Bishop Josef Clemens, secretary of the Pontifical Council for the Laity, said the letters of St. Paul demonstrate an understanding of the grueling demands of sports, and his missionary travels show that he probably was physically fit, as well.Thus the year marking the 2,000th anniversary of St. Paul's birth is an appropriate time to launch the John Paul II Foundation for Sports, Bishop Clemens said at a July 28 press conference.
Five Italian organizations and businesses involved with promoting sports and good sportsmanship launched the foundation to strengthen parish-based sports programs, to further study about teaching values and good citizenship through sports and to sponsor international celebrations highlighting good, sweaty fun.
Edio Costantini, president of the foundation, said it was named after Pope John Paul because the late pope spoke so often about sports as a way to bring people together in peace and as a way to learn teamwork, self-control and respect for rules.
The first big event on the foundation's calendar is an April 24-June 21 series of marathons "in the footsteps of St. Paul."
The marathons will begin by joining with the 5-year-old Bethlehem-to-Jerusalem John Paul II marathon for peace. Successive stages of the run will take place in Caesarea, Israel; Rabat, Malta, where St. Paul was shipwrecked; and then up the Italian coast to Rome.
Organizers hope the marathon will finish with an international symposium on "The Social and Educational Values of Sports," a meeting with the pope, and a "sports village" in St. Peter's Square, where young people could play soccer, pingpong and basketball.
The foundation's promotional material highlights six values taught by sports: respect for one's body, knowing how to lose, knowing how to win, discipline, practice and hard work.
The values are backed up with quotes from St. Paul's letters.
In his Second Letter to Timothy, for example, St. Paul wrote: "I have competed well; I have finished the race; I have kept the faith."
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