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Pope has kids play soccer
(I wouldn't say it, of course, but young boys in short pants should not be hanging out around Catholic churches)
Pope has kids play soccer
Benedict XVI tells pilgrims about the value of sport
(ANSA) - Vatican City, September 21 - About 500 children from Italy and Eastern Europe on Wednesday became the first kids ever to be allowed to play soccer on the square in front of St Peter's Basilica .
The boys and girls, aged six to nine and dressed in brightly coloured jerseys, chased footballs over the cobbles as Pope Benedict XVI talked in his general audience about the value of sport .
Sport is "an educational instrument and an important vehicle for human and spiritual values," Benedict told the 26,000 pilgrims who had also gathered in the square, at a distance from the ongoing soccer games .
He asked everyone to make sport a vehicle through which to "build a society based on reciprocal respect, fairness and solidarity between all peoples." Attending the audience was a host of top brass from the world of soccer, including the entire UEFA executive committee, Italian soccer federation chief Franco Carraro, and former French star Michel Platini, who is also head of Fifa's technical committee. The children, who played on happily as the leader of the world's one billion Catholics spoke, mostly came from a Rome school and from the Italian Soccer Federation's youth section. There were also some young players from Azerbaijan and Belarus, countries which benefited over the summer from a sport and education project organised by the Federation and the Vatican .
"I scored five goals," shouted Marco, an eight-year-old from Rome, who added that he wanted to dedicate his goals to Benedict's predecessor, John Paul II .
A group of the children were taken up to meet the pope at the end of the audience. They gave him a 'friendship' bag containing soccer jerseys, a football and a hat .
Luigi Agnolin, head of the federation's youth section, explained that having children play in front of St Peter's enabled the pope to show the importance he attached to 'street soccer' .
"This is the real soccer, a soccer which is not just about the technical qualities of a player or a team, but also about giving kids the right attitude to enable them to grow in the widest sense," he said .
Ottavio Bonincontro, head of the federation's soccer school, added: "This sport transmits respect for one's adversaries, respect for rules, tolerance, friendship, serenity and the value of group activity."
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