2023-09-09 21:33:00
A chapel until the Olympics: the diocese of Paris inaugurated on Saturday “Notre-Dame des sportsmen” which is intended, within the Madeleine church, to be a “place of listening and prayer” for champions as well as for amateurs.
The blessing of the chapel also coincides with the start of the Rugby World Cup — the Madeleine is also located a stone’s throw from the Place de la Concorde where a large fanzone has been set up.
Under the mosaics of the neo-classical building, around a hundred faithful attended the ceremony this Saturday, some wearing their t-shirt, helmet or pair of sports gloves.
“I had my bike and all the equipment, the helmet, the outfit blessed…” explains Cécile de Guillebon, amateur cyclist, dressed from head to toe in her racing outfit.
Isabelle Crudo, a former tennis player, came with her rackets: “certainly not” to win, explains this sportswoman who wants to be “as much as possible in an approach of spirituality” and “free”.
Concretely, the chapel consists of an altar topped by a statue of the Virgin with two screens showing extracts from the Bible or even speeches and encyclicals.
A touch screen will also allow you to leave a prayer intention or request a sports chaplain, to be able to be accompanied personally or as a team.
A need expressed by athletes themselves, assures Mgr Philippe Marsset, auxiliary bishop of Paris, who met some of them at Insep (National Institute of Sport, Expertise and Performance).
“Very great athletes are also great Christians, they say that sport takes up their whole life, it becomes like a God! There is not much room for anything else, and they forget this spiritual structure a little. . We just want to make ourselves available to them,” he said.
“Holy Games”
With this chapel it is therefore for the Church to “bring together the flesh and the spirit”, he affirms, with a wink: “Marie-Madeleine had a gold medal because she ran the fastest to the tomb (of Christ). We are going to make her our patron saint!”.
The installation is also part of the “Holy Games”, which will mobilize the Catholic Church until the Paralympic Games.
Thus, Thursday 14, the day of the next match of the French rugby team (against Uruguay), a mass is planned at the Madeleine for the young people who will then go to the fanzone.
And on October 8, a 10 km race will connect the Sacré-Coeur to the Saint-Denis cathedral, “very symbolic because it will pass through the future Olympic village”, explains Isabelle de Chatellus, director of the Holy Games project.
Competition with the Variétés club of France, “Pater cup” of priests football players… the Church also plans to get involved during the Olympic Games, in the summer of 2024.
“One of our first missions, requested by the IOC, is to lead the chaplaincy of the Olympic village. There will be several rooms including one for Christians,” adds Isabelle de Chatellus, recalling that at the London Games, in 2012, “there were nearly 7,000 requests for support from athletes”.
Before that, a “peace mass” will be celebrated on the day of the Olympic truce, a week before the opening of the Olympics. “We won’t be able to have it at Notre-Dame, it will take place at the Madeleine,” explains the manager.
09/09/2023 21:32:17 – Paris (AFP) – © 2023 AFP
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