Pope Francis addressed members of the Vatican's soccer team, comprised of Swiss Guards, priests, Vatican employees, migrants, and a young man with Down syndrome before a charity match with members of the Roma community. <\/p>\n
The event hosted at the Lazio soccer club's training ground supports inclusivity initiatives in the diocese of Rome.<\/p>\n
-'Today we have a historic match, with our brothers and with our friends.'<\/em><\/p>\n POPE FRANCIS Pope Francis heard the testimony of a Romani man, and reflected on his encounter with the Roma community in Ko\u0161ice, Slovakia, in September, recalling the hardships they face integrating into society. <\/p>\n POPE FRANCIS He also stressed the right of children to grow up without discrimination, and recognized the value of sport in bringing people of different backgrounds together. <\/p>\n POPE FRANCIS The Pope was then presented with a jersey with his name written in the Romani language, and which on the front reads \u201con the ball together, against racism, discrimination, and poverty.\u201d<\/p>\n The match was refereed by the captain of Lazio's soccer team, Ciro Immobile, and the final score was 7-7.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n JM<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" November 22, 2021. The Pope spoke about the role of sport in bringing people together before a charity soccer match organized by the Vatican.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":12092,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24],"tags":[],"acf":{"video":"https:\/\/youtu.be\/SgDdcrPYwQg","video_descarga":"http:\/\/attuale.romereports.com\/news\/bpartitapapaeng.mp4","international_url":"http:\/\/attuale.romereports.com\/news\/bpartitapapaint.mp4","type":"bn","newsletter":"si"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.romereports.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44568"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.romereports.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.romereports.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.romereports.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44568"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.romereports.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44568\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.romereports.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12092"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.romereports.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44568"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.romereports.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44568"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.romereports.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44568"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n<\/strong>'Thank you all for agreeing to be part of the 'Pope's team.' It is a team where there are no divisions and which simply makes inclusion the norm.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n
\n<\/strong>'All too often, I told the Roma people of Ko\u0161ice, 'you have been the object of prejudice and harsh judgments, discriminatory stereotypes, defamatory words and gestures. As a result, we are all poorer, poorer in humanity.'\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n
\n<\/strong>'Children, all children, have the right to grow up together, without obstacles and without discrimination. And sport is a place of encounter and equality, and can build community through bridges of friendship.'<\/em><\/p>\n