Catholics worldwide offer prayers for their favorite World Cup teams

Published: 2006-06-12

LONDON (CNS) -- In England, a Catholic priest set up a World Cup chapel in the Nottingham cathedral. In Austria, two Vienna Catholic churches showed the opening game between Germany and Costa Rica on big screens in front of the building. Another church showed the Ecuador-Poland match in the community hall as part of a program on the church's links to an Ecuadorean parish. Eight Argentine missionaries traveled to Germany hoping to unfurl a 165-pound light blue and white flag measuring 164 feet by 72 feet. La Nacion newspaper reported that the missionaries had one problem: They did not have tickets to the Argentine match. In Mexico, Catholics dressed church statues in national team uniforms, and in Poland a bishop blessed the national team players before they left for the World Cup. All over the globe, World Cup fever caught hold as the world's most-watched sporting event began June 9.

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