Thursday, March 28, AD 2024 5:25am

PopeWatch: No Gold for the Vatican

VATICAN-POPE-AUDIENCE

One loss is good for the soul.  Too many losses is not good for the coach.

Knute Rockne

From the only reliable source of Catholic news on the net, Eye of the Tiber:

SOCHI, Russia––For only the third time in Winter Games history, the United States swept the podium, capturing the top three spots Thursday in Slopestyle Skiing’s Olympic debut, an event that many sports historians say was created in the past four years by a half-baked college kid in his dorm room in Colorado. In the meantime, the Vatican has yet to medal, leading EOTT to ask just why the Holy See National Team has failed to take to the podium.

“From what I’ve seen, it’s probably because there is no Holy See Olympic team. I’d definitely start there,” said EOTT sports reporter S.C. Naoum in an interview with Raymond Arroyo this morning. “The problem is that the Church is not impulsive. They take their time with nearly everything, including canonizations, which have been known to take centuries. There’s no way they could ever learn the ever-changing sports that seemingly materialize out of nowhere every four years.

The last time the Holy See had an Olympian was in the 2012 Vancouver games when Father Roberto Manisini competed in Cross Country Skiing. Mansini took last place that year after Vatican officials took nearly three months to pray and contemplate whether Mansisni should remain behind the pack to conserve energy, or to try to take an early lead. Afterwards came another two years of back-and-forth paper work passed from one Vatican department to the other, until then Pope Benedict XVI gave his final seal of approval to conserve his energy and wait for a better opportunity. Mansini came in last with a time of 19,723 hours.

Go here to read the rest.  In 2000 Pope John Paul II established the Vatican’s Sports Department.  In 2012 the Vatican did field an Olympic team which won a silver medal in synchronized swimming.  The Vatican City National football team did defeat Portugal 2-1 although the Portuguese coach said that some of his players were worried about scoring against God’s football team.  It is merely a rumor that Pope Francis is considering canonizing Knute Rockne and asking for his intercession for Vatican sports teams.

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Mary De Voe
Saturday, February 22, AD 2014 6:37am

“The Vatican City National football team did defeat Portugal 2-1 although the Portuguese coach said that some of his players were worried about scoring against God’s football team.”
For long, Notre Dame’s football team has been making “Hail Mary passes”. Fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.

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