Pope Francis blessed the shirt of a Colombian soccer team jersey and called for peace after violent confrontations left three sports fans dead last week.
In a meeting at the Vatican with Colombian priest Alirio Lopez, the Pope received a statue made of melted guns and blessed the jersey from Bogota soccer team Millonario, calling for peace throughout the soccer world and asking players to set a good example on the field.
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The Pope also referred to the Colombian Catholic Church’s “peace goals,” a religious initiative to reduce violence within the country’s soccer stadiums.
Millonario’s president, Felipe Gaitan, took to Twitter to thank Father Lopez for delivering Millonario’s jersey for the Pope’s blessing: “The Pope’s consecration of our jersey is a message of peace we will value in our hearts.”
This is the second Colombian soccer jersey gifted to the Pope in recent weeks. In September he received a Colombian national team jersey.
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