Image courtesy of: The Washington Post
“This is a milestone for sport, for cricket, for the Holy See and for the seminarians”
The Vatican have launched their own cricket team and challenged the Church of England to a match.
The Vatican have decided to use St Peter’s coat of arms as their team logo and the Pontifical Council for Culture announced that both priests and nuns will be allowed to play the sport.
“This represents the council’s desire to go to the peripheries of the world that Pope Francis has spoken of,” Monsignor Melchor Sanchez, who is the honorary president of St Peter’s Cricket Club, said.
The team’s colours will be yellow and white to coincide with the Vatican flag.
Sanchez noted that the sport could be a way of engaging with other religions.
He also added that he hopes the Church of England would be able to form a cricket team as the Vatican’s squad is eager to play a match against them at Lord’s Cricket Ground, which is more commonly known as the ‘Home of Cricket’.
The Bishop of Shrewsbury, Mark Rylands, issued a statement on behalf of the Church of England, which said: “I’m confident that it will be possible for an annual fixture to be played in the spirit of ecumenism. To that end I hope we can keep any sledging to a minimum and that neutral umpires will not be necessary.”
If the match were to go ahead, it would most likely be held in September next year since it is the holiday period for seminarians in Rome.
The Vatican also announced that they are planning to play matches against teams compiled of Hindu and Muslim seminarians as well.
“I never imagined cricket was so popular in Rome,” Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi, who is informally known as the Vatican’s ‘culture minister’, said. “Cricket is alien to our culture but it has become part of our culture as an expression of inter-culturality.”
Speaking about the proposed match against the Church of England, Father Theodore Mascarenhas, who is an Indian priest and chairman of the St Peter’s Cricket Club, said: “I don’t think we’re lacking for spiritual direction or guidance. The team will be strong enough to beat anyone in the world.”
Father Mascarenhas also revealed that Philippa Hitchen, who works for Vatican Radio, has been included as a member of the board in hopes that “eventually we will have nuns playing so the gentlemen’s game can also be a ladies’ game”.
Preparations for the St Peter’s Cricket Club began about a year ago largely thanks to Australia’s ambassador to the Holy See, John McCarthy, who stated that playing these matches could be seen as an example of “sporting diplomacy”.
“This is a milestone for sport, for cricket, for the Holy See and for the seminarians,” McCarthy said.