Paris (France). While the attention of the whole world is focused on the city of Paris where from 26 July to 11 August 2024 there are the Olympic Games, the French Episcopal Conference, with the desire to value the Christian dimension of the Olympics, launched the Holy Games. It is a series of initiatives to animate the churches and squares of the city, with the aim of spreading the values of fraternity, respect, sacrifice, and healthy sport.
The parishes of the cities hosting the events of the Olympic Games were asked to be open, proactive, and welcoming towards tourists, athletes, and pilgrims, encouraging the faithful to encounter and evangelization.
The Communities of the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians of Our Lady of the Nations Province (FRB) and the Salesians of Don Bosco of St. Francis de Sales Province (FRB), were responsible for taking charge of one of the two Churches in Paris to animate them at this time. The first is the church of the Madeleine, dedicated to all that is artistic, while the second, the Church of St. Sulpice, the largest in Paris, serves as the Cathedral.
A team of thirty young people from the Salesian Youth Movement of France-Belgium joined SDB and FMA to live this beautiful missionary experience, animating the square with games, welcoming the tourists who pass by, talking about the Salesian Charism, inviting them to play and to enter to visit the church.
Within the church there is a warm welcome, which manifests itself in asking people where they come from, creating bonds of fraternity, and offering them prayer, support or simply listening to what they are experiencing.
The Salesian team has been entrusted with some significant moments to animate. They also had the opportunity to attend the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games on 26 July and some sports competitions.
On 30 July, at the church of Saint-Sulpice, they organized an ecumenical vigil in which Sister Valentine Delafon, FMA, French champion of cycling of the religious in 2022, brought her testimony together with Mark Gangloff, a 42-year-old American swimmer with two medals at the Athens (2004) and Beijing (2008) Olympics, and an American Evangelical pastor from Atlanta, Robert Comeaux.
On 31 July in St Sulpice, the international Holy Games Mass is celebrated, presided by Mons. Emmanuel Gobillard, Auxiliary Bishop of Lyon, delegate for the Olympic Games in Paris 2024.
“The Salesian family saw in this initiative a great opportunity to make known its charism, because sport is an integral part of its pedagogy: Sport also serves to educate and evangelize”, said Sister Valentine, who is also the Provincial Coordinator of Youth Ministry.
The initiatives continue in a festive atmosphere among young people who come to Paris from the dioceses as “Servers of the Holy Games”, to encourage people to live sport in a style of joy and fraternal encounter.
