By Joseph Tulloch

Pope Leo XIV met on Tuesday morning with members of SSC Napoli, the football club which on Friday won the Italian league title.

In a brief speech delivered before greeting the players, the Pope reflected on the importance of teamwork and the “moral quality” of sport.

Before reading his address, however, the Pope joked with the players, suggesting that they hadn’t wanted to applaud for him because the press had reported that he was a Roma fan.

A team victory

Pope Leo then read his speech, beginning by congratulating the team for their victory, which he called “a great celebration for all of Naples.”

Some 200,000 fans thronged the city’s streets on Monday, May 26, for Napoli’s victory parade.

The Pope told the club that, in the past, when a team won a trophy, attention was paid to the performances and skills of individual players.

Today, however, we recognise that “it’s the team who wins the championship … the players, the manager and his staff, and the sports club” as a whole, the Pope noted.

This, Pope Leo said, was the aspect of Napoli’s victory that he wanted to emphasise the most: “the example of a team—in the broad sense—that works together, with individual talents put at the service of the whole.”

Sport’s moral dimension

The Pope then added that he wanted to briefly discuss the “educational” role of sport.

“Unfortunately,” he said, “when sport becomes a business, it risks losing the values that make it educational, and it can even become harmful from that point of view.”

This is particularly important when it comes to teenagers, the Pope noted, and he appealed to parents and coaches to “pay close attention to the moral quality of the sporting experience.”

“What’s at stake,” he warned, “is the human development of young people.”

Best wishes from Rosa

Pope Leo then brought his address to an end by thanking the squad for their visit, congratulating them again on their victory, and offering his blessing to the team members and their families.

He also passed on best wishes from Rosa, one of his cooks: “Congratulations also from a lady who’s been cooking for me recently, and who is from Naples. She says: ‘Congratulations!’ … that’s from Rosa, a big fan.”