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Vatican Sets Up Sports Department
Associated Press ^ | August 3, 2004, 1:52 PM EDT | FRANCES D'EMILIO

Posted on 08/03/2004 2:53:03 PM PDT by topcat54

Vatican Sets Up Sports Department

By FRANCES D'EMILIO

Associated Press Writer


August 3, 2004, 1:52 PM EDT

VATICAN CITY --

He made saves as a soccer goalkeeper in his high school years in Poland, skied and kayaked in Europe and swam laps in the papal pool. Now Pope John Paul II has set up a sports department to give the Vatican a kind of new playing field in its drive to spread Christian values around the world.

The Vatican announced the initiative Tuesday, pointing to the millions of people who will follow the Olympics in Athens this month as proof of the important role sports plays in today's world.

"The Holy Father has always been interested in sports, and as a means of evangelization and a great way to form youth," said the Rev. Kevin Lixey, an American priest involved in establishing the department in the Pontifical Council for Lay People.

(Excerpt) Read more at newsday.com ...


TOPICS: Humor; Religion & Culture
KEYWORDS: papacy; soccer; sports; vatican
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1 posted on 08/03/2004 2:53:18 PM PDT by topcat54
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To: topcat54

>>>> Now Pope John Paul II has set up a sports department to give the Vatican a kind of new playing field in its drive to spread Christian values around the world.

"Christian" values like pedophilia and sodomy? The Catholic church has no business organizing youth activities until they have shown REAL commitment about curing the cancers inside rather than just masking or relocating them.


2 posted on 08/03/2004 3:06:55 PM PDT by jojodamofo
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To: jojodamofo

Now come on. The Church organizes youth activities all the time. Sometimes I get the feeling that people are just trying to smear the Church. As in: you have no right to tell me what to do, how to live, what is and what is not a sin, until you get rid of all the abuse. Which by the way is just as prevalent among Protestant ministers, teachers, everyone who has access to children.


3 posted on 08/03/2004 3:36:19 PM PDT by Lilllabettt
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To: jojodamofo

I agree with your screen name.


4 posted on 08/03/2004 3:40:15 PM PDT by sinkspur (It is time to breed the dangerous Pit Bull Terrier out of existence!)
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To: jojodamofo
"Christian" values like pedophilia and sodomy? The Catholic church has no business organizing youth activities

Do you have any idea how many CYO's - Catholic Youth Organizations - keep city kids off the streets? And who do you think is coaching these teams? Are you implying that Catholic parents (and grandparents) are going to molest their own children? I coach my grandson's basketball team and I'm telling you the Philadelphia cops love us. We have our games on Friday nights when a good number of Philadelphia's undirected youths are hanging around WaWa trying to get an adult to buy them cigarettes.

5 posted on 08/03/2004 5:04:15 PM PDT by old and tired
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To: Lilllabettt; sinkspur

I'm glad sports are becoming part of an official policy. One of the great things about CYO sports is that we can have girls teams and boys teams. The public schools have girls teams and co-ed teams - in other words no teams exclusively for boys. I really believe sports is a big part of growing healthy well adjusted young men. And that's a lot harder to do when boys are forced to play out their aggressions against girls.


6 posted on 08/03/2004 5:13:12 PM PDT by old and tired
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To: topcat54

And if this doesn't work, they might try opening up amusement parks. And if that doesn't work--how about a chain of restaurants, with the Blessed Sacrament served up with a side of spaghetti? This is obscene. These people are not Catholics.


7 posted on 08/03/2004 6:15:50 PM PDT by ultima ratio
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To: Lilllabettt

No, you come on. These people haven't a clue. They should be investigating why our youth is not being catechized. To hell with a sports department!


8 posted on 08/03/2004 6:17:32 PM PDT by ultima ratio
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To: old and tired

It's their SOULS the Vatican should be worried about, but apparently isn't--not enough to improve catechesis. What a farce!


9 posted on 08/03/2004 6:21:22 PM PDT by ultima ratio
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To: ultima ratio
This is all fine and good, I think sports can offer a lot to kids, but it does seem like they're living in some alternate universe.

It's hard for me to take this seriously. And most people will look upon this as concerning themselves with something less important than what they should be concerning themselves with.

It just makes them seem so out of touch. It's the Vatican PR equivalent of President Bush's SOTU steriod thing.

10 posted on 08/03/2004 6:28:45 PM PDT by AlbionGirl
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To: ultima ratio
No, you come on. These people haven't a clue. They should be investigating why our youth is not being catechized. To hell with a sports department!

Would you have said that about Pius XII's birds, flying all over the Papal apartments? Lots of the commentary at the time implied Pius XII was goofy, and the birds indicated such.

UR, sometimes you seem so devoid of humanity I think "Ultima Ratio" is really a kiosk, spitting out anti-John Paul II propaganda on command.

Your stridency is approaching silly hysteria.

You're the one who looks totally out of touch, picking at every nit you can.

11 posted on 08/03/2004 7:03:32 PM PDT by sinkspur (IF we were as good as our dogs think we are, what a wonderful world it would be!!)
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To: jojodamofo

"pedophilia and sodomy? The Catholic church"

There were very, very few cases of pedophilia involved in the recent scandals.

There is disagreement on the number, but somewhere between 80 and 99 percent of the cases were ordinary, garden-variety homosexuals doing what ordinary, garden-variety homosexuals have always been known for--preying on teenage boys.

And when I say "always," I mean back to the dawn of recorded history. There's no way of knowing whether they limited themselves to people over 21 before that.


12 posted on 08/03/2004 7:08:36 PM PDT by dsc
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To: jojodamofo

Take your crap elsewhere, troll.


13 posted on 08/03/2004 7:17:43 PM PDT by Conservative til I die
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To: dsc
There is disagreement on the number, but somewhere between 80 and 99 percent of the cases were ordinary, garden-variety homosexuals doing what ordinary, garden-variety homosexuals have always been known for--preying on teenage boys.

The John Jay Study, done for the USCCB, said that 80 percent involved homosexual predatory behavior, 10% was pedophilia, and 10% was heterosexual predatory behavior.

14 posted on 08/03/2004 7:18:32 PM PDT by sinkspur (IF we were as good as our dogs think we are, what a wonderful world it would be!!)
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To: AlbionGirl
And most people will look upon this as concerning themselves with something less important than what they should be concerning themselves with

The Church doesn't care what public opinion says. And that's a good thing.
15 posted on 08/03/2004 7:18:54 PM PDT by Conservative til I die
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To: Conservative til I die

I don't think that's true, but I'm happy to agree to disagree.


16 posted on 08/03/2004 7:20:55 PM PDT by AlbionGirl
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To: sinkspur

Lots of Europeans kept canaries as pets back then. My great grandfather kept birds. Nothing unusual about that. It's a hobby. FDR collected stamps. People in high stations have a right to relax. But instituting a "Sports Department" in the Vatican makes as much sense as instituting a "Movie Department." It shows Rome has absolutely lost its way--it hasn't a clue about where it's going or where it wants to go. It's only good at smashing things.


17 posted on 08/03/2004 7:21:40 PM PDT by ultima ratio
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To: AlbionGirl

It's especially bizarre when kids are being starved of the real faith and nobody seems much concerned. The decline in belief is totally ignored--deliberately ignored, I should say. What Rome apparently wants is to raise a generation ignorant of the faith--so that it may instill more modernist doctrines and replace two thousand years of inconvenient catechesis. If this isn't so--then why is it dithering with such nonsense instead of rolling-up its sleeves and preaching the Gospel?


18 posted on 08/03/2004 7:30:29 PM PDT by ultima ratio
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To: ultima ratio
Pfft!!! Right over your head, UR.

Can't you lighten up for five minutes?

You're like a friggin' machine. Do those lips ever turn up in a smile?

19 posted on 08/03/2004 7:35:27 PM PDT by sinkspur (IF we were as good as our dogs think we are, what a wonderful world it would be!!)
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To: sinkspur

"The John Jay Study, done for the USCCB"

Any study commissioned by the USCCB is tainted and unreliable. No other source I've seen has asserted even 5% pedophilia, much less 10.


20 posted on 08/03/2004 7:43:45 PM PDT by dsc
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