Football is an activity that stirs intense passions; it has the power to unite and to divide, to bring out the most irrational aspects of our nature, and to evoke great joy as well as great heartache.
Religion is a phenomenon that also stirs up passions, and although Christianity holds that religion cannot be irrational, we can all agree that there is much that is irrational in religion, which can also be used to justify wars and atrocities, as well as to inspire great acts of charity and beauty.
In this project I’ll be bringing the two together. What could possibly go wrong?
In this post, which I will be updating, I will gather information on religious curiosities from the participating countries and follow the World Cup of patron saints.
Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception is also Patroness of South Korea, but Saint Andrew Kim was the first Korean priest.
He followed his vocation despite tremendous social obstacles and was eventually martyred.
The Czech Republic also has several patron saints, but why not choose one whose name includes the word ‘Vence’? It seemed obvious to me.
Guadalupe (México) v. Assumption (South Africa)
Today we begin with the contest between Our Lady of Guadalupe, playing at home, and Our Lady of the Assumption.
The Virgin of Guadalupe is the patron saint of Mexico. Devotion to her is based on her apparitions to the indigenous man Juan Diego in 1531. She would later become a symbol of the struggle for Mexican independence. Her image is said to have been imprinted on Juan Diego’s cloak.
On the opposing side is Our Lady of the Assumption, patron saint of South Africa since 1952, just two years after the Dogma of the Assumption was proclaimed. According to some sources, the notion that Our Lady ascended to Heaven in body and soul reinforces the idea of the ontological dignity of the human body, which was particularly prophetic for a country like South Africa during the apartheid era.
Forecast: Guadalupe is playing at home, so she has the advantage. Age might be a factor, but given the theory that Our Lady, having no original sin, did not age, this becomes irrelevant in this case. The fact that they are two invocations of the same person also helps to even out the differences.
