120 chaplains offer spiritual support to athletes during Paris Olympics

The Olympic flag flutters during a practice session at Eiffel Tower Stadium in Paris on July 24, 2024, ahead of the 2024 Olympic Games. / Credit: ODD ANDERSEN/AFP via Getty Images

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Jul 29, 2024 / 12:40 pm (CNA).

With the Paris Olympic Games underway, 120 chaplains from five different religions are present in the Multifaith Center tent located in the athletes village to address the spiritual needs of the thousands of athletes set to compete.

The center, which will remain open until the end of the Paralympic Games on Sept. 8, includes a reception area and five rooms pertaining to each of the represented religions — Christianity (Catholics, Orthodox, and Protestants), Judaism, Hinduism, Buddhism, and Islam — in accordance with the International Olympic Committee (IOC).

Here, athletes have the opportunity to pray, attend religious services, and speak with chaplains daily on a variety of topics, including concerns over mental health, losing competitions, and ongoing global conflicts. According to the Associated Press, organizers found that requests for Olympic chaplains exceeded 8,000 during the pre-pandemic games.

Father Jason Nioka, a former judo champion turned priest in charge of the 40 Catholic priests, nuns, and laypeople participating in this group, shared with the AP that these chaplains “need to bring [the athletes] back to earth, because it can feel like the end of the world after working on this goal for four of five years.”

Echoing this sentiment was Father Xavier Ernst, the parish priest of the Church of St. John Bosco in the 20th arrondissement of Paris. In an ANS article, Ernst shared that the chaplains’ “service is to be present. Athletes know that in the Olympic Village there is this space, a place for listening, sharing, and relationship. Our environment is furnished with icons, symbolic furnishings, and the Bible.”

“Every morning there will be a moment of lectio divina, of reading and sharing the Gospel, a moment that will be ecumenical,” he stated. “And every day we will celebrate the Eucharist, not in the multireligious center but in the church next to the village.”

At the nearby Cathedral of Saint-Denis, a vigil Mass took place in which prayers for a blessing of the athletes and a distribution of Miraculous Medals took place July 25, the night before the opening ceremony.

Similarly, the downtown Paris church La Madeleine provides participants and athletes a place of prayer and contemplation throughout the Olympic Games with its special chapel dedicated to “Our Lady of Athletes.” Inaugurated in September 2023, this space allows for visitors to light candles, submit prayer intentions, and seek spiritual support.

La Madeleine was also the location for a solemn Mass celebrated July 19 to commence the Olympic Truce, a period of peace that traditionally calls for the end of conflicts between world countries during the Olympics. Archbishop Laurent Ulrich of Paris, a special representative of the Holy See for the 2024 Paris Olympics, emphasized during his homily that “ongoing wars do not cease during the games, but the desire for peace spreads through the encounters they make possible in these sporting events.”

Amid these various events and the presence of Catholic chaplains within the Multifaith Center is the Vatican’s Holy Games, an ongoing initiative intended to call people toward holiness through sport. Following the recitation of the Angelus on July 21, Pope Francis spoke of sports having a “great social power” and the ability to “peacefully unite people from different cultures.”

“I hope that this event may be a beacon of the inclusive world we want to build and that athletes, with their sporting testimony, may be messengers of peace and authentic models for young people,” the Holy Father said. “In particular, as is the custom of this ancient tradition, may the Olympic Games be an occasion to call for a cease-fire in wars, demonstrating a sincere desire for peace.”