Olympics: Pope Benedict sends message of support to London Olympic Games
His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI reflects on promoting peace and reconciliation through the Olympic Games
On Sunday 22 July 2012, following the weekly Angelus prayers, His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI reflected ahead of the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games in London on the goodwill that such an international sporting event can generate to promote peace and reconciliation throughout the world.
Pope Benedict said:
“In a few days from now, the Olympic Games are due to begin in Great Britain. I send greetings to the organizers, athletes and spectators alike, and I pray that, in the spirit of the Olympic Truce, the good will generated by this international sporting event may bear fruit, promoting peace and reconciliation throughout the world. Upon all those attending the London Olympic Games, I invoke the abundant blessings of Almighty God.”
The Pope also added in Italian: “the Olympics are the greatest sporting event in the world, at which athletes from a great many nations will participate, and as such they have a strong symbolic value. For this reason the Catholic Church watches them with particular warmth and attention. We pray that, by the will of God, the London Games will be a true experience of fraternity between the peoples of the earth.”
On 20 July 2012, one week before the opening of the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games, Foreign Office Minister Henry Bellingham marked the day the period of the Olympic Truce traditionally begins, highlighting the UK’s commitment to the Olympic Truce’s ideals of conflict prevention and peace.
London 2012 Olympics Faith Logo
Source: UK in Holy See
Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons
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We, as leaders of faith communities, need to develop a more inclusive view of the religious other, to recognise the humanity of the religious other as a starting point. We need to recognise the essential equality of all human beings regardless of religious beliefs. We need to affirm the mutuality and interdependency of all people... We may need even to extend this and recognise that religious other may, just may, have at least some access to the Truth. We may need to accept that the religious others also adopts more or less the same set of essential universal ethical-moral principles we share; that the religious other has feelings of pain and pleasure just like us; that the religious other has similar expectations about their children and family and the preservation of life, property and security; and that the religious other has the same fears and anxieties about the world and the future, just like us.