At 4:00 p.m. this afternoon, in the Paul VI Hall, the Holy Father Francis received in the Audience a representation of the footballers involved at the Olympic Stadium in Rome in the third edition of the Match for Peace, promoted by the Scholas Ocurrentes Foundation with the motto “We Play For Peace”. Around 200 family members and friends also attended the match.

In the end, Pope Francis greeted the participants individually before taking his leave.

We publish below the words that the Pope addressed to those present during the meeting:

Greetings of the Holy Father

I thank all of you who come from different places, and far away places, to play a game: a game, yes, but a peace game! that is important.

Just think that the biggest expenses in the world today are in the arms industry. Because people always think about waging wars to destroy. You have taken your time to come and make peace free. And peace goes on like this, with gestures like these: gestures of closeness, gestures of friendship, gestures of the outstretched hand, always, not with a stone in your hand to throw it. I thank you for this. They are small gestures, but they are seeds, but they are seeds of peace, they are capable of changing the world because they are seeds of peace.

Thank you, thank you for what you do, for today’s game, thank you because you say: “We want peace”, in a world that always seeks wars and destruction. Thank you!

And thank you for telling us that it is more important, more important a rag ball, with the gratuitousness of the game, than the conquest of territory with wars, that do not go. Thank you for your testimony.