This week St. Aidan’s College, one of the 16 that comprise Durham University, hosted a two day colloquium in collaboration with the John Paul II Foundation for Sport. My colleague Dr. James Kelly, an historian of early modern English Catholicism, and I represented the Centre for Catholic Studies at some of the events, including of course a few nights showing off some of the local pubs to those visiting town. The theme was “Halftime to Rio: Catholic Perspectives on Sport and Spirituality,” a reference to Brazil’s hosting both the World Cup and 2016 Olympics.
The participants included Dr. Mark Nesti, a sports psychologist who has been a member of staff for a number of English Premiere League teams including Bolton Wanderers, Newcastle United, and Hull City, and who now teaches at Liverpool John Moores University, Msgr. Vladimir Felzmann of the JPII Foundation for Sport, and Professors J.A. Mangan of Strathclyde University in Scotland, Simon Lee of Queen’s University Belfast, and Jesuit Father Patrick Kelly of Seattle University.
We discussed sport (in the UK, as elsewhere in Europe, they drop the last “S” so commonly used in America) in a number of contexts intersecting with human flourishing and spirituality: from historical explorations of the concept of sport as interwoven with the revelry of feast-days in medieval Catholicism to the Flow Theory of psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi to the aims and aspirations of exploring sport as a locus for developing virtues, encountering the transcendent, and sanctifying culture through the New Evangelization.
Because it wasn’t an overwhelmingly large affair, we were able to have a number of intimate conversations over meals and drinks where we could discuss the formative role that sport(s) plays in the development of so many human beings, from PE classes to elite-level athletes training for the Olympics to professional “footballers” wrestling with the challenges of a life in the locker-room and on the road.
Where does “play” fit in this schema, one which in Western countries has increasingly taken on the utilitarian push for scholarships, endorsements and the cult of personality surrounding athletics at ever-younger ages? Are there echoes between liturgical practice and the “collective effervescence” experienced as a fan? (I can attest to it, I was there when the Phils won in 2008!) Where does St. Ignatius of Loyola’s value of cura personalis – holistic “care for the entire person,” including but surpassing intellectual development – fit into high school and collegiate athletics?
The conference gave us a chance to explore these and other questions. We were even able to squeeze in a little interactive tutorial on “Cat,” an exceedingly complex traditional Northern English stick-and-ball game that was a staple of the local seminary for well over 200 years.
I was studying sports-journalism in college before I decided to pursue academic theology. Thus, I am convinced that sports play an important role in our culture, social interactions and economy. The World Cup and Olympics make clear that this is a global, and not merely North Atlantic, reality. And where human beings express themselves and engage with one another, God is manifestly present. As the John Paul II Foundation for Sport tries to demonstrate, at their best, participation and enjoyment of sports can be promoted “as a catalyst and conduit to enable all people to embrace a greater vision of, and higher values for, themselves and those around them.”
Plus, Pope Francis unabashedly loves soccer! I mean “football.”
Michael M. Canaris, Ph.D., of Collingswood, is a Research Associate at Durham University’s Centre for Catholic Studies in Northeast England.
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