Football loyalties divided between Popes!
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- CAMIL PARKHE
Sakal Times
Sunday, 13 July 2014 - 03:10 PM IST
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Pune: With Argentina and Germany facing each other in the World Cup football finals on Sunday, Catholic fans across the world seem to be in a dilemma about which team to support. This is because, Pope Francis, head of the Roman Catholic Church, hails from Argentina and his predecessor, Emeritus Pope Benedict, hails from Germany.This queer dilemma has been brought to light by Pune’s Emeritus Bishop Valerian D’Souza on his Facebook page. Bishop Valerian, who has played football for his alma mater St Vincent’s High School, has said there is much speculation about whom Pope Francis and Pope Benedict will pray for when Argentina and Germany face each other in the finals.
“If they pray for their respective national teams, will that not put God in a quandary? There might be an urgent conference with the Father, Jesus and the Holy Spirit to solve the problem,” writes the retired Bishop.
According to Bishop Valerian, numerous fans have been praying for the success of their favourite teams. “Did God answer their prayers? In sports, God is only interested in smooth and fair play. The prayers of Pope Francis, Pope Benedict, all sports loving cardinals, bishops and priests will lead to an excellent and thrilling match. May we feel at the end that there should be joint winners,” he said.
Emeritus Bishop D’Souza said that he has been watching all the matches. “However, I will not watch the finals in the wee hours. I will catch the replay later,” he said.
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