(RNS) — On Thursday (July 25), hundreds of French Catholics gathered in the Basilica Cathedral of Saint-Denis, the northern Paris suburb hosting the Olympic Village, to pray and bless athletes before the competition’s Friday opening.
Joseph Green, a 22-year-old track-and-field runner from Guam, broke into tears as the crowd massed around him in a prayer chain.
“It got to my heart,” Green said. “Standing in this beautiful church, hearing all the beautiful voices, and seeing all the people who showed up really got to me.”
The Rev. Eugène Doussal, administrator of the Saint-Denis diocese, presented Green with a medal that features Mary the Virgin and is said to bestow miracles. The same medal first adorned Usain Bolt and appeared around his neck during the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, where the Jamaican sprinter won his third gold medal. Green, who like Bolt, specializes in the 100-meter dash, said the ceremony felt special for him because prayer is his main ritual before a race.
The vigil was the first of a series of upcoming events organized by Holy Games, an initiative planned for the past two years by Paris’ archdiocese and the Bishops’ Conference of France as a way to spiritually support athletes, coaches and visitors. Holy Games, said Isabelle de Chatellus, the project’s director, is an occasion for French Catholics to center faith and spirituality while the whole world turns its eyes to Paris. She argues that the initiative aims to show that sports can be a path to sanctity, not only for athletes but for everyone.
French Catholics pray for athletes in the Basilica Cathedral of Saint-Denis, Thursday, July 25, 2024, in Saint-Denis, a northern suburb of Paris. (Photo by Fiona André)
“We asked ourselves: ‘The games are coming. What can we possibly do? How can we plant the cross in this event to accompany the world of sports?’” de Chatellus said in her opening remarks.
Green was the only athlete who responded to the invitation, but those gathered prayed for many others. Standing in the choir of the 12th-century Gothic Cathedral, the ceremony’s emcee asked all the participants to visit a website counting the number of prayers made for athletes. “Just scan the QR code and pick one on the list,” he announced, noting that special attention should be given to members of the Refugee Olympic Team competing under the International Olympic Committee’s banner.
Bishop Gobilliard, the Holy See’s delegate to the 2024 Games, also attended the ceremony.
Reverend Joseph Fitzgerald, from the diocese of Rockville Centre, New York, noted how the efforts made by the French Church through the Holy Games initiative have inspired American clergy ahead of the 2028 Olympics.
Fitzgerald competed with the U.S. handball team in the 1996 Olympics and was sent by the U.S. Bishops’ Conference to help and accompany the American delegation. Spiritual counseling, he explained, couldn’t be more important in competitions like these.
His mission, he said, will focus on reminding athletes that what matters most isn’t “how they perform and do, but to know that God sees them.”
