Pope Francis’ Super Bowl Message and Our Elite-Populist Wars

[Valin]

Via Meadia:

Nicholas M. Gallagher

Feb. 5 2017

 

Pope Francis has issued a Super Bowl message to the U.S. and the world:

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NWGmoVODPAc

 

In less than a minute, the Pope gets at the heart of something far too many educated people often miss: the deep and transcendent meaning of popular sports. (What else but grace could lead an Argentine living in Italy to acknowledge that there’s more than one form of football?)

 

(Snip)

 

Pope Francis and Prof. Mandelbaum are but two of a legion of intellectuals, stretching back to time immemorial, who have gotten the vital symbolic and emotional needs sports play in society. If you need to be convinced academically, you can get this from Aristotle, or Dante, or C.S. Lewis. But it might be more fun to turn on the TV, grab a beer, and get into the spirit of the day.