DISCOURS DE JEAN-PAUL II
... aux
participants de l'assemblée générale de la FICEP ...
3 Avril 1986
SPORTS CAN HELP SPREAD FRATERNITY AND PEACE
1. I am delighted to be able to meet you who are participating in the Assembly of the Catholic
Federation of Physical and Sports Education, which is celebrating here in Rome the seventy-fifth
anniversary of its foundation.
I greet the presidents and members of the various delegations, along with the representatives of the
different associations belonging to FICEP. I have noticed that almost all the countries of Europe are
listed here, and this shows the vitality of the Association and its meaningful presence in the sporting
environment, through the individual national organizations.
I congratulate you on the work of human and spiritual formation that you aim for in the world of
sport, faithful to the institutional goals of the federation. Already in 1906 it had established its
purpose of bringing together Catholic forces in order to promote healthy physical education,
together with religious and moral formation. You have been faithful to this commitment, which
constitutes your very reason or existence and the specific object of your apostolate. You have been
faithful to your mission in past years, and you wish to continue to be faithful today, in the complex
world of contemporary sports which has become a social phenomenon of great importance and
interest. I wish to encourage the educational and social work carried out by all of you when you
seek to propagate the true meaning of sport, not only in the world of competition and of sporting
exhibitions, but likewise in the most common practice of sports: that is, in those activities that each
person performs in order to increase his physical abilities and efficiency, for the good of the whole
person.
2. As I already said on the occasion of the Jubilee of Athletes, the Church recognizes the
fundamental dignity of sport in its intrinsic reality as a factor in human formation and as a
component of man's culture and civilization (cf. Insegnamenti, VII-l, p. 1006). This appears
increasingly true in our day, when athletic activity seems to have become a more common and even
necessary reality, in fact, some demands of modern life and work, like the housing complexes of the
great urban conglomerates, multiply the situations in which there is a need to find free time in order
to exercise strength and dexterity, endurance and harmonious movement, so as to attain or
guarantee that physical efficiency necessary to man's overall equilibrium. It is in this context that
the human values of sport appear clearest. It is seen as a worthwhile way of using one's time,
because in sport man acquires greater self-mastery and manifests a fitting expression of the
dominion of his intelligence and will over his body. Whence arises a serene attitude of respect,
esteem and redemption for sporting activity, and, as a consequence its consideration as a possible
occasion of ennoblement.
May you consider your mission an important effort to bring it about that, with the proliferation of
sport activity at the collective level, a "redemption," so to speak, of the sports phenomenon take
place, according to the principles always proclaimed by the Church. May every athlete strive to
attain, through self-mastery, those basic human virtues that constitute a balanced personality, and
that likewise develop a "grateful and humble attitude towards the Giver of every good, and thus of
physical health as well, in this way opening up the soul to the horizons of the faith. When practiced
with wisdom and balance sport acquires an ethical and formative value, and is a valid school of
virtue for life" (John Paul II, Insegnamenti, V-3, p. 750).
3. It must be emphasized that an authentic human and Christian formation of athletes indirectly
becomes an educational instrument on a more vast social level. Modern interest in competitive
sports and sports entertainment is very apparent. They take up a large part of the free time and
diversion of the people of today. Obviously, we are not talking about a new phenomenon, but it is
clear that today the means of social communication have made the awareness of sporting realities so
universal as to make of them a paradigm of mass psychology, by exciting the emotions of the
participants, and provoking emulative expressions in the spectators as a result.
Now, if sport is practiced-even in the context of competition-as an occasion for exalting the dignity
of the person, it may become a vehicle of fraternity and friendship for all who are following these
sporting events. One who attends an exhibition "lives" it in a certain way, participates in its spirit,
feels its effects.
In these circumstances, the upper hand should not be given to the glorification of force or, even
less, of the use of violence, where the sporting event becomes the occasion for the release of the
latent aggressions of some individuals or groups. The spectator, too, must be capable of respecting
the fundamental rule of sport as a fair and generous competition, a meeting place, a bond of
solidarity.
In this regard, consider the importance of the formation of sports professionals capable in every
situation of witnessing to the authentic values of healthy and proper competition. Every "champion"
is in some way a model to which young people are very sensitive. Now, if a sense of equality and
friendship is spread among the young, if fair relations and serene attitudes prevail in contests; if, in
a word, those involved show themselves always capable of respecting the fundamental values of the
human person-the end and measure of every sporting activity then sports can help spread a more
authentic spirit of brotherhood and peace among the masses of spectators as well.
4. As you see, your efforts towards an ethical formation in the sports environment appear ever more
vast, valid and important. I hope that you will be able to continue effectively to carry out, with
God's help, the undertaking that you have assumed as a mission.
May the paschal mystery that we are celebrating during these days be for you a motive of
inspiration and hope. You, in fact, seek to assist the continual renewal of man in goodness, you seek
to help him become able to direct his life towards "a living hope... an inheritance which is
imperishable, undefiled, and unfading" (1 Pt 1:3-4).With these sentiments, I wish to impart my
Apostolic Blessing to all of you and your associations.retour
aux discours des papes sur le sport