World Cup fever - 3

Allow s to give a new twist to our mini-series about World Cup fever. Today we would like to involve the Pope himself, albeit when he was still a cardinal.

Competition in soccer can be a form of "training for life" in society, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger told a Bavarian radio audience in 1978. The words of the future Pontiff, broadcast as the 1978 World Cup competition opened in Argentina, were rebroadcast by Vatican Radio as this year's competition began in Germany.

Soccer games can symbolise the challenges of everyday life, the Archbishop of Munich told his people in 1978. They also teach important lessons, as players learn how discipline can help them to find new freedom, and self-sacrifice can help individuals unite to achieve a common goal.

"Soccer is like life," the future Pope told his Bavarian radio audience. The excitement of the World Cup, he added, "can give us something more than simple entertainment."

"Almost nothing else on earth" brings as many people together as the World Cup competition, the cardinal observed. Millions of people all around the world, despite their differences, are "united by the same feelings of hope, fear, passion, and joy". The intensity of those feelings, he said, suggests that the competition touches "a very deep ancestral sentiment".

During a private audience with Pope Benedict a couple of weeks ago, a visiting German politician said that he discussed this year's World Cup with the Pontiff, and found him "very impressed with the joyous atmosphere" surrounding the games. Jürgen Rüttgers, the president of North Rhine Westphalia, reported that the Pope was following news of the games "attentively".