Vatican City, Jul 10 (EFE).- Pope Francis received a delegation from Celta de Vigo on Monday, with the presence of its president Carlos Mouriño, the new coach Rafa Benítez and the squad, on the occasion of the celebration of his centenary and in his speech he recalled that the club’s colors are the same as those of the Argentine shirt and also the migrant past of the Galicians.
The delegation, which also included ten members who participated in the raffle launched by the club, was received by the Pope at the pontifical palace and gave them a speech.
Francisco explained that it is special for him to receive a Galician team, since he stated: “For me it is something that evokes so many experiences that as an Argentine I have lived in my own flesh.”
“If you have noticed, her colors are those of the Immaculate Virgin and also those of the Argentine shirt, almost as if our Mother had wanted to be linked between the two shores of this great ocean that, more than separating us, has united us so that let us never forget it,” added the pontiff.
He remembered the letter that the president of the club wrote to him who, like many Galicians, “had to cross the Atlantic to start a family; Like so many others, he surely contemplated in the distance that blue and white flag that said goodbye to them from the port captaincy of La Coruña. A little piece of his heart was there waiting for him ”.
“He was not the only one who left him, and in some way we could say that the heart of humanity is made up of all those pieces that, staying and leaving, remind us in the most intimate way that we are all united; that we are all pilgrims in the stormy sea of existence,” said Francisco, whose family of Italian origin also had to emigrate to Argentina.
He spoke of the importance of roots and highlighted: “Yours speak to us of a land that is not closed to the brother who arrives as a pilgrim, and to people capable of leaving everything to launch themselves into the highest undertakings.”
“Both in the stadium and in life, your weapons, like the cross of Santiago that presides over them, are those small gestures that we sometimes do not give importance to: it is to win from humility, to work as a team without trusting in our own strength , understanding that victory belongs to everyone”, he added.
For the president of Celta, “this is a unique experience, it’s something that if you don’t see it no matter how much you imagine it, no matter how much you feel it from afar, it has nothing to do with reality.” “The fantastic experience, the welcome and the very affectionate words of the Pope, we leave very happy.”
Mouriño explained to the Spanish media after the hearing that it was a very pleasant meeting because there are also Argentine players on the team and because it coincides “with the colors of the Albiceleste”.
The president stressed that the reference to his origins as an emigrant made him think that “it was not just another visit.” “But a visit that he prepared that he studied what we told him and that he amplified it, and that is important.”
They gave the pope an olive tree that is the symbol of the city and a commemorative plaque of this visit and they also invited him to visit Vigo, although the club president acknowledged that it is very difficult and that he still has a visit to Santiago pending.
And there was also a special request: “We told him to see if within his big heart, now he had a loophole to cheer on Celta”, explained the president.