I'm Sure They Convinced the Team to Change Their Minds

 Menken wrote about Puritans, but the same holds true for feminists and liberals in general.

"Someone who is deathly afraid that someone, somewhere, is having fun."

Vienna, Austria, Jun 23, 2019 / 08:10 am (CNA).- The international debut of the Vatican women's football team, which was scheduled to play in a friendly against the Vienna FC Mariahilf Saturday, was cancelled after abortion and LGBT activists disrupted the game before it began, local media reported.

According to several local media reports, players of the Viennese soccer team Mariahilf lifted their jerseys whilst the Vatican anthem was playing, displaying painted ovaries and pro-abortion messages. Activists also displayed LGBT banners on the sidelines at the venue.

The Vatican team, who had been invited to Vienna by FCM, decided not to go ahead with the June 22 match.

The Apostolic Nuncio in Austria, Pedro Lopez Quintana, witnessed the protests but was not involved in the decision to cancel the game, local media reported.

The friendly was scheduled to kick off in the early afternoon in a sports arena in Wien-Simmering. Beforehand, both sides had participated in a prayer service and blessing of the pitch.

Austrian state broadcaster ORF quoted one of the FCM players involved in the protest as saying the activists were "not aware of the consequences of their action in any way and would have liked to play the football match".

Only Problem....Someone HAS to Win

The Catholic News Agency has handicapped the world Cup, kinda.

Croatia:

Croatia’s patron saint is St. Joseph. You can’t do much better than that. Unless your patron saint is the Blessed Virgin Mary. France’s patron saint is the Blessed Virgin Mary, in addition to several other saints.

St. Jerome was born in the region of Dalmatia. So was St. Marko Krizin, a priest of the Counter-reformation, and St Leopold Mandic, a pious Capuchin missionary. St. Nicholas Tavelic was a Croatian Franciscan, who was martyred in 1391 in Jerusalem after refusing to convert to Islam, along with 3 Franciscan companions.

In 2003, Pope St. John Paul II dedicated a church to the Croatian martyrs, soldiers who were slaughtered by invading Ottoman forces in the 15th century. Hundreds of thousands of other Croats have faced martyrdom and persecution, and died holy deaths in discipleship of Jesus Christ.

France:

St. Joan of Arc. St. John Vianney. St. Therese of Lisieux. St. Remy. St. Denis. St. Peter Faber. St. Isaac Jogues. St. Louis IX of France. St. Vincent de Paul. I’m really just getting warmed up. This category is going to France.

The point:

In its long history, Croatia has presumably given the Church many holy men and women, but many of them remain unknown. Over the centuries, the holy people of central European countries have not gained as much attention as those from western Europe. This is unfortunate. But France has a lot of saints. A lot. France gets the point.

FIFA Does Religion

Not much meat in this article, but I laughed at the last line quoted.

Washington D.C., Jul 6, 2018 / 12:00 pm (CNA).- As a passionate soccer fan, Jennifer Bryson has been faithfully watching every game she can during the 2018 FIFA World Cup. But as a religious freedom expert, she’s found herself wondering how, and why, soccer authorities regulate the many religious expressions on display in the international soccer tournament.

“Sport is so relevant to religious freedom because it offers a shared civic space where people from diverse traditions come together and compete towards a common goal," said Bryson, who is the director of the Religious Freedom Institute’s Islam and Religious Freedom Action Team.

Bryson watches for the moments when an athlete visibly prays in gratitude after a goal or makes the sign of the cross while coming onto the field, noting how the referees react to these religious expressions.

What does she expect to see?

Stupidity on Stilts

Benedict XVI’s aide: 2014 World Cup led to his leaving
The geniuses at the Washington Post have it figured out.

World Cup Prediction : Argentina 3, Germany 1

Argentina 3, and Germany 1

Islamic Outreach, Part XLVII

From an earlier post on this blog:

Pope Francis spoke to the diplomatic corps and amongst other things, said, "Hence it is important to intensify dialogue among the various religions, and I am thinking particularly of dialogue with Islam."

Meanwhile...

 Before the winner of the Brazil World Cup has even been decided, the 2022 event is facing fresh threats. And this time, it’s not down to construction delays or street protests, it’s ambitious terrorists. The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, the terrorist organisation currently wreaking havoc in the Middle East, issued a bizarrely polite threat to FIFA earlier this week, warning them not to hold the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.
The group claims that by that stage, Qatar will be a part of its newly-declared Islamic Caliphate, “under the rule of the Caliph Ibrahim Bin Awad Alqarshi” (the full name of ISIS leader Al Baghdady). Under that caliphate, football games will be considered “a diversion from Islam”.

They Probably Disagreed About the Refreshments

Pope Benedict is a beer guy, Francis is a wine guy.

From the Associated Press:

VATICAN CITY — The Vatican says it is unlikely that Pope Francis and his predecessor, Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, would get together to watch their home teams in the World Cup final on Sunday.
Vatican spokesman, the Rev. Federico Lombardi, said Thursday that the hour of the final is late for Francis’ routine, and acknowledged with a chuckle that Benedict wasn’t known as an avid sports fan. Still, he didn’t rule anything out, saying, “we’ll see in the coming days.”
Pope Francis has already given his word that there would be no papal intervention in Argentina’s fortunes, promising he wouldn’t pray for any team. German-born Benedict’s interests are known to lean more toward intellectual than athletic pursuits.
Lombardi said “both would want the better team to win, without taking sides.”

WORLD CUP UPDATE, BRAZIL VS. GERMANY EDITION

From Eye of the Tiber:

Kingdom of Heaven––Speaking from His Eternal Throne of Cherubim, God the Creator of all that is visible and invisible confirmed today that while His Love for all mankind is as boundless as the sand on the seashore, He is “not a fan” of Brazil.

 

“From the beautiful beaches of its coast along the Atlantic to its lush rain forest surrounding the Amazon River, the Almighty harbors a deep and serious hatred for the country of Brazil,” said St. Gabriel the Archangel, Press Secretary of the Kingdom of Heaven since the resignation of Jay Carney earlier this year. “The Trinitarian Godhead, who is infinite both in His Justice and His Mercy, just plain old doesn’t like the place, and for some reason contained in His Mysterious Providence, wishes for its people nothing but bitter sadness in their life. That is why he allowed Brazil to suffer such a bitter and humiliating loss to the German National Team.”

The Archangel explained, however, that this hatred is “not in any way” toward the souls of the Brazilian people, and His Salvific Grace is always poured out to them. “It’s not that the Alpha/Omega desires their eternal torment; He wishes that all men be saved. But in this temporal life, the Creator simply wants them to suffer with terrible agony.”
St. Gabriel reassured the public that Brazil is not alone in the Almighty’s hatred. “I know that the lands of Haiti and Iraq are definitely up there as well.” When asked about the city of Detroit, the archangel abruptly announced, “This press conference is over.”

WORLD CUP UPDATE, ITALY VS COSTA RICA

From Eye of the Tiber:

BRAZIL–Thousands of soccer fans around the globe were witness to the miraculous recovery of an Italian soccer player this morning after he was viciously tapped in the thigh by a Costa Rican defender.
It happened in the 23 minute of a game between Italy and Costa Rica earlier today when Italian striker Mario Balotelli went down after being ever so gently tapped in the thigh by Costa Rica’s Bryan Ruiz.
One witness  told EOTT moments after the game that, although the foul did not look bad from the numerous replays that were shown of the incident that led to Balotelli falling to the ground as though he had just been shot by a sniper, that fans knew it had to be serious the moment Balotelli began screaming in agony as he decided whether to clutch at his left or right thigh.
“I remember the entire stadium became quiet,” said Italy fan Floriana Abate. “Everyone in the stadium dropped to their knees and began to pray to St. Sebastian. There was not even a scratch on Balotelli, so we believed it must have been internal bleeding.  Still, most of us could not even look at the poor man suffering. It looked like someone was stabbing him in the thigh over and over again. Many people were in tears, and those who did look began to scream to God to help him. Watching this poor man suffering so much…we did not think he was going to make it.”
But just seconds after the collision, video of the game shows Balotelli miraculously rising to his feet as though nothing had ever happened. Witnesses say that people in the stadium began to praise God for the miracle, including the players on the field who dropped to their knees and began to say a rosary in thanksgiving.
“How someone can recover so quickly, so instantaneously…this is surely the work of God,” Abate continued. “My sister…my sister was an atheist before we walked into the stadium. Not so anymore.”

St. Sebastian, Patron Saint of Athletes. Get it?

Funny...He Doesn't LOOK Italian....

There's quite a tempest brewing over an advertisement playing in Italy. The advertisement shows the Christ the Redeemer statue that overlooks Rio de Janeiro.

 From Catholic Culture:

The Archdiocese of Rio de Janeiro is “deeply offended” by an Italian television network’s advertisement for World Cup coverage, which included an image of the famous “Christ the Redeemer” statue wearing the jersey of the Italian national team.
The digitally altered image of the statue that was broadcast by the Rai network was an insult to the faith and to the city, the Brazilian archdiocese said. Church officials threatened to take legal action against the broadcaster. 

Personally I think that if Jesus had in fact played for the Italian National team, the three times he fell during the Stations of the Cross would have been fake dives.

Clericus Cup Final

The Martyrs of Pontifical North American College beat  the Legionaries of Christ's Mater Ecclesiae College, 1-0, to take the Clericus Cup for the second year in a row. I credit the fans as much as second-year seminarian Andrew Mattingly of the Diocese of Kansas City - St. Joseph's, Missouri who scored the lone goal. He dedicated the goal to Mary the Mother of God.

2013 Clericus Cup Update!

From Catholic News Service:

ROME — The North American Martyrs won their third game of the season in the Clericus Cup soccer league March 16 and will be advancing to the spring playoffs. The team from the Pontifical North American College, the U.S. seminary in Rome, is defending its title as winner of last year’s tournament, vying once again for the coveted trophy featuring a soccer ball wearing a clerical hat.

CLEAR EYES...FULL HEARTS...FANS DRESSED LIKE SUPERHEROES...CAN'T LOSE!

San Lorenzo de Almagro

From the team's website:

"Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio was designated as the new Pope at the Vatican. On top of how special this announcement is for Argentina, Pope Francis is also a fervent fan of San Lorenzo de Almagro. The Club is privileged to have Pope Francis among its members (Club member #88,235)."

ESPN says:

"Jorge Mario Bergoglio, elected as the new pope on Wednesday, is a fan of San Lorenzo who lives in "a permanent state of suffering" for the Argentine club."

A Look at Clericus Cup

A Look at Clericus Cup: Football is a global sport which are played not only by professional players but also people from different line of work, including priests. In fact, there's an annual competition named Clericus Cup which involved seminarians along with priests from Catholic Church. One of the player, participating in the competition, Scott Gratton, said that Clericus Cup…

We WIN!

Aggregate, on penalty kicks.

Clericus Cup 2012

I wasn't blogging at the time so I missed some big soccer news: "The Pontifical North American College Martyrs soccer team won the championship match of the annual Clericus Cup tournament on May 12. They defeated the reigning champions of the Pontifical Gregorian University 3-0."

Clericus Cup Update

QUIET DOWN, WILL YA?!?!

As of Today, I Am a Fan of Inter Milan

 

From www.goal.com:

"A Turkish lawyer who's an expert on European law, Baris Kaska, is asking Uefa to cancel the three points Inter earned in their win against Fenerbahce in the recent Champions League match.

The Nerazzurri had beaten the Turkish champions 3-0 at home to qualify for the next round of the Champions League.

The reason for the appeal is unusual: the celebratory shirt for Inter's centenary worn by the team that night, and on several other occasions this season, offended many people in Turkey.

The shirt's scheme saw a big red cross on a white background, a symbol of the city of Milan, and reminded many of an emblem of the order of the Templars, which is considered offensive in Islamic culture."

We Have a Winner!

 

It's Redemptoris Mater! According to this article (which doesn't tell you the final score) a controversial call late in the game was the deciding factor. One of the Lateran players taunted the ref with, "You couldn't even ref a game back in the parish". That had to hurt!

A final review of the game?

"One sports correspondent watching the action said the protests were down to the large number of Italian players on the field. "It was just like any Sunday in Serie A," he said, "although with no swearing."

Clericus Cup FINALS

Today is the day! The finals of the Clerus Cup finds the Mother of the Redeemer facing off against the Pontifical Lateran University. Who will win??? God knows...