VATICAN CITY (Indian Catholic News) — Pope Leo XIV has dedicated his June prayer intention to the values of sport, urging Christians to see athletics as “an instrument of peace, encounter and dialogue between cultures and peoples.”
The message was distributed through the Pray with the Pope initiative of the Pope’s Worldwide Prayer Network. In the video prayer, the pope thanked God “for the gift of sport, for those who glorify God through the exercise of their bodies, for the friendships born on the field and the joy of playing as a team.”
The prayer emphasizes that “no one is saved alone” and calls for sport to remain “a school of fraternity, not of empty rivalry, a space of encounter, not exclusion, a path of peace, not violence.” It concludes by asking that “every sport become a parable of life lived with you,” marked by humility in defeat and gratitude in victory.