SIDELINES : Ex-Goalie to Bless Stadium
From Times Wire Services
VATICAN CITY —
Rome’s Olympic Stadium, rebuilt to host the final of soccer’s World Cup, will get a blessing from a former goalie: Pope John Paul II. The Vatican announced today that John Paul has accepted an invitation from the Italian Olympic Committee to visit the stadium on May 31 and bless the remodeled arena.
Host team Italy will play its first game there June 9 against Austria, and the stadium will be the site of the final of the monthlong soccer competition.
John Paul, an avid sportsman in his native Poland, is said by his biographers to have been an enthusiastic goalie as a teen-ager in Wadowice. The Pope visited the stadium, which was built for the 1960 Summer Olympics, for a Holy Year sports celebration in 1984.
