Francis Asked Football Manager Not To Make Sign Of The Cross (Video)

Francis convinced the former football player and current manager of Italy’s national team Roberto Mancini, 57, not to make the Sign of the Cross on the football field, Mancini told Italian television TG5 (December 20, Italian video sequence below).

Mancini told TG5 that he is a lifelong Catholic and that he was lucky to grow up next to a parish, "My life was school, house, and parish." He also visited Medjugorje a couple of times.

To the question whether it happens that he prays on the pitch, Mancini quickly replied, "No, on the pitch not."

"Many make the sign of the cross," a slightly surprised reporter interjects, and Mancini explains,

"I used to do that too, you know, hoping nothing happened during the game, then we went to the pope. Pope Francis said, 'Why are you making the sign of the cross, don't you have other thoughts in this moment?' So since that time I don't do it anymore. I don't want the pope to get angry."

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HerzMariae

2 Dec 23, 2019

As @Deacon Nick Donnelly said on Twitter: "Francis stopped making the sign of the cross, now he's stopping others"

HerzMariae

Dec 23, 2019

Bishop Tobin on the case

De Profundis

Dec 23, 2019

Francis has spoken about the importance making a Sign of the Cross during his prepared general audience catechises (April 18, 2018):

"The Cross is the badge that shows who we are: our words, thoughts, gaze, works are under the sign of the Cross, that is, under the sign of Jesus’ love to the very end. Children are marked on the forehead. Adult catechumens are also marked, on all their senses, with these words: “Receive the sign of the cross on your ears, that you may hear the voice of the Lord”; “Receive the sign of the cross on your eyes, that you may see the glory of God”; “Receive the sign of the cross on your lips, that you may respond to the word of God”; “Receive the sign of the cross over your heart, that Christ may dwell there by faith”; “Receive the sign of the cross on your shoulders, that you may bear the gentle yoke of Christ” (Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults”, n. 85). We become Christians in the measure to which the Cross is imprinted on us as a “paschal” mark (cf. Rev 14:1; 22:4), making visible, also outwardly, the Christian way of confronting life. Making the sign of the Cross when we wake, before meals, in facing danger, to protect against evil, in the evening before we sleep, means telling ourselves and others whom we belong to, whom we want to be. This is why it is so important to teach children how to make the sign of the Cross properly. And as we do upon entering a church, we can also do so at home, by keeping a bit of holy water in a suitable little vase — some families do so: this way, each time we come in or go out, by making the sign of the Cross with that water we remember that we are baptized. Do not forget, I repeat: teach the children how to make the sign of the Cross."