Poster. History of the Catholic Church and Sports. History Essay

Sport and Church
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Many societies around the world have engaged in sporting activities for many years. They have used sports as a platform to not only interact but also compete and where victors receive accolades, prizes and recognition in society. While this is the case, there are narratives that Christians and particularly, Catholics took some time before embracing sports because the body and soul were perceived to be two different entities. It is shared that according to Catholic faithful’s during the early periods, the body was sinful and evil and as such, was always considered to be inferior to the spirit and soul. As such, it was believed that engagement and participation in sporting activities would drive one further away from God and into a life of sin and worldly pleasures. Proponents of this school of thought further note that it is not until Pope Leo III through his Encyclical Letter of 1891 where he encouraged the establishment of Catholic Sports Organizations that Catholic faithful’s begun to embrace sporting activities to develop the youth. However, these narratives are highly believed to be untrue and the correct position is that plays and games were significant components of the early church. The research paper seeks to examine and describe the development of sports in the Catholic faith and provide several factors that support play and games being present during the early church.
History of the Catholic Church and Sports
The Catholic Church is widely known for the strong stand and position it takes on matters that it considers will jeopardize the relationship between mankind and God. It is this belief that the Catholic was initially hell bent on embracing sporting activities as platforms that its followers could take up during their free time. During the periods that preceded the 19th century, members of the Catholic faith believed that the body and soul were two distinct entities with the former being sinful (Bebbington, 2003). It was also the belief of many Catholic faithful’s that the body was inferior to the soul and was continuously driving mankind into activities including sports that pushed them further from the teachings of God (Ober and Wishard, 1927). Based on these negative attitudes, Catholics failed to recognize physical recreation and sports as being important. According to Bebbington, (2003), “Early Christianity gradually built a foundation based on asceticism, which is a belief that evil exists in the body, and therefore, the body should be subordinate to the pure spirit”. From the above statement, promotion of sporting activities was tantamount to siding with the devil and as such, strongly prohibited.
It is widely believed that the prohibition of sporting activities among the Catholic faithful’s was in part fostered from the repressive regime of the Puritans not only in England but also America (Ober, 1891). Puritans comprised of individuals who were of the notion that they had a unique covenant with God and that they primarily tasked with making the society change their sinful ways. According to (Constatini, 2011), “The Puritan work ethic played a significant role in shaping their attitudes towards play: the...