Many of my Chilean friends might be building up a huge disappointment for themselves. They are convinced that Chile will, and must, win the Soccer World Cup in South Africa this year.
Chileans generally revere the collective memory of the 1962 World Cup, when the Andean nation was both host and drew its closest to winning the glory of international soccer’s most important prize, reaching third place in front of home crowds in the national stadium in Santiago. The surviving members of that team, now in their seventies and eighties, are consulted like oracles every four years, when Chile generally manages to make it into the 32-team lineup—every bit a feat in itself, given that a record 204 countries vied for the chance to play in 2010.
The national soccer stadium achieved global notoriety as an internment camp in the weeks after the September 11th, 1974 overthrow of the democratically-elected government of Salvador Allende by the military forces. Those suspected of opposing the coup d’etat were rounded up by the hundreds in that stadium and tortured or made to disappear.
Pope John Paul II, however, performed a ceremony of blessing that sought to dispel the nightmarish and evil associations with the outdoor sports arena during his visit in 1987, thanks to the liturgy that Columban Father Derry Healy, with the help of his organizing team, organized for the occasion. Cardinal Juan Francisco Fresno, archbishop of Santiago, approved the stadium as the venue for the Pope’s meeting with the youth of Chile, despite some opposition from those wishing to distance the pontiff from a major symbol of human rights abuses under the dictatorship, which was still in power at the time, and would last a few years longer, up to 1990.
Fr. Healy, placed in charge of this ceremony, resolved the situation by incorporating into the event a prayer and a gesture to “exorcise” the evil significance from the site, an act which meant a tacit papal recognition of the terrible memories associated with it, and, implicitly, a condemnation of these acts. The Vatican office in charge of approving the ceremonies beforehand gave the gesture its blessing.
When Pope John Paul II arrived at the stadium, he took his seat at the center of one end of the field, on a raised staged. An enormous yellow cross of flowers covered the rest of the field, and young Chileans filled the 74.000-capacity sports arena, cheering the pontiff energetically.
“Young man, young woman,” His Holiness said during his address, “arise, have faith in peace, a difficult task, a task for all. Do not fall into apathy when confronting what seems impossible. In you the seeds of life for the Chile of tomorrow stir. A future of justice, a future of peace passes through your hands and surges up from the deepest part of your heart. Be protagonists in the construction of a new social harmony, of a society ever more just, healthy and fraternal.”
After his rousing talk, which moved many young people throughout the country and became one of the most memorable events of his six-day journey through Chile, he invited everyone to kneel down, as he himself knelt, and to consider the sad history of the spot for a few moments in silence.
Then he stretched out his hand, and drew the sign of the cross on the floor in front of him, as the thousands of young adults in the stadium did likewise.
Who doesn’t have memories of being called to the table with the love and intimacy that comes with a life shared day-to- day? These also were Jesus’ words to His beloved ones
