The right of people with disabilities to experience the beauty of sport

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 agreed in friendship style – on the afternoon of Tuesday, February 20 – during the visit of Sarah Mincara, Special Advisor of the US State Department for the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, at the headquarters of the Athletica Vaticana, which has its own Paralympic team.

“Sports can encourage a change in the discourse of disability, removing pietism and recognizing everyone’s rights, opportunities and abilities,” Minkara said. Finding complete harmony in the concrete Athletica Vaticana experience offered through the testimonies of Sarah Fargetto, 15 years old, always “at full speed” in her wheelchair, and Paul Gabriel Weston: the youngest and least youthful athlete in the Vatican Association.

Sarah Mankara, appointed to this position by President Joe Biden, is of Lebanese descent, Muslim, and blind since she was seven years old. She has visited Paris in recent days in preparation for the Paralympic Games (scheduled between 28 August and 8 September) and met in Rome with the Italian Minister of Disability, Alessandra Locatelli, to develop the first G7 on Disability and Inclusion, which will be held. Between 14 and 16 October in Umbria. Germany and Austria are the other two stops on his European tour.

This meeting comes on the heels of the comprehensive sports initiative promoted – from 13 to 17 November – by the US Embassy to the Holy See and Athletica Vaticana through racket matches in which two champions who came specially from Washington took part; Young people with Down syndrome and autism; Deaf students from the Romanian Institute “Magarotto”; Caritas guests; Young people with social problems living in the suburban neighborhood of Tor Bella Monaca. The Pope received the project's heroes in attendance.

It is precisely in this fraternal and inclusive sporting style that Athletica Vaticana gave Mincara the relay baton – the symbol of the Holy See Association – signed by Francis.

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.”

Moreover, the President of the Vatican Athletic Club, Giampaolo Mattei, said in the meeting with Mincara that “the goal of the Paralympic Movement is not only to celebrate major events or distribute medals.” “The main point is to prove with facts and not just words what athletes – despite being seriously injured in life – can achieve when they are put in a position to do so. If this applies to sports, it should apply even more to social life,” thus changing “the perception of disability in the daily life of the family, school and the workplace.”

According to the Vatican Association – which found a complete correspondence in vision with the Special Adviser of the State Department in Washington – “not only in sports – which helps, because of its ability to communicate and arouse emotions – people with disabilities are placed, precisely as a matter of justice, in the circumstances That enables them to express what they can do. Create truly equal opportunities. Consciously noting the limitations of disability, but also considering the enormous potential that everyone can express. If you have the ability.”