Pope meets ‘Team Francis’ before charity football match
- Priests, migrants and Swiss Guards made up Pope Francis’ very own team for a charity match promoting the inclusion of the Roma community
- Among the Vatican team are migrants who Francis said were being integrated into Italy after a ‘path marked by abuse’
Football fan Pope Francis met on Saturday with priests, migrants and Swiss Guards making up his very own team for a charity match promoting the inclusion of the Roma community.
“Team Pope – Fratelli Tutti” (All Brothers) will face players from a Croatian group, the World Rom Organisation, on Sunday at the training grounds of Rome club Lazio – with Lazio star Ciro Immobile refereeing.
Among the Vatican team are three migrants who Francis said were being integrated into Italy after a “path marked by abuse and violence” that included time on the Greek island of Lesbos.
In 2013, the pope brought back three Syrian families from Lesbos, the major point of entry for migrants into Europe. He is returning to the island next month as part of a trip to Greece and Cyprus.
“It is a team where there are no barriers, and which makes inclusion a simple normality,” the 84-year-old pontiff told the players on Saturday, according to a Vatican statement.