If you were to visit this Condé Nast travel site about the World Cup games coming here to the Heartland in June, you might conclude that athletes and their fans have zero interest in religion. The site, after all, never mentions all the planning that people of faith here are doing now to make s ure they can meet the spiritual needs of World Cup athletes and fans. Many of the area’s faith communities, in fact, are making detailed plans to ensure that everyone has religious support while they’re here. And that should be no surprise. The connection between religion and such major sporting events goes back at least to the ancient Olympic games almost 800 years before Jesus was born. Those games were mostly religious festivals dedicated to the Greek god Zeus. Yet it is Catholicism that arguably has the closest tie to modern organized soccer — owing to a 19th century believer inspired by words from the head of the church. Local Catholic organizers are, in fact, among the most active in planning how to serve World Cup visitors, along with leaders of other Christian denominations. For instance, the Catholic Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph is working closely with the Catholic Archdiocese of Kansas City in Kansas to help people who “have never been to Kansas City and may be looking for that anchor for them while they’re here to be able to practice their faith,” says Ashlie Hand, director of communications for the diocese. Hand is working with Marissa Easter, director of communications for the archdiocese, on World Cup plans. Ashlie Hand, left, of the Kansas City-St. Joseph Catholic Diocese, and Marissa Easter of the Archdiocese of Kansas City in Kansas, have been working together to prepare local Catholics to welcome World Cup athletes and visitors in various ways. They are pictured in the lobby of the Catholic Center at 20 West 9th St. in Kansas City. (Bill Tammeus | Flatland) The planning isn’t done yet, but Easter says that “from a religious aspect, we want them to be able to find Catholic services. We also have multiple religious sites and special sites for them to see if they have time. We’ve also talked about having special Masses.” In fact, Catholic leaders here have created a special website for all of this, which is based on the OneKC website created by the Kansas City Area Development Council. The Episcopal Diocese of West Missouri is also “discussing plans with our staff and parishes” to make “sure our parishes are aware of the World Cup and discussing how we can prepare to welcome those visiting,” says diocesan Communications Director Zachary Phillips. Beyond that, UniteKC, dedicated to racial healing and reconciliation, reports that in January some seventy leaders gathered at Colonial Presbyterian Church to dream and plan how churches here can welcome and minister to World Cup guests. The group said it “shared multiple ‘lanes’ (tracks) where individuals, churches and mission groups can join in to serve. You’ll have the opportunity to explore several areas of impact, including prayer, evangelism, watch groups, concerts, camps, community outreaches, serving opportunities and combating sex trafficking.” And Haley Harrison-Lee, senior public relations director for the Trozzolo Communications Group here, says that faith came up in a media briefing with KC2026 CEO Pam Kramer recently and that “our team has been looking to share the story of faith communities that are planning to accommodate an influx of worshipers during the nearly six-week tournament.” Not surprisingly, large congregations here also are planning ways to connect with the World Cup. For instance, the Rev. Adam Hamilton, founding and senior pastor of the United Methodist Church of the Resurrection tells me that “we have a sermon series planned around the World Cup with interviews with pro soccer players . . . and the Vacation Bible School theme is built around the World Cup.” And that church’s downtown location has painted a huge welcome sign on its flat roof that can be seen from airplanes and nearby tall buildings. The United Methodist Church of the Resurrection has splashed a large welcome sign for World Cup athletes and fans on the roof of its campus in downtown Kansas City. It can be seen from airplanes and from nearby tall buildings and is part of the way this 10-campus church is readying for this summer’s World Cup competition in Kansas City. (Courtesy United Methodist Church of the Resurrection) But the Catholic effort here may be the most organized and advanced when it comes to institutional religion engaging with the soccer tournament. “When this opportunity really started to take off,” says Hand, “we started to think about how to embrace that regional idea, knowing that these international visitors aren’t coming to Kansas City, Missouri, or to Kansas City, Kansas, but they’re coming to the region. So how could we present the face of the Catholic community from that regional perspective?” That’s how the OneKC Catholic website was born, but she says that although “we’ll use it to welcome World Cup visitors, it’s also going to have a life beyond that in welcoming new residents here looking for that Catholic connection.” What’s the theology underlying such efforts? For Catholics, says Hand, “we talk a lot about Catholic hospitality being a tenant of our faith. Such as welcoming the stranger, being a comforting source and a place to land.” Beyond that, as this 2018 article from The Leaven, the archdiocese’s newspaper, describes it, the World Cup has Catholic roots: After “Pope Leo XIII issued what is considered the first major encyclical on social justice,” 17-year-old Jules Rimet, “a devout Catholic in France at the time, was so moved by the pope’s words he helped form an organization to provide social and medical aid for the poor.” Frenchman Jules Rimet, pictured here in 1933, was the longest serving president of FIFA and is known as the driving force behind creation of the FIFA World Cup. (Wikipedia) But Rimet later went beyond that after he noticed how sporting events connected people. He became “a founding member of the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA)” after World War I and became its president in 1921. Under his leadership, “FIFA proposed a world championship for national soccer teams,” which became the World Cup. Since then, the religious interest in connecting with athletes and fans has spread well beyond Catholicism. For instance, this MetroVoiceNews article describes how “an organization called Children’s Evangelistic Ministries, founded in 2004, has launched Energia 2026 with the mission of reaching out to the lost in North America with the gospel using, yes, soccer balls!” (The term “lost” there is evangelical Christian language for people at the World Cup who haven’t committed to Christianity.) Area faith leaders seem to understand the connection between religion and sports, particularly in what Americans call soccer but what most of the world calls football. As this Observatoire International de Religieux 2022 article reports: “Whereas religions are losing followers due to increasing secularization, on the one hand, sport in general and particularly mega sport events such the FIFA World Cup (are) attracting more followers. . .Sport has also been borrowing from religion a number of features related to spirituality. It is customary to see players of different faiths exhibit signs of their religion. The Brazilian (player known as) Kaka had a t-shirt under his jersey that said, ‘I belong to Jesus’. . .” And, of course, we saw a similar connection between athletes and faith in the recent Winter Olympics. So in many ways, faith communities here in the Heartland plan to join in the World Cup fun while also living out their theological callings to be good neighbors and sources of comfort. Which raises this question: When soccer players and fans arrive at the Pearly Gates, do they shout, “GOAL!” Bill Tammeus, an award-winning columnist formerly with The Kansas City Star, writes the “Faith Matters” blog (https://substack.com/@billtammeus429970) for The Star’s website. His latest book is Love, Loss and Endurance: A 9/11 Story of Resilience and Hope in an Age of Anxiety. Email him at [email protected] The post Plans Afoot to Meet Religious Needs of Worldwide Soccer Fans first appeared on Flatland. ...read more read less