Pope Leo issued a letter on “the value of sport” on Feb. 6, the day the Olympics opened in Italy
VATICAN CITY — Just as the 2026 Olympic Winter Games in Milan Cortina were about to begin, Pope Leo XIV called on the Catholic Church to recognize sport as an opportunity to offer much-needed human and spiritual guidance.
With so many dangers and distortions threatening the integrity of athletics and the dignity of players, the Church can help strengthen the needed harmony between people’s physical and spiritual development, he wrote, helping sport become a place “for athletes to learn to take care of themselves without falling prey to vanity, to push themselves to their limits without harming themselves and to compete without losing sight of fraternity.”
Pope Leo, who considers himself “a decent amateur tennis player,” issued a letter on “the value of sport,” Feb. 6, titled “Life in Abundance,” from Jesus’ declaration, “I came so that they might have life and have it more abundantly,” from the Gospel according to St. John (10:10).
The need for holistic, integral human development is critical, he wrote, because “the danger of narcissism … permeates the entire sporting culture today. Athletes can become obsessed with their physical image and with their own success, measured by visibility and approval.”
And sometimes sports can take on a “quasi-religious dimension” with athletes perceived as “saviors,” he wrote. “When sport claims to replace religion, it loses its character as a game that benefits our lives, becoming instead aggrandized, all-encompassing and absolute.”
The pope dated and released the eight-page letter the same day the XXV Winter Olympic Games in Milan and Cortina d’Ampezzo began Feb. 6. Set to run until Feb. 22, the international sporting event will be followed by the XIV Paralympic Games March 6-15.
Offering his “greeting and good wishes to those who are directly involved” in the Games, the pope also encouraged all the world’s nations to “rediscover and respect” the Olympic Truce as a symbol and promise of hope and reconciliation in “a world thirsting for peace.”
These global gatherings “can inspire us and remind us that we are called to form one human family” and that “the values promoted by sport — such as loyalty, sharing, hospitality, dialogue and trust in others — are common to every person, regardless of ethnic origin, culture or religious belief,” he wrote.
While the pope praised the power and potential of the Olympics, the bulk of the letter was dedicated to all levels of sport, from those engaged in informal fun to serious athleticism.
Like his predecessors, Pope Leo highlighted the virtues of engaging in physical activity and competition as well as warned against current risks that threaten healthy values.
He criticized the perennial problems of using sports as a platform to push political or ideological interests, doping and seeking profits or winning at all costs, warning against the “dictatorship of performance.”
He called for seeking out those “who have combined passion for sports, sensitivity to social issues and holiness,” such as St. Pier Giorgio Frassati, who “perfectly combined faith, prayer, social commitment and sport.” Pope Leo canonized the 24-year-old Italian Sept. 7 at the Vatican.
