Before his Wednesday General Audience, Pope Francis welcomed some not-so-typical sportsmen to the Vatican. Riders and officials from MotoGP, the world's premier class of motorcycle racing, met with the Holy Father ahead of their upcoming race in Italy.
In his address, the pope took another opportunity to assert the value of sports and urged the men to continue demonstrating positive qualities to young people to protect them from despair.
POPE FRANCIS
“When I read the news about the suicides of young people – and there are many – but what happened there? At least, I can say that life lacked “passion,” someone has not been able to sow the passion for life. And then the difficulties were not faced with this passion. Inject passion: this world needs passions, passion.”
Later, some of the riders presented the Holy Father with their custom helmets.
Among them was Marc Márquez, a young Spaniard who already boasts six world championship titles, for whom Pope Francis had a special enquiry.
“The champion of champions.”
“I've brought you, I give you the helmet I race in.”
“How does it feel to be the champion of champions?”
“Hmmm...”
Márquez currently sits atop the MotoGP standings. The next race will take place at San Marino, near the eastern Italian coast.
