You will not be surprised to learn that the Olympic Village in Milan offers a prayer room and various religious services for participants. In fact the beautiful Basilica of San Babila of Antioch in central Milan has been nicknamed the “church of athletes” for the Games.
But I was surprised to read that some of the national teams also bring their own chaplain with them, a practice that apparently started at the Seoul Olympics in 1988. And I was even more surprised to discover that one of those teams was the Czech Republic, which is consistently ranked as having the highest percentage of non-believers in Europe!
Catholic news site, EWTN News spoke to Czech chaplain, Father Oldřich Chocholáč (see picture above), who serves as parish priest in Telnice in the Diocese of Brno, and has accompanied his country’s team to every Olympics since Rio in 2016.
“My service is much more individual and open to everyone, even nonbelievers,” Father Oldřich, told EWTN News. “It is a service of presence, prayer, and blessing”. But It is up to the team members whether they want to make use of his presence or not.
The pastoral work was easier during the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris, he says. But with the winter games spread across multiple locations, chaplains have to rely on electronic communications, and have less chance to meet onanother than they did in France.
And spiritual service for Czech athletes is very different from that of more religious countries, where team members come to church services in large numbers, Father Oldřich notes. But “I am glad that I remain in friendly contact with some of them even long after the Olympics,” he said.
Read the full story here.