Pope's June prayer intention: 'for the values of sports'
Pope Leo XIV releases June prayer intention focusing on the values of sports. He urges Catholics worldwide to pray that sport promotes peace, fraternity, and communion. The Pope highlights both benefits and challenges of sport, praying it becomes a school of fraternity, encounter, and peace. He calls for sport to unite cultures, foster respect, solidarity, and personal growth. The intention is part of the Pope’s Worldwide Prayer Network, a Pontifical Work present in 92 countries.
4 months ago
Pope Leo XIV has invited Catholics worldwide to pray this June for “the values of sport,” asking that athletic activity become a catalyst for peace, fraternity, and mutual encounter. The prayer, released as a video by the Pope’s Worldwide Prayer Network, highlights sport’s capacity to teach respect, solidarity, and personal growth, especially as the 2026 FIFA World Cup begins in North America. 1 2 3
The Pope’s “Pray with the Pope” video thanks God for the gift of sport and the friendships formed on the field.
He asks that sport be a “school of fraternity, not of empty rivalry,” and a “space of encounter, not exclusion.” 1
The full prayer calls for athletes, coaches, and fans to discover sport as a universal language that unites peoples and promotes humility in defeat and gratitude in victory. 2
Leo XIV stresses that sport should foster “peace, fraternity and communion,” urging participants to work together toward common goals. 1
The Pope frames sport as a “parable of life” that encourages dialogue among cultures and nations, especially in times of war and polarization. 2
He highlights respect for others, solidarity across borders, and personal development as essential values nurtured through athletic competition. 3
The prayer intention coincides with the World Cup’s opening on 11 June, the first tournament co‑hosted by the United States, Mexico, and Canada.
Pope Leo XIV notes that the event offers a concrete opportunity for sport to act as a “universal language” that brings cultures together. 3
Since the start of his pontificate, the Pope has expressed a love for sport, playing tennis and supporting the Chicago White Sox.
He has welcomed Olympic athletes to the Vatican and met with the Inter Milan football team, linking athletic life to the Christian journey. 3
Founded in 1844 and elevated to a Vatican foundation in 2020, the network now reaches over 22 million people in 92 countries.
Its monthly prayer intentions, like this June focus on sport, guide the global Catholic community to pray on pressing societal issues. 1*
Investigate the Catholic tradition of sports as a means of peace and fraternity
Catholic tradition does not provide a “sports theology” that names sport explicitly as a unique tool for peace and fraternity in the texts available here. However, the Church’s teaching on peace, fraternity, human development, and charity gives a clear moral framework for when sport can genuinely serve those ends—and when it can betray them.
In Pope Leo XIV’s meditation for a Vigil to pray for peace, peace is described as something that must be constructed through faith, prayer, and love:
“War divides; hope unites. Arrogance tramples upon others; love lifts up.”
He also stresses that building peace is possible and universal in its scope:
“It is possible to build peace, a new peace; that it is possible to live together with all peoples of every religion and every race; … united as brothers and sisters, all united in a world of peace.”
Why this matters for sport: if a sporting culture is organized around respect, humility, and shared human dignity, it can become a concrete “place” where hope unites people rather than tribal conflict divides them.
Pope John Paul II repeatedly frames Christian social action in explicitly relational terms—justice and solidarity leading to brotherhood and peace. In an address to a head of state, he links the Church’s concern for people with:
“the promotion of justice, solidarity, brotherhood, love and peace.”
So fraternity, in Catholic terms, is not just friendliness; it is brotherhood shaped by justice and charity—a social reality anchored in moral truth and the good of others.
Pope Leo XIV’s greeting highlights a key dynamic of Christian community: gathering together to pray creates real encounter because Christ is present:
“Jesus told us that where two or three are gathered in his name, he is among them.”
He describes prayer as “universal and transformative,” not escapist:
“Prayer is not a refuge in which to hide from our responsibilities… Rather, it is the most selfless, universal and transformative response.”
Sport can echo this when it functions as a disciplined form of togetherness—uniting people across differences, teaching mutual respect, and training a community’s habits of cooperation and restraint.
In Pope John Paul II’s reflection on marriage and the Eucharist, Christian life is described as a journey involving education and growth—not denial of weakness, but formation toward fraternal charity:
This is relevant to sports because sport frequently exposes the same human realities: frustration, imbalance between desire and ability, and the temptation to dominate or humiliate. A Catholic approach would therefore order sport toward formation—training the person to respond to challenge with charity and respect, not arrogance or contempt (which Pope Leo XIV identifies as the opposite of love).
Pope John Paul II teaches that attention to culture must be anchored in supreme spiritual values:
“all projects … must be based on truth to give them a well founded, authentic and transcendent human orientation”
and that authentic humanization provides a “supplement of soul” needed to counter “inhuman and nihilistic tendencies.”
He names dangers linked to a distorted cultural life: “materialistic consumerism,” “individualistic hedonism,” and “new totalitarian demands.”
Sport is a major cultural arena, so this principle matters. Sport can become:
If sport is reduced to pure consumption, tribal identity, or domination, it risks becoming one of the “nihilistic” forms of culture Pope John Paul II warns against.
Drawing from the Church’s emphases above, sport can serve peace and fraternity when it becomes:
The same sources imply conditions under which sport fails its potential:
Because the texts provided do not address sports directly, these “guards” are an application of Church principles rather than a specific magisterial sports directive.
None of the provided documents explicitly discuss sport (e.g., “athletics,” “teams,” “competition,” “refereeing,” “fair play”) as a pastoral tool. The conclusions above therefore rest on general Catholic teachings contained in the references: peace as unity through hope and love, fraternity through justice and solidarity, culture ordered to truth/goodness/beauty, and Christian formation toward fraternal charity.
Catholic tradition—on the evidence available here—supports sports as a means of peace and fraternity not because sport is automatically holy, but because sport can become an arena where hope unites, love replaces arrogance, and culture is ordered to truth, goodness, and beauty.