While Team Great Britain’s (and New Zealand’s) crews rowed to four gold medals at the London Olympics, a Catholic priest, who is a chaplain offering pastoral support to visitors to the Games, meditated on the parallels between the Olympic sport and the life of a Christian.
“Rowing is the perfect metaphor for life,” says Father Vladimir Feltzmann, 73, who was one of the Catholic Church of England and Wales’ roaming chaplains for the London Olympics and a former competition rower. “You see the past; you can’t see the future. The only person who sees the future is the cox. Christ is the cox. You row backwards into the future so the past is in front of you and the future is behind you. Because you are rowing backwards you need to have great faith.”
Feltzmann, who likes to be known as Father Vlad, is one of 13 British Catholic priests to have been assigned a role at the London Games. During the games most of these priests were based out of the Olympic Park in Stratford, East London, where the majority of the venues were situated. They also celebrated daily Mass at the Athletes’ Village. Several hundred thousand people came into the park each day and the priests were on hand for a variety of reasons, from giving information on Catholic churches in London to administering Last Rites.
An estimated 4.5 million visitors arrived in London during the games, and many of them, especially from overseas, were Roman Catholic. Feltzmann roamed among the Central London transport hubs near to the events. After nearly 50 years a priest, Father Vlad has an eye for a situation that may require his pastoral intervention.
“Near each venue there are people involved in security, accommodation, public relations, food supplies and ticket collection. Then there are all the people who arrive for the event. If only 1 per cent of these people suffer bereavement back home, that could be thousands of people who will need help and support–it might be for confession or people who want to pour their hearts out because they are hurting. It will just be a question of walking up and saying, ‘Hello, I’m Fr Vlad. If you have a problem here’s my card.’ I will show them where the local church is or I can show them where their nearest ethnic chaplaincy is.” Continue reading
Image: Stuff