Sports and Inclusion: President Biden's Special Advisor on Disabilities met with Athletica Vaticana

Sport is a right for people with disabilities and can contribute decisively to changing mentality to create inclusive paths and languages ​​for all. This is the pivotal point of the cooperation “protocol” that was approved yesterday afternoon, during the visit of Sarah Mincara, Special Advisor of the US State Department for the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, to the headquarters of Athletica Vaticana, the association's sports center. The Holy See which has its own Paralympic team. “Sports can encourage a change in the discourse of disability, eliminating pietism and recognizing everyone’s rights, opportunities and abilities,” Minkara said. Find complete harmony in the concrete Athletica Vaticana experience, presented through the testimonies of Sarah Fargetto, 15 years old, who always goes at full speed in her wheelchair, and Paul Gabriel Weston: the youngest and oldest athlete in the Vatican Association.

Vatican media photos

Sarah Mankara, appointed to this position by President Joe Biden, is of Lebanese descent, Muslim, and blind. She was in Paris in recent days on the occasion of the Paralympics, and in Rome she met with the Italian Minister of Disability, Alessandra Locatelli, to develop the first G7 on Disability and Inclusion, which will be held in October in Umbria. Germany and Austria are the other two stops on his European tour.
The meeting comes on the heels of the comprehensive sports initiative promoted by the Embassy and Athletica Vaticana in November through rowing matches in which two champions who came specially from the USA participated; Young people with Down syndrome and autism; Deaf students. Caritas guests; Young people suffering from social problems from a neighborhood on the outskirts of Rome. Pope Francis received an audience of participants in the initiative. In this fraternal and comprehensive sporting manner, Athleticca Vaticana handed over the Mincara relay baton – symbol of the Association of the Holy See – signed by the Pope.
Alessandro Gisotti, deputy managing editor of Vatican Media, also participated in the meeting. “Events like those promoted by Athletica Vaticana – also help the media become more aware of how sport can help promote integration at every level,” he emphasized. Paying tribute to Sarah Minkara, Gisotti stressed the importance of interreligious and intercultural dialogue to build a society in which no one feels excluded. “It is a commitment that, as Pope Francis said, the faithful are especially called to share.”