis teaching on the same theme), Pope Benedict spoke on three words: life, freedom and unity.

When all that people want from life is to take possession of it, it becomes ever emptier and poorer; it is easy to end up seeking refuge in drugs, in the great deception. And doubts surface as to whether, in the end, life is truly a good.

No, we do not find life in this way. Jesus' words about life in abundance are found in the Good Shepherd discourse. His words are set in a double context.

Concerning the shepherd, Jesus tells us that he lays down his life. "No one takes [my life] from me, but I lay it down of my own accord" (cf. Jn 10: 18). It is only in giving life that it is found; life is not found by seeking to possess it. This is what we must learn from Christ; and the Holy Spirit teaches us that it is a pure gift, that it is God's gift of himself. The more one gives one's life for others, for goodness itself, the more abundantly the river of life flows.

Secondly, the Lord tells us that life unfolds in walking with the Shepherd who is familiar with the pasture - the places where the sources of life flow.

We find life in communion with the One who is life in person - in communion with the living God, a communion into which we are introduced by the Holy Spirit, who is called in the hymn of Vespers "fons vivus", a living source. ... 

Dear friends, the Movements were born precisely of the thirst for true life; they are Movements for life in every sense.

Speaking of freedom:

True freedom is demonstrated in responsibility, in a way of behaving in which one takes upon oneself a shared responsibility for the world, for oneself and for others.
The son, to whom things belong and who, consequently, does not let them be destroyed, is free. All the worldly responsibilities of which we have spoken are nevertheless partial responsibilities for a specific area, a specific State, etc.

The Holy Spirit, on the other hand, makes us sons and daughters of God. He involves us in the same responsibility that God has for his world, for the whole of humanity. He teaches us to look at the world, others and ourselves with God's eyes. We do not do good as slaves who are not free to act otherwise, but we do it because we are personally responsible for the world; because we love truth and goodness, because we love God himself and therefore, also his creatures. This is the true freedom to which the Holy Spirit wants to lead us. 

And of unity:

The Holy Spirit, in giving life and freedom, also gives unity. These are three gifts that are inseparable from one another.  ...

He wants your diversity and he wants you for the one body, in union with the permanent orders - the joints - of the Church, with the successors of the Apostles and with the Successor of St Peter. He does not lessen our efforts to learn the way of relating to one another; but he also shows us that he works with a view to the one body and in the unity of the one body. It is precisely in this way that unity obtains its strength and beauty.

May you take part in the edification of the one body! Pastors must be careful not to extinguish the Spirit (cf. I Thes 5: 19) and you will not cease to bring your gifts to the entire community. Once again, the Spirit blows where he wills. But his will is unity. He leads us towards Christ through his Body.

In a concluding word that foresees the theme of the Jubilee 2025, Pope Benedict observed:

The Holy Spirit gives believers a superior vision of the world, of life, of history, and makes them custodians of the hope that never disappoints.

It has been a common place since Vatican II to speak of a "universal call to holiness", that is, a call to Christian living that is derived from Baptism and Confirmation and that is addressed to all Christians. However, the response to that call is given in the specificity of the life of each individual, and for many people that specificity is found in the charism of one or other of the new movements or communities. Without the presence of these movements, pastoral life can too easily lack the element of specificity necessary to a lively Christian witness.