Ahead of the World Cup, Pope Leo XIV shares an important lesson from soccer
Pope Leo XIV used a soccer analogy during his apostolic visit to Spain to stress the importance of teamwork in life. He noted that success comes from passing the ball rather than playing solo, urging people to work together. The pontiff shared personal sports experiences, mentioning tennis, American football, and soccer played in Peru. He praised the diocesan charitable and assistance organizations in Barcelona, likening their collaborative efforts to a well‑coordinated team.
4 months ago
Ahead of the FIFA World Cup, Pope Leo XIV used a soccer analogy to stress that life is a collaborative effort, not a solitary race, and praised the charitable groups in Barcelona for working together like a team.
The pontiff told members of diocesan charitable and assistance organizations that “soccer helps us remember something very important: that life is not a race to be run in solitude; it is something played as a team, and we must learn to run together” 1.
He added that a player who never passes the ball “will probably lose,” underscoring the value of sharing and cooperation.
Leo XIV noted he currently plays tennis and once played American football in his youth.
He recalled playing defensive soccer in Trujillo, Peru, during his missionary years, saying he was “not a big goal‑scorer” but enjoyed the sport’s camaraderie 1.
He highlighted that “a little sport is good for everyone” to maintain body, mind, and soul health.
Speaking at the Church of St. Augustine in Barcelona on June 10, 2026, the Pope linked the teamwork lesson to the work of local Church communities, describing their charitable efforts as a unified team 1.
He concluded by commending the groups for their contributions and encouraging them to continue “running together.”*
"Examine Catholic teachings on cooperation versus individualism in community life."
Catholic social teaching and Christian anthropology consistently argue that human fulfillment is social by nature: authentic community life grows through cooperation, solidarity, and communion, while individualism—especially when it treats others as optional or reduces hope to “my private good”—erodes the moral bonds that make the common good possible.
In the Bible’s moral vision, the human person is not an isolated atom. The Pontifical Biblical Commission teaches that the person is “essentially a member of a community,” belonging to the covenantal community and, in the New Testament, to the body of Christ or the vine with branches.
Because of this, the objective of human living is not the construction of a “perfect, independent personality,” but the formation of “a member living perfectly the relationship into which that member is inserted.”
From that premise, moral norms are not derived from single persons alone: “the norms of society cannot be deduced from single members” because they are “the patrimony of the community.” Yet individual conscience remains real and responsible—it must act with awareness of the relational reality.
Key point: Catholicism does not deny personal responsibility; it denies that the person can flourish without meaningful participation in shared life.
Sources for this section:
Catholic teaching grounds cooperation in solidarity and communion, not just in efficiency or sentiment. In Compendium of the Social Doctrine discussions reflected in a Catholic moral synthesis, solidarity is tied to a Christian model of unity—communion—that is ultimately a reflection of God’s own life and inspires human solidarity.
The Catechism of the Catholic Church presents solidarity as necessary for resolving socio-economic problems “with the help of all the forms of solidarity,” including solidarity among workers, between rich and poor, and between nations—explicitly calling international solidarity a requirement of the moral order and linking it partially to world peace.
A concrete guide to solidarity appears in the Pontifical Council for the Family’s treatment of participation and brotherhood. It defines solidarity as “the will to participate in the search for social justice,” and insists it “should not be forgotten that ‘the exercise of solidarity within each society is valid when its members recognize one another as persons.’”
“Those who are more influential… should feel responsible for the weaker and be ready to share with them all they possess.”
Cooperation is therefore not simply “group activity.” It is participation in the common good—the good of all and each—so that social life is structured around justice, peace, human rights, and the intrinsic dignity of persons.
Sources for this section:
Catholic teaching also warns that cooperation can be distorted in two opposite ways:
The Catechism explains the danger of excessive state intervention: it can “threaten personal freedom and initiative,” and it affirms the principle of subsidiarity: a “community of a higher order should not interfere… depriving… [a] lower order… but rather should support it in case of need and help to co-ordinate its activity with the activities of the rest of society, always with a view to the common good.”
A related discussion emphasizes subsidiarity’s connection to solidarity: proper subsidiarity “depends on a concept of solidarity that preserves the intrinsic value of collaborative activity.”
True cooperation therefore requires:
Sources for this section:
Catholic diagnosis of individualism is not only psychological; it is theological and moral. A scholarly synthesis of Benedict XVI’s themes notes that modern secular malaise is rooted in an “individualizing” of Christian eschatology, producing a refusal of solidarity and a pursuit of “individual amusement.” This “anemic individualism” allows “social solidarity to atrophy,” because human energy is no longer devoted to solidarity-focused goals.
A further Catholic critique centers on fragmentation: John Paul II (as discussed in a related treatment) indicts the “fragmentation” of the human community into multiple “worlds,” arguing that authentic development is more than accumulating wealth or goods.
A different but complementary lens comes from the life of consecrated communities. The Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life observes that “individualism has spread,” taking forms like needing to “take centre stage,” an exaggerated focus on personal well-being, preference for isolated or “signed” work, and “absolute priority” of personal aspirations “regardless of others… with no reference to the community.” It then calls for “a just balance… far from both the disintegrating forces of individualism and the levelling aspects of communitarianism,” insisting that religious community is where one learns daily the “passage from ‘me’ to ‘us.’”
Key point: Catholic teaching critiques individualism because it breaks the “grammar” of gift and communion, producing social and spiritual distortions.
Sources for this section:
The Church also rejects the false alternative—“either join the community or lose yourself.” Pope Francis teaches that while “the whole is greater than the part,” it is also “greater than the sum of its parts,” and therefore Christians must broaden horizons to the “greater good which will benefit us all.”
Importantly, he adds that people who “wholeheartedly enter into the life of a community need not lose their individualism” (i.e., they do not need to lose personal identity); rather, they receive “new impulses to personal growth.” The global should not stifle the particular, and the particular should not be barren.
John Paul II’s teaching on cooperative experience explicitly presents a synthesis: the novelty of cooperation lies in attempting “a synthesis between the individual dimension and the community dimension,” expressing the complementarity that Church social doctrine promotes—namely “the protection of the rights of the individual” and “the promotion of the common good.”
Sources for this section:
While “cooperation vs individualism” is an ethical theme, Catholic sources treat it concretely as a pattern of participation:
And the deepest theological rationale is that the Church itself is communion—communion of saints—where Christ’s good is communicated and holiness is lived “for one another,” expressing a real “being-for-another” unity.
Sources for this section:
Catholic teaching does not oppose personal freedom to community life. It opposes misdirected individualism to ordered cooperation:
In short, the Church’s teaching views community life as a real moral participation in a communion that reflects God—where genuine cooperation elevates both society and the person rather than replacing either.