While the Paris 2024 Olympic Village will host a multi-faith centre and the Catholic Church wishes to play a role in this global event, historian Yvon Tranvouez looks back at the relationship between sport and religion.
Were you surprised that the Church wanted to play a role during the Olympics?
YVON TRANVOUEZ. No, what surprises me is that she feels the need to justify herself. We are told that this is an opportunity for the Church to talk about its relationship to the body, after the crisis of sexual abuse. It seized this opportunity to remobilize its troops.
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When did the link between church and religion begin?
When sport took off at the end of the nineteenth century, there were tensions between the Church and the Republic. Two competing sports networks were formed, that of Catholic patronage and that of lay patronage. The "patros" being structures of supervision of the youth. Each camp has its federation, the Catholic FGSPF, the secular Ufolep, and we have even seen the emergence of workers' sport. Little by little, federations developed in a neutral framework. Famous clubs are the result of Catholic patronage: in football, the Association de la jeunesse auxerroise – AJ Auxerre long led by Father Deschamps – or in basketball the Cercle Saint-Pierre de Limoges. For the record, Pope Francis is a football fan.
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How was Father Dido involved in the birth of the modern Olympic Games?
This Dominican founded a sports association at the college of Arcueil (Val-de-Marne), of which he was the director. Pierre de Coubertin had gone to see him because he wanted to organize competitions between public and Catholic schools. Father Dido wanted to bring the Church closer to the Republic, and if it could go through sport, why not? The motto Citius, altius, fortius ("Faster, higher, stronger"), is from him! Pierre de Coubertin adopted it when he created the International Olympic Committee (IOC) in 1894.
"The motto Citius, altius, fortius ("Faster, higher, stronger") is from Father Dido," explains historian Yvon Tranvouez. DR
Does the Church reinvest sport in general?
Yes. Catholic patronage is returning to working-class neighborhoods. Salesian religious or priests of the community of St. Martin, for example, are particularly attentive to this. But the novelty is that today the patros are open to all, including young Muslims.