On September 30, Pope Francis delivered an address to participants in the international summit “Sport for all: cohesive, accessible and tailored to each person.”

Sport “contributes to the formation of mature and successful personalities, and thus becomes an important aspect of education and socialization,” said the Pope. “Outside this context, it runs the risk of degenerating into a ‘machine’ of business, profit, and consumer-driven showmanship, which produces ‘celebrities’ to be exploited.”

“For this reason, we have a responsibility to ensure that sports are accessible to all,” he continued. “We must remove those physical, social, cultural and economic barriers that prevent or hinder access to sports. We should be committed to giving everyone the opportunity to play sports, to cultivate—one could say to be ‘trained’ in—the values of sport and transform them into virtues.”