As Pope Leo XIV continues to highlight the values of sport as a path to fraternity, encounter, and human flourishing, nearly 100 seminarians and priests studying in Rome gathered for the third annual Coppa di San Paolo, or St. Paul’s Cup.
Football and the Universal Language of Faith
The seven-a-side football tournament, organized by the Pontifical Scottish College and the Pontifical Beda College, brought together participants from nine pontifical colleges representing countries from around the world. For a day, cassocks gave way to football kits as future priests took to the pitch in a celebration of friendship, vocation, and the joy of the Gospel.
According to Canon Marcus Holden, rector of the Pontifical Beda College, football shares something important with the Catholic faith: its universality. Just as the Church brings together people from every culture and nation, football creates a common language capable of uniting individuals from vastly different backgrounds. Yet the game offers more than simple recreation. It teaches teamwork, encourages personal excellence, and provides an opportunity to compete in a healthy and charitable way.
Before the opening whistle, Holden led the players in prayer, reminding participants that the tournament was about more than winning matches. It was an opportunity to experience the Church’s catholicity in a tangible way. Many of the seminarians already study together in Rome, but playing together on the field offered another way to deepen bonds of friendship and fraternity.
A Shared Call to the Priesthood
While the players represented different seminaries and countries, they shared a common vocation: a desire to dedicate their lives to Christ and His Church.
For Theodore de Menezes of the Venerable English College, that vocation began with what he described as a powerful attraction to Christ in the Eucharist. Similarly, Melwin Baby of the Almo Collegio Capranica reflected on the wonder of the priesthood, noting that every day at the altar Christ offers His Body and Blood to humanity, and that a priest is privileged to participate in that mystery through the consecration of the Eucharist.
That shared love for the Eucharist and commitment to priestly formation gave the tournament a deeper significance. The competition served not only as a sporting event but also as an opportunity to pray for vocations and strengthen relationships among future priests preparing to serve the universal Church.
Even Holden joined the action himself, taking the field as a striker. Reflecting on the experience, he expressed gratitude for the health and abilities that still allowed him to play, seeing the tournament as a joyful expression of community among seminarians from across the globe.
Forming Body, Mind, and Soul
The event also reflected Pope Leo’s frequent emphasis on the harmony of body, mind, and spirit.
Liam Murphy of the Venerable English College noted that seminary formation involves more than study and prayer. Physical activity, he explained, helps future priests develop as whole persons, encouraging them to care for their bodies alongside their intellectual and spiritual lives.
De Menezes likewise observed that sport makes the unity of body and soul particularly visible. Football, he suggested, demonstrates a deeply human reality in which physical effort and spiritual friendship come together. The competition on the field may resemble a battle, but it is ultimately rooted in fraternity and mutual respect.
These experiences echo Pope Leo’s vision of sport as a means of restoring balance within the human person. Through discipline, teamwork, and healthy competition, athletes learn lessons that extend well beyond the game itself.
Evangelizing Through Sport
For Father Mark Cassidy, rector of the Pontifical Scots College, events like the Coppa di San Paolo also offer an opportunity for evangelization.
He explained that human formation is one of the essential dimensions of priestly preparation. Future priests must be well-rounded individuals capable of connecting with people through a variety of interests and experiences. Sport, alongside music and culture, provides a natural point of encounter.
Rather than waiting for people to enter a church, Cassidy argued, Christians must be willing to meet others where they are. Sport offers a particularly effective way of doing so because it creates opportunities for friendship, dialogue, and shared experience.
By the end of the tournament, the competition, camaraderie, and occasional slide tackle had done more than determine a winner. They had provided a witness to the joy of vocational life and the bonds that unite the Church across cultures and continents.
In a world often marked by division, the seminarians’ time on the pitch served as a reminder that sport can be a place of encounter—not only with others, but also with oneself, and ultimately with God.
Adapted by Jacob Stein. Produced by Bénédicte Cedergren. Camera by Gian Piero Passalia
