Pope Francis hails World Cup as a success – but will not be praying for Argentina to triumph over Germany in final
It’s not every day that you hear (or read) of Pope Francis commenting on football but the leader of the Catholic church has done just that after hailing the World Cup as a success – but refusing to pray for his nation Argentina to beat Germany in the final on Sunday.
Pope Francis – who was born in Buenos Aires – took some time out of his busy schedule onSaturday to praise the sport’s ability to unite people, tweeting: ‘The World Cup allowed people from different countries and religions to come together. May sport always promote the culture of encounter.’
Despite his message about the positive aspects of football, though, a spokesman for the Vatican confirmed that the pontiff would not be asking God for some divine intervention to see Lionel Messi and his compatriots triumph over Joachim Low’s men at the Maracana.
We completely agree with Pope Francis on the World Cup having delivered a positive and uniting spectacle, but, we suspect that the Argentina football team might be hoping that he changes his mind about not invoking a higher power on Sunday…
[METRO UK]
