The parishes in the cities hosting the Olympic Games have been asked to be open, proactive and welcoming towards tourists, athletes and pilgrims, encouraging the faithful to meet and evangelise.
And the Salesians of Don Bosco in the Saint Francis de Sales Province of France and Southern Belgium (FRB), together with the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians in the same area, were asked in particular to take charge of the church of Saint Sulpice, the largest in Paris, which with Notre Dame still struggling with the restoration work is for a few more months the mother church of France and serves as a cathedral.
A team of thirty young people from the Salesian Youth Movement in France-Belgium joined SDBs and FMAs for this beautiful missionary experience, animating the square with games, welcoming passing tourists, talking about the Salesian charism, inviting people to play and enter to visit the church.
"In this 6th arrondissement in the heart of the city" Fr Ernst syas, "we put ourselves on the line. We accepted the challenge, to be part of the values of the founder of the Salesians St John Bosco at this world sports festival."
Within the church, there is a warm welcome which is shown by asking people where they come from, creating fraternal bonds and offering them prayer, support or simply listening to what they are experiencing.
On the square the young Salesians, all with a spiritual and pedagogical preparation, alongside the stalls with books and publications about Don Bosco, make known the great intuition of their founder: the oratories. The young multilingual volunteers in front of Saint Sulpice are able to involve hundreds of people in concerts every night, with multicoloured bands that dance, sing, have fun until late at night. And of course they pray. It is an event that also seeks to involve the many families who have not been able to leave the city for the holidays, and are forced to experience this chaotic Parisian summer.
The Salesian team was also entrusted with some significant moments to animate. They were able to attend the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games, on 26 July, and attend some sports competitions. And on 30 July, at the church of Saint-Sulpice, they organised an ecumenical vigil in which Sister Valentine Delafon, FMA, French champion of women religious cycling in 2022, brought her testimony together with Mark Gangloff, 42-year-old American swimmer, with two medals at the Olympics in Athens (2004) and Beijing (2008) and an American evangelical pastor from Atlanta, Robert Comeaux.
"The French Church" the Salesian continues "has asked us to spend these ‘Holy Games’ dialoguing through sport with the many young people we meet every day, to arrive through Christ and our founder at placing the medal of fraternity around our necks."
Fr Ernest shuttles between St Sulpice and the Olympic Village, where he is also a chaplain and leads moments of prayer for the athletes and sports staff involved in the Games, in the multifunctional religious centre. "It is incredible how many young people at the top of their sports career feel the need for discussion, comfort, to have the support of faith before what is an important test of their lives for everyone. This morning three women athletes, a Jamaican, a Finnish and an Australian, wanted to share the beginning of a new day in prayer. They asked for friendship with Christ. There was talk of the much-discussed Opening Ceremony, we delved into their lives. All were impressed by the attention that the universal Catholic Church pays to the Olympics, but more generally to the world of youth "
"There is so much good here, the challenges are at the highest values, so much good comes from young people. It is up to us to know how to interpret it, "the Salesian concludes.
https://www.infoans.org/en/sections/news/item/21852-france-holy-games-and-paris-2024-olympic-games#sigProIdb2c91f2f46
