DISCOURS DE JEAN-PAUL II
... à une délégation du club de football de Barcelone ...
14 Mai 1999
Dear President, Ladies and Gentlemen,
1. I am happy to recieve the directive council and the athletes of the different sectrs of the “Fútbol
Club Barcelona”, which celebratesthis year its hundredth aniversary. I wish to thank Mr José-Luis
Nuñez, Presidente of the Association, for his kind words and at the same time, I cordially greet all
of you here present. I am pleased that you have wished to include this encounetr with the Holy
Father among the commemorative events of this centeniel.
Your presence here allows me to recall your beautiful city, laborious and rich in culture, that I had
the joy of visiting in 1982. I celebrated Holy Mass precisely in “Nou Camp”, the stadium that bears
witness to your sportive competiveness and it was there I recived a memebeship card of your club.
2. You represent a sporting activity that every weekend that draws crowds of people to the stadiums
and to which the means of social communiation dedicate ample attention. For this reason you have
a special responsibility. With affection, and with the admiration I have for sport, I encourage you to
continue to make the world of sport meritorious, not only by bringing the best of your physical
strength to the different sports disciplines, but also by promoting attitudes that arise from the most
noble of human virtues: solidarity, loyalty, fair play and respect for others, who should be
considered as competitors and never as enemies or rivals. Likewise, it is necessary to promote a
strong will, patience, endurance, balance, simplicity, a spirit of sacrifice and self-control, basic
elements of every sporting effort, that determine the suceess and class of the athlete. Upon this
foundation the Christian virtues are developed when these values are assumed with interior
conviction and are encouraged with the love of Christ.
I am convinced that sport, when it is not transformed into a myth, is an important factor of social
and moral education, both on the personal and communitarian level. In this regard, the Second
Vatican Council teaches that “sports activity help to preserve equilibrium of spirit even in the
community, and to establish fraternal relations among men of all conditions, nations and races”
(Gaudium et spes, n. 61).
3. Dear representatives of “Barça”: this encounter offers me the opportunity to make some
reflections about the world of sport, where your Club has played a prominent role during these last
hundred years. In congratulating you on this anniversary, I invite you to exercise a renewed effort,
noble and fruitful, along thee same lines. All of this must not merely serve to obtain greater
competitive success, which will certainly give satisfaction to your supporters, but it must also serve
to promote sporting events that increasingly favor interpersonal relationships, establishing genuine
bonds of friendship and peaceful coexistence among all peoples.
4. It is my wish that your sport to be illuminated by these reflections. My hope in this Centennial
year is that your participation in various tournaments may raise your spirits to greater heights. May
Our Lady of Mercy, the patroness of Barcelona, who has welcomed you so many times when you
offered her your trophies, always accompany you in your efforts for spiritual and moral growth with
her maternal protection! While reiterating my gratitude for your visit, I cordially impart on all of
you my Apostolic Blessing.
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