“Every sport, at both the amateur and the competitive level, requires basic human qualities such as rigorous preparation, continual training, awareness of one’s personal limits, fair play, acceptance of rules, respect for one’s opponent and a sense of solidarity and unselfishness” wrote the late Pope John Paul II.

Canonized Sunday (along with John XXII) as a Saint in the Catholic Church, John Paul II believed in sports as a means for building character and spirituality. Based on this attitude, the John Paul 2 Foundation 4 Sport was launched in 2010 to help organize athletics opportunities for youths without access to sports clubs or teams. 

We closely share John Paul II’s ideas here at the Institute for Sport, Spirituality and Character Development. We believe that sports possess an inescapable spiritual and ethical dimension and that, through athletics, we can work to enrich relationships with ourselves, others, and God while promoting an awareness of the need to go beyond self in service to others.

Through the ubiquity of media and the sharing of stories, we are lucky to witness many examples of this ideal. Just within the last few days we have seen:

• Players from Florida Southern College carried an injured opponent from Eckerd College around the bases on Saturday after she hit a home run. Unable to complete the lap herself, the act was one of true sportsmanship that placed help for another above the ideas of winning or losing.