Church: Sports help development

 By GEDION TIMOTHY LAPAN  

THE Catholic Church recognises sport as one of the great institutions of society that promotes positive development.

President of the Catholic Bishops Conference PNG-Solomon Islands Arnold Orowae, in his of his pastoral letter of the Bishops Conference, said that sports helped individuals realise their human potential and built up bonds in the community, fostering communal initiative and responsibility.

“Sport contributes to physical and mental health and wellbeing,” Orowae said.  

“It teaches people, particularly young people, skills and resilience. When youth become involved in sport, they devote their energies to teaming together in a healthy environment, forgetting about antisocial activities such as violence and crime.”

He said sports opened up the wider world as “we interact with the outside world in sporting activities to achieve results that become our pride and symbol when our athletes, like in the case of Dika Toua and Steven Kari, perform well at international games”. 

With the Pacific Games starting this week, the head bishop warned of the sad aspects of sports such as violence on the field or among spectators as well as gambling and alcohol abuse associated with sports which Papua New Guinea should avoid.

“We must guard against such anti-social activities that ruin the good name of sport,” Orowae said.