A few days before major sports competitions, such as the soccer World Cup, Pope Leo XIV dedicated his prayer intention for the month of June to the values of sport, \u201cto build communion and fraternity in history\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The invitation is to pray \u201cthat sport may be an instrument of peace, encounter and dialogue between cultures, promoting respect, solidarity and self-improvement\u201d. A request expressed in the campaign \u2018Pray with the Pope\u2019 of the Pope's Worldwide Prayer Network<\/a>, which invites the faithful each month to join in the Pontiff's intentions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n At the beginning of his prayer, Pope Leo raises his supplication to the \u201cLord of life\u201d, giving thanks for the gift of sport: for those who \u201cglorify God with the exercise of the body, for the friendships that are born on the field and for the joy of playing in a team\u201d. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The Pontiff asks that the sport<\/a> be always \u201ca school of fraternity and not of sterile rivalry, a space of encounter and not of exclusion, a path of peace and not of violence\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In little more than a year of pontificate, this is not the first time that Pope Leo XIV has drawn attention to the values of sport. Already on June 15, 2025, on the occasion of the Jubilee of Sport held in Rome, he had spoken of sport as an instrument of peace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cSport is a way to build peace, because it is a school of respect and loyalty, which makes the culture of encounter and fraternity grow\u201d. <\/p>\n\n\n\n During his homily that same day, the Pontiff also stressed that we are \u201cin a society marked by loneliness, in which exaggerated individualism has shifted the center of gravity from \u201cwe\u201d to \u201cI\u201d, ending up by ignoring the other. Sport - especially when it is team sport - teaches the value of collaboration, of walking together\u201d, thus becoming an important instrument of reconciliation and encounter between peoples.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The culture of sport as an instrument of peace has its roots in centuries of history, from the very origins of the Olympic Games. The tradition of the Olympic Truce - known in Ancient Greece as Ekecheiria - arose in the 9th century B.C. as an agreement between conflicting city-states to guarantee safe participation in the Games, transforming the Olympic Games into an event of peace. C. as an agreement between conflicting city-states to ensure safe participation in the Games, transforming sport into a bridge for dialogue and peaceful coexistence. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In this spirit, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) relaunched this concept in the 1990s, with the aim of enhancing the transformative power of the Olympic Games. sport<\/a> as an instrument of peace and reconciliation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The international director of the Pope's Worldwide Prayer Network, Father Cristobal Fones, affirms: \u201cSport is one of those unique spaces where humanity truly meets. It is a bridge of dialogue that transcends borders, languages and ideologies. On the field, on the track, in the swimming pool, people from different cultures and nations share the effort, the sacrifice, the joy of victory and the pain of defeat\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\nSport as a way to build peace<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"A bridge of dialogue that transcends borders, languages and ideologies\u201d.\u201d<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Valors that will transform our way of living together<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n