Sport has value

by Michael Shackleton · January 29, 2003

From the days of the earliest human hunters to our own times, we have been fascinated by our capacity to run and to enjoy the thrill of competition.

The ancient Olympic games seem to have derived from the athletic and sporting habits of tribal peoples in northern Europe. Meanwhile, there is evidence that the Chinese enjoyed wrestling and boxing long before that.

The Roman Empire embraced these contests, and Christians had no serious objections to them until the slaughter of the losers in gladiatorial combat prompted the Church to look askance at all games as pagan and barbaric. Consequently, there was a time when the Church in Europe stressed the primacy of spiritual values and was not the friend of sport.

When the cities began to evolve into big and important commercial and educational centres, however, people began to enjoy games again. The aristocracy indulged in pursuits such as horse racing, hunting and hawking. In France it was the nobles who developed the game of tennis. In England Henry VIII encouraged physical and field games.

Meanwhile the common folk invented and enjoyed a variety of ball games and athletic matches. The Church saw virtue in these developments. As a discipline in its schools and colleges, healthy physical competition was recommended as good for the soul and the mind. Pius XI in 1929 said in the encyclical Divini illius magistri, that when sport was included in curricula at Catholic schools, it must always contribute to making the student into a true and perfect Christian.

In this sense, sporting activity is a virtue in itself, yet it can help mould other virtues. It can train the young and old to be courageous in overcoming adversity and to be self-reliant as well as to want to cooperate with others. It can also promote self-control and the idea of fair play in all things.

This theme has been continued by Pius XII, John XXIII, Paul VI and our present Holy Father. All have admitted that sport has a potential for both good and evil but that it is a natural human impulse which, like all such impulses is subject to moral norms and values.

Sport is now a universal feature and has partially developed into a profession.

Professional sport, however, is played by very few in comparison with the vast numbers of ordinary people who follow it avidly. In fact it can encourage its followers to take part in games, which is a valuable asset in community- building.

South Africans know how divisive sports had become in the apartheid days, when our national teams could not compete internationally. The majority of our people, forced into racial segregation by law, refused to support teams selected from the elite ranks of the ruling minority.

This has now changed dramatically. South African national sports teams represent a people that is working hard towards overcoming the past. This is indicated by the success of our recent part in a number of major world competitions.

It is in this spirit that we look forward to the forthcoming world cricket cup on our own soil.