Ahead of Olympics, French Catholics hold prayer vigil for athletes 

(RNS) — On Thursday (July 25), hundreds of French Catholics gathered in the Basilica Cathedral of Saint-Denis, the northern Paris suburb hosting the Olympic Village, to pray and bless athletes before the competition’s Friday opening. 

Joseph Green, a 22-year-old track-and-field runner from Guam, broke into tears as the crowd massed around him in a prayer chain. 

“It got to my heart,” Green said. “Standing in this beautiful church, hearing all the beautiful voices, and seeing all the people who showed up really got to me.”

The Rev. Eugène Doussal, administrator of the Saint-Denis diocese, presented Green with a medal that features Mary the Virgin and is said to bestow miracles. The same medal first adorned Usain Bolt and appeared around his neck during the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, where the Jamaican sprinter won his third gold medal. Green, who like Bolt, specializes in the 100-meter dash, said the ceremony felt special for him because prayer is his main ritual before a race. 

The vigil was the first of a series of upcoming events organized by Holy Games, an initiative planned for the past two years by Paris’ archdiocese and the Bishops’ Conference of France as a way to spiritually support athletes, coaches and visitors. Holy Games, said Isabelle de Chatellus, the project’s director, is an occasion for French Catholics to center faith and spirituality while the whole world turns its eyes to Paris. She argues that the initiative aims to show that sports can be a path to sanctity, not only for athletes but for everyone. 

“We asked ourselves: ‘The games are coming. What can we possibly do? How can we plant the cross in this event to accompany the world of sports?’” de Chatellus said in her opening remarks. 

Green was the only athlete who responded to the invitation, but those gathered prayed for many others. Standing in the choir of the 12th-century Gothic Cathedral, the ceremony’s emcee asked all the participants to visit a website counting the number of prayers made for athletes. “Just scan the QR code and pick one on the list,” he announced, noting that special attention should be given to members of the Refugee Olympic Team competing under the International Olympic Committee’s banner. 

FILE – The Olympic rings are mounted on the Eiffel Tower, Friday, June 7, 2024 in Paris. (AP Photo//Thomas Padilla, File)

Bishop Gobilliard, the Holy See’s delegate to the 2024 Games, also attended the ceremony. 

Reverend Joseph Fitzgerald, from the diocese of Rockville Centre, New York, noted how the efforts made by the French Church through the Holy Games initiative have inspired American clergy ahead of the 2028 Olympics.

Fitzgerald competed with the U.S. handball team in the 1996 Olympics and was sent by the U.S. Bishops’ Conference to help and accompany the American delegation. Spiritual counseling, he explained, couldn’t be more important in competitions like these.

His mission, he said, will focus on reminding athletes that what matters most isn’t “how they perform and do, but to know that God sees them.”

Marking the beginning of the ceremony, a procession of Jesuit and Dominican friars walked through the nave to the choir, led by the Rev. Jason Nioka, who held the Evangeliarium, the liturgical book of the Gospels. 

Like Fitzgerald, Nioka, the main Catholic chaplain at the Olympic Village, stressed how spiritual moments before a competition could make a world of difference for religious athletes.

“A few steps from the Olympic Village of the athletes, the day before the opening ceremony, it’s very important for us to consecrate these athletes, to pray for all of them,” he said. 

Nioka represented France as a judoka during the 2016 Rio Games and claimed his faith was a compass during his competitions. He was ordained a month ago and aims to show how faith and sports conciliate. Speaking from his experience as an athlete, he said his presence as a chaplain becomes even more important in cases of failure. 

Green attended with Edgar Molinos, a weightlifting coach for the Guam delegation. Mid-ceremony, the two were taken on a pilgrimage to the Basilica’s crypt, which holds the relics of Saint-Denis, a missionary bishop for Pope Clement I and the first bishop of Paris. In front of the crypt, they were invited to dip their hands in holy water and cross themselves. Upon exiting the cave, they received blessings.

A devout Catholic, Molinos said being approached by the crowd who prayed for them gave him goosebumps. Starting the games in prayer was important for Molinos, for whom this year marks his first time at the Olympics since he represented Guam at the Barcelona games in 1992. 

As a coach, he made a point of praying for his athlete, Nicola Lagatao, before the competition’s debut. Lagatao is the first female weightlifter to represent Guam in weightlifting since the Sydney games of 2000. The stakes are high, he explained. 

“The competition is very intense. As a weightlifter, you’re on the platform by yourself there, and I want to pray as she does: ‘Calm down and God will guide you.’”