VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Instead of wearing his yellow, blue and red Swiss Guard uniform, 24-year-old Anton Kappler sported a yellow, orange and white tracksuit and running shoes to carry the Olympic flame to St. Peter's Square for a papal blessing.
Standing on a two-tiered podium together with another torch-bearing Vatican security guard, Kappler held the flame aloft during the pope's Dec. 8 Angelus prayer and blessing.
"I am happy to bless the Olympic flame that today will go from Rome along its route to Turin, site of the next Winter Olympic Games," Pope Benedict XVI said.
From the window of his papal apartment, Pope Benedict waved to the crowds in the square below and asked that the Olympic flame "remind everyone of the values of peace and brotherhood that lie at the foundation of the Olympics."
The flame, which arrived in Rome from Athens, Greece, Dec. 7, was to be carried by 10,001 torchbearers across Italy and neighboring countries on a 7,020-mile, 64-day relay.
The relay's kickoff Dec. 8 marked the first time Vatican representatives ever participated as Olympic torchbearers.
Less than a half-hour before the pope's noon Angelus address, a Vatican gendarme, Luca DeLeo, received the flame from Italian writer Susanna Tamaro along Via della Conciliazione, the broad boulevard that leads to St. Peter's Square.
After a short jog, DeLeo passed the flame to the sport-suited Swiss Guard in the square where they waited for the pope to appear for his apostolic blessing on this feast day of the Immaculate Conception.
After the flame was blessed, Kappler carried it from the square and headed to a handoff spot by the nearby Tiber River where the next torchbearer, an Italian sports TV journalist, waited.
The Olympic flame was lit Nov. 27 in ancient Olympia in Greece.
The flame was to make its way to about 140 cities, including some in neighboring countries such as Slovenia, Austria, Switzerland and France.
Torchbearers will carry the flame to its final destination in the northern Italian city of Turin, where it will be used to light the Olympic cauldron during the games' opening ceremony Feb. 10
.
- Copyright (c) 2005 Catholic News Service/U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops
No comments:
Post a Comment