How World Cup Soccer is a Source of Solidarity and Spiritual Growth

The Women’s World Cup is in full swing in France, with more elite teams vying for the championship than ever before. One of the biggest soccer fans around is Pope Francis, who recently said that sports “can foster a culture of dialogue and respectful encounters.” We wanted to use the occasion of the World Cup to dig into the spiritual and character-building dimensions of sports, so our guests are two people who have been connected to the game of soccer for four or five decades between them: Shannon Hartinger is the girls' varsity soccer coach at Loyola Academy, a Jesuit high school in in Wilmette, Illinois. She played in college at North Carolina State University, where she was a two-time captain and an all-conference scholar-athlete. James Millikan, SJ, is a Jesuit in formation who is studying philosophy, social sciences and math at ITESO, the Jesuit University of Guadalajara in Mexico. James played goalkeeper at Whitman College in Washington State and has also coached high school soccer.