In a general audience on January 9 with representatives and players from the Italian football league and lower division clubs, Pope Benedict XVI said: "The sport of football can be an instrument of education for the values of honesty, solidarity and fraternity, especially for the younger generation".

Against a background of Italian football tarnished by corruption, match-fixing scandals and more recently by violent crowd trouble, the Vatican last October endorsed a campaign launched by the lower league club Ancona to turn itself a "beacon of morality" by adopting an "innovative, ethical model of practising football".

Receiving a delegation of Ancona football team officials, the Pope said: "Football should increasingly become a tool for the teaching of life's ethical and spiritual values".

Both Benedict XVI and John Paul II have clearly stressed the importance of sport in life.

While Benedict XVI never practised sport, he was known for his walks on the mountains in Bavaria. And Pope John Paul II, besides being a good skier and an athlete, was also a keen football fan, reportedly playing in goal during his youth in Poland.

The 'Catechism of the Catholic Church' encourages the respect for health: "Life and physical health are precious gifts entrusted to us by God. We must take reasonable care of them, taking into account the needs of others and the common good."

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