# His Holiness the Pope says "no sports on Sunday!" **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [March 26, 2004, 9:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/his-holiness-the-pope-says-no-sports-on-sunday/236640 "2004-03-26T21:37:12Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2004, 9:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/his-holiness-the-pope-says-no-sports-on-sunday/236640/1 "2004-03-26T21:37:12Z")
> [@](#): > > [CNN](http://edition.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/europe/03/26/pope.sport.reut/) > “When Sunday loses its fundamental meaning and becomes subordinate to a secular concept of ‘weekend’ dominated by such things as entertainment and sport, people stay locked within a horizon so narrow that they can no longer see the heavens,” the pontiff said in a speech to Australian bishops on Friday. That’s got to put a crimp in a bunch of football-centric February festivities. ---
**Author:** ![Hal\_Briston](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/a9a28c/32.png) [@Hal\_Briston](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hal_Briston)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2004, 11:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/his-holiness-the-pope-says-no-sports-on-sunday/236640/2 "2004-03-26T23:27:02Z")
Sorry, your Holiness, but it would seem our list of disagreements is getting longer and longer. The churchgoing among us are quite capable of going to 11:00 a.m. mass and being back in plenty of time for 1:00 p.m. kickoff. Unless, of course, I’m going to be at Giants Stadium that day, which requires leaving the house no later than 9:00 a.m. If that’s the case, there’s always Saturday evening mass.\*\* \*\*Keep in mind this is all purely theoretical. I’ve been to mass maybe a dozen times since being freed from Catholic School. ---
**Author:** ![Doomtrain](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/0ea827/32.png) [@Doomtrain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doomtrain)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2004, 2:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/his-holiness-the-pope-says-no-sports-on-sunday/236640/3 "2004-03-27T02:16:18Z")
Either you’re going to listen what God’s mouthpiece dude says or you’re not. If God’s was going to be pissed at me for watching a little pigskin, I’d be flipping off the TV… Ok, no, I’d find a religion that wasn’t so ridiculous, but, you know, if God doesn’t want you watching foo’ball, maybe you shouldn’t… ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Mudd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f14d63/32.png) [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2004, 2:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/his-holiness-the-pope-says-no-sports-on-sunday/236640/4 "2004-03-27T02:56:02Z")
Geez, first [no hotdogs on Good Friday games](http://www.ajc.com/sports/content/shared/sports/ap/ap_story.html/Baseball/AP.V6691.AP-BBA-Fenway-Park.html), then no games on Sunday… They’re trying to alienate the gayfolk _and_ the sports nuts? (And the gay sports nuts?) Who’ll stay? The “decent church-goin’ women with their mean, pinched, bitter, evil faces?” ---
**Author:** ![Casey1505](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/dc4da7/32.png) [@Casey1505](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Casey1505)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2004, 2:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/his-holiness-the-pope-says-no-sports-on-sunday/236640/5 "2004-03-27T02:57:02Z")
Apparently, he never got the memo from the Home Office that sports on Sunday is not only alright, but, [in some cases,](http://www.rwjm.com/) endorsed. ---
**Author:** ![Toddly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/22d042/32.png) [@Toddly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Toddly)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2004, 4:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/his-holiness-the-pope-says-no-sports-on-sunday/236640/6 "2004-03-27T04:03:34Z")
Will he ever get in touch with his flock? I would think he and the Church would be more concerned about repairing the damage of the priests and the molestation scandals. Instead he instructs to take it easy on sports. Makes perfect sense to me. 😕 ---
**Author:** ![Snooooopy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ee7513/32.png) [@Snooooopy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snooooopy)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2004, 4:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/his-holiness-the-pope-says-no-sports-on-sunday/236640/7 "2004-03-27T04:16:29Z")
The Pope sure is a dumbass. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2004, 5:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/his-holiness-the-pope-says-no-sports-on-sunday/236640/8 "2004-03-27T05:01:44Z")
Who has time to worry about thousands of priests raping little children when he’s got to concern himself with the threat to civilization posed by Sunday afternoon ballgames?